Day’s YA: MISSING CLARISSA

MISSING CLARISSA by Ripley Jones
9781250801968
3/7/23
Wednesday Books
Ages 13-18

E-galley available on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Everyone loves a dead girl…and a true crime podcast.

Nothing ever happens in the small town of Oreville. Except for in the summer of 1999 when the charming and popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappeared into thin air from the local party spot in the woods. Clarissa’s case captured the attention of the country, but with no leads, it went cold.

More than twenty years later, when best friends Blair and Cameron have to come up with a creative journalism project for their junior year class, Cam decides that they will be the ones to find out what really happened to Clarissa Campbell. All Cam wants to do is keep her straight-A record, get into a good college, leave Oreville, and have a coherent conversation with the girl she’s been crushing on. Blair, on the other hand, wants her family to believe she is smart enough to go to college, work up the courage to tell the world she wants to be a writer, and find a way for her best friend and boyfriend to be in the same room without killing one another. The two are unlikely best friends but have each other’s backs no matter what. Especially when they start digging further into what happened to Clarissa Campbell.

Through interviews with her friends, her boyfriend, her parents (who think that Clarissa will walk through the door at any moment and everything will go right back to normal), and some unexpected relationships, Blair and Cam are on track to not just solve the mystery, but also have their podcast reach a much larger audience than they ever anticipated. Blair and Cam have to decide if it’s worth putting their own lives at risk and who they can truly trust to understand what really happened to Clarissa.

MISSING CLARISSA is a gripping thriller that will have readers wishing they were part of Cam and Blair’s duo. While this will definitely captivate listeners hooked on true crime podcasts, it is also a story of two high school girls finding their own identities and gaining the courage to open up about who they really are, not just who others want them to be. With themes of media influence, strong female friendships, and women taking control of their own narratives, MISSING CLARISSA is perfect for fans of SADIE by Courtney Summers, A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER by Holly Jackson, and other unputdownable mysteries like ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus.

Happy reading!
<3 Samantha

YA Resources:
2023 Books for Teens
Day’s YA Archives
2023 Adult Books for Teens