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A review by qu33nofbookz
The Missing by C.L. Taylor
1.0
Advanced warning for trigger readers, this book contains rape and victim blaming and an outlook that promotes rape culture.
15 year old Billy is missing, disappeared one day never to be seen or heard from again. Six months after his disappearance his family is falling apart. His dad, Mark, a cold fish now icy shuts out his wife Claire and bullies his older son Jake. Jake has turned into a drunken mess and fights with his live in girlfriend Kira. Kira has turned into a frightened closeted recluse. Claire goes bat shit crazy (after being completely fine so far!) after reading in the paper a reporter's speculation that the family knows something about Billy's disappearance the day after a media appeal gone wrong.
Up until this point the book was getting along just fine. The story gets jumbled, and annoying from this point on as Claire becomes a hot mess of a narrator (also every chapter ends with a cliffhanger). The now cliche of unreliable narrator takes over as Claire blacks out and wakes up with no memory of what happened, as she does do things (much like a sleep walker and we have to wait to find out what). She also loses all sense of self preservation and does things even a five year old knows not to do. On her way to find out what is going on we learn a few disturbing things.
I find it very hard to believe that no one in this house noticed that for months this shit with Billy was going on. We learn that he's a little piss-ant/asshole who is a budding psychopath and sexual sadist who walks all over his parents and they do nothing about this or his behavior and actions. Claire goes on and on about how she will always love him and support him and never do anything to him no matter what he does including rape and murder but really? In the end she forgives him with the reasoning that all teenage boys go through a phase and act out and boys will be boys! Yes! Because acting like a shit to your parents, blackmailing and raping a girl repeatedly to the point she tries to commit suicide is just a phase in life and half of it is the girls' fault, that she brought this on herself. Way to go Mrs. Taylor!
I'd give this zero or negative stars if I could.
15 year old Billy is missing, disappeared one day never to be seen or heard from again. Six months after his disappearance his family is falling apart. His dad, Mark, a cold fish now icy shuts out his wife Claire and bullies his older son Jake. Jake has turned into a drunken mess and fights with his live in girlfriend Kira. Kira has turned into a frightened closeted recluse. Claire goes bat shit crazy (after being completely fine so far!) after reading in the paper a reporter's speculation that the family knows something about Billy's disappearance the day after a media appeal gone wrong.
Up until this point the book was getting along just fine. The story gets jumbled, and annoying from this point on as Claire becomes a hot mess of a narrator (also every chapter ends with a cliffhanger). The now cliche of unreliable narrator takes over as Claire blacks out and wakes up with no memory of what happened, as she does do things (much like a sleep walker and we have to wait to find out what). She also loses all sense of self preservation and does things even a five year old knows not to do. On her way to find out what is going on we learn a few disturbing things.
Spoiler
Mark almost got fired, almost cheated on Claire after kissing his son's teacher, and has a criminal record for sex with a minor when he was a teen and lied about it. Jake had been virtually cheating on Kira with a girl on Tinder and has downloaded child porn in order to lure in a pedophile so he can beat the crap out of him because a pedophile may have killed Billy. Claire has started going off to investigate things on her own and sees Billy everywhere and chases down random people because of this. Kira is closed off because Billy has been blackmailing and raping her continuously as he has become obsessed with her.I find it very hard to believe that no one in this house noticed that for months this shit with Billy was going on. We learn that he's a little piss-ant/asshole who is a budding psychopath and sexual sadist who walks all over his parents and they do nothing about this or his behavior and actions. Claire goes on and on about how she will always love him and support him and never do anything to him no matter what he does including rape and murder but really? In the end she forgives him with the reasoning that all teenage boys go through a phase and act out and boys will be boys! Yes! Because acting like a shit to your parents, blackmailing and raping a girl repeatedly to the point she tries to commit suicide is just a phase in life and half of it is the girls' fault, that she brought this on herself. Way to go Mrs. Taylor!
I'd give this zero or negative stars if I could.