Ruth feels robotic packing up the apartment after her mother’s funeral. It doesn’t feel real. Now, moving back home to
Anchorage Alaska, she is dreading living with her father and his new family, but can’t wait to catch up with her best friend Zahra.
Ruth has been away from Anchorage for 3 years after her parent’s divorce, and she’s missed Zahra terribly. They were incredibly close, spending hours together writing a fantasy series and often becoming the characters when alone. They would walk the local trails together and knew each other’s families.
The problem is Zahra hasn’t kept in touch, barely returning Ruth’s text messages, but Ruth is keen to rekindle their friendship.
Soon after she arrives, her visit to Zahra’s home finds Zahra ‘out camping with her boyfriend Ben,’ according to Zahra’s parents. It quickly becomes more ominous. After an argument at a recent party, Zahra is missing.
Ruth is shocked to learn this, but also all that she is hearing about Zahra. Parties? Boyfriend? A cross country team member? Panic attacks, distant, and never able to share why she is upset?
None of this sounds like the creative, quirky, fun Zahra she knew. Has something happened to Zahra since she’s been gone? Ruth begins to investigate after spending time with Zahra’s friends. She meets people from their past, attends church with her ex-alcoholic, now religious father and his family, and gets to know Zahra’s boyfriend Ben.
Fingers are pointing at Ben, and he knows being Alaskan native makes him a bigger target. Ruth doesn’t know what to think. When she attends a local fire-and-brimstone religious service with her father and step family, she is more confused. Why would anyone listen to such a hateful sermon? There is a connection between Zahra and the ministry and Ruth finds it hard to believe.
Where is Zahra?
I wasn’t sure about this story to begin with. There are a lot of hurting teenagers. Ruth has lost her mother. A friend of Zahra’s is left alone often by her parents as they travel the country with her little sister’s sport. Home alone and lonely, she drinks heavily, and parties hard – blaming herself for not looking out for Zahra.
Zahra herself is a mystery. Has something happened to the happy-go-lucky Zahra that Ruth knew? Many of the characters live in a trailer park and a neighbour went missing years before. Is there a killer on the loose?
There is a lot going on, and it kept me reading but I wondered about some strange character behaviours and motivations – and then BOOM! I hit the twist in the tale. Everything suddenly makes sense.
Never saw it coming!
A mystery thriller with a killer twist!
Author – Jennifer Donaldson
Age – 14+
(2020, Penguin, Friends, Mystery, Secret, Disappearance, Family, Alaska, Walking Trails, Fantasy fans, Writing, School, Parties, Boyfriend, Investigation, Crime, Murder, Twist)