Review: Going Dark

Title: Going Dark
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Union Square and Co.
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: January 31, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this ripped-from-the-headlines Gone Girl meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder , #1 New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz weaves a white-knuckle YA thriller about a beautiful young influencer who vanishes after going on vacation with her boyfriend.

#WhereisAmeliaAshley

The Influencer
Amelia Ashley shares everything with her followers – her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, her best fashion tips, and her European trip-of-a-lifetime with her hot boyfriend.

The Boyfriend
Josh has no choice but to return home without Amelia after she abandons him in Rome. He has no clue where she went or how her blood got in his suitcase. Why won’t anyone believe him?

The Hacker
To Harper Delgado, Amelia Ashley is just another missing white girl whipping up a media frenzy. But with each digital knot she untangles about the influencer, Harper who is Amelia Ashley?

The Other Girl
Two years ago, another girl went missing, one who never made headlines or had a trending hashtag.

The Truth
Amelia’s disappearance has captured the world’s attention. What comes next? Watch this space…

Told through a mixture of social media posts, diary entries, and firsthand accounts,  Going Dark  is a gripping, suspenseful thriller about all the missing girls who fall off the radar, perfect for true crime fans and readers of  One of Us is Lying  by Karen M. McManus.

Review:

Amelia Ashley is an influencer who has just gone on a trip to Rome with her boyfriend, Josh Reuter. However, before they board the plane to come home to San Diego, Amelia abandons him, leaving Josh to fly home alone. He assumes that she will make her way home by herself, but when she doesn’t make any contact with him, he starts to worry. It doesn’t help that her blood was found in his suitcase. Since Amelia was an influencer, her fans start the hashtag #WhereIsAmeliaAshley, spreading the word that she has gone missing. Harper Delgado is a hacker who joins in on the search, by digging into Amelia’s and Josh’s pasts. Josh struggles to maintain his innocence, while everyone else wants to find Amelia. 

This was such a wild and intense thriller! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading. Though the story appears to be like another famous story of a girl not returning from a trip with her boyfriend, something else is actually going on. This story explored the idea of what missing girls and women are actually covered in the media. Amelia was a beautiful, white, blonde influencer, so her disappearance was taken seriously, while there was another girl who was Asian, who didn’t garner the same interest. I find it so disturbing that this happens. A girl or woman’s appearance shouldn’t determine if their life is worth saving or if she is worth finding. This story didn’t end the way I expected, but I really loved it. I would love to hear what happens next!

Going Dark is a suspenseful thriller!

Thank you Union Square and Co. for sending me a copy!

Content warnings: domestic violence (suggested), run away child, bipolar disorder

What to read next:

Have you read Going Dark? What did you think of it?