March 1, 2021
Amelia is oh-so-insistent that her mother, Whitney, needn't walk her to the door when dropping her off at friend Lauren's for a sleepover, though Whitney would have liked to meet the parents. When she returns the next day, the elderly couple at the house haven't heard of either girl, and Whitney soon discovers how little she knows about her missing daughter. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
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Starred review from July 19, 2021
At the start of this stellar psychological thriller from Garza (When I Was You), divorcée Whitney drops off her 16-year-old daughter, Amelia, for a sleepover in front of the house of Amelia’s friend Lauren. Whitney was hoping to walk Amelia to the door and introduce herself to Lauren’s mother, but the moody, distant Amelia wouldn’t let her. The next morning, when Whitney arrives to pick up Amelia, the elderly couple who answer the door insist there’s no teenager inside and no teenager lives with them. Whitney’s subsequent search for Amelia raises issues from Whitney’s past, in particular the reasons for her divorce, and she discovers her new boyfriend is not the man she thinks he is. Meanwhile, an initially unidentified teenage girl writes in her diary about a friend named Millie, with whom the girl has an obsessive relationship and who sets her on a path she wishes she hadn’t taken. The tension builds as the perfectly orchestrated story lines converge in a truly surprising ending. This is impossible to put down. Agent: Ellen Coughtrey, Gernert Co.