While The Missing Season by Gillian French is on the younger side of YA novels, this book seriously brought back some fun memories of my high school days! As much as I enjoyed the memories, this book had a rather disappointing ending!
Clara is a high school senior who has had a difficult childhood, having to move all the time and trying to fit into new schools. Now at a new small town, Clara has fallen in with a group of kids who hang out at a skate park. She eventually also falls for a dark skater boy all her fellow friends have a crush on. He then starts to tell Clara of the local urban legend called the Mumbler. This supernatural entity is the reason so many kids go missing and wind up being found mutilated. While the adults in the town speculate over why these things keep happening to the children, the local teens know who, or rather what, is doing this — The Mumbler.
While I found the naivety of Clara to be immature at times, the writing had its comedic relief with the local kids getting up to no good. From vandalism, pranks, even drinking, like I said, it brought back some fond memories of my high school days!
This is my first Gillian French novel, and I’m grateful I received a copy from her and her publishers. I truly enjoyed French’s writing style; even the pacing was intriguing in the first half. The chemistry between all of the characters was delightful. The only aspect I would forewarn other readers about is this book does not venture on the adult side; it is straight up young adult.
As much as I enjoyed this story, the ending was very rushed. There was quite a build-up leading to a rather frustrating ending. I wanted more of the backstory of the Mumbler, there were so many questions unanswered, I wanted the origin of this urban legend. That would be my major complaint about this book.
All things considered, The Missing Season by Gillian French was an enjoyable read. It brought back some fun and humorous memories of my days back in high school, it captivated my imagination of the urban legend and it was a page-turner. Besides the rushed ending, I think many would find this pleasant.
Thank you to Harper Teen and Gillian French for sending me an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Katie's Corner 