(Review) Girl Last Seen

Girl Last Seen by Heather Anastasiu & Anne Greenwood Brown

Publication Date: March 1, 2016

Pages: 288 (ebook)

Genre: Young Adult 

My Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Kadence Mulligan's star was rising. She and her best friend, Lauren DeSanto, watched their songs go viral on YouTube, then she launched a solo career when a nasty throat infection paralyzed Lauren's vocal chords. Everyone knows Lauren and Kadence had a major falling-out over Kady's boyfriend. But Lauren knows how deceptive Kadence could be sometimes. And nobody believes Lauren when she claims she had nothing to do with the disappearance. Or the blood evidence As the town and local media condemns Lauren, she realizes the only way to clear her name is to discover the truth herself. Lauren slowly unravels the twisted life of Kadence Mulligan and sees that there was more to her than she ever knew. But will she realize she's unknowingly playing a part in an elaborate game to cover up a crime before it's too late?

My Review: 
Loved, loved this. I saw a friend raving about this so I had to try it out myself. Isn't that how it usually works?
Lauren and Kadence are (were) best friends who performed together and were becoming YouTube stars before Lauren got sick and that whole thing with Mason, Kady's boyfriend. So, when Kady disappears at the beginning of the story everyone almost immediately accuses Lauren.

It's a little sad the way that everyone writes her off as being a boyfriend stealing murderer, especially since the majority of the book is written from her POV and you know she had nothing to do with it. Enter Jude, the other main POV who was Lauren's BFF before Kady came along and ruined it all. You learn from Jude's side of the story that, after Kady came into the picture, Lauren changed. Their friendship changed and eventually the girls teased Jude (or Nathan, as he was back then) so much that he left their school.

Nathan returned with a plan, and some of his POV is pretty dark. Of course, once he and Lauren are speaking again things calm down a little. I loved the dynamic between the two of them. I feel like Lauren had some trust issues because of her rocky relationship with Kadence, but she and Jude seem to click nicely. They way he steps in to help her out shows that he's forgiven her and cares about her...more than Kady does.

The mystery part of the story definitely kept me guessing. To me, it had a very Liars, Inc. feel to it, especially when it came down to the end of it. I couldn't wait to read more and more, just so I could know what would happen. The big reveal isn't too much of a shocker, especially after you learn more about Kadence. The ending, though? That blew me away.

The only real qualm I had was being in Jude's head, but that's just a teenage boy, I guess. Other than that, this was a great read. Definitely check it out.

Thanks to Edelweiss/NetGalley/AW Teen for the ARC.