Andrea Contos

A timely edge-of-your-seat thriller from a debut writer to watch. Caroline is only three months from her great escape — leaving behind her rigid prep school and the parents who think they can convert her to being straight — when her best friend, Madison, goes missing. There’s no question that Caroline will get involved in the investigation. After all, she has her own reasons for not trusting the police, and she owes Madison big time. But Caroline uncovers a wider mystery as she follows the clues, with other missing girls and no one on the case. Why isn’t anyone looking for these girls? And what’s the connection between them and Madison? Could it be . . . Caroline herself?

Throwaway Girls

Leticia Leal

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos. I have very mixed feelings on this book. I enjoyed the story line and the main character, Caroline, is a realistic flawed teen heroine. I admire her determination and tenacity in the face of numerous problems. I will always stan a strong lgbtq character. The supporting characters are fine, the parental figures are atrocious. 

Over all book was a slow burn, it really took a while for things to get moving, and once they did I can’t honestly say I was all that invested. The alternating chapters were mildly confusing and then the ending just seemed a little too pat.

Tate

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos in exchange for an honest review. 

This story is about the girl who everyone is looking for and all the girls who are not being looked for. Caroline Lawson is a girl on the brink of freedom when her world is pulled out from under her when her girlfriend Willa leaves for California and her best friend Madison disappears. Caroline doesn’t trust the police and takes it upon herself to find her best friend. Caroline’s determination, perseverance, and loyalty in the face of heartbreak and tragedy is admirable and you’ll want to cheer her on.

Often times in books where the characters take it upon themselves to solve a crime, I think it doesn’t really make sense; while it makes sense that they want to solve the crime but their reasons for why they have to be the one investigating often is lacking and requires varying levels of suspension of disbelief, however, that was not the case with Throwaway Girls. Caroline’s actions never come off as foolish or illogical, while she may be impulsive, she is an intelligent girl and that really shows through her actions. I adored Caroline and her friendship with Aubrey was a highlight in the novel. I disliked the nameless alternative point of view, as it often took me out of the story and disrupted the flow; I never fully enjoyed these sections because I truly just wanted to get back to Caroline and what she was up to. This book while on the surface is about the disappearance of one white upper-class teenage girl, is about the girls that the police do not look for, the highrisk or the poor, the throwaway girls. This book is about the girls who disappear day by day that no-one bothers to look for, the girls whose faces were never plastered on missing posters, the girls without vigils, the girls that endure so much because they weren’t considered important enough to look for. This book will piss you off in all the right ways, it will ignite a passion in you and it will open your eyes to the experience of millions.

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

This gripping debut thriller is centered on the trappings and secrets of both privilege and poverty as star student and athlete Caroline, who is counting the days until high school graduation when she can finally get away from her parents who wish she was straight, digs into the mysterious disappearance of her best friend Madison. Caroline begins to discover that there are other missing girls, girls from the poor West Virginian towns across the state line from her Maryland prep school who live in run down communities where drugs and poverty are a fact of life and whose disappearances are not being investigated. Taut, raw language sets a sinister tone as Caroline simultaneously mourns her ex-girlfriend's move to California and relentlessly follows every lead to discover what happened to Madison and the other throwaway girls who deserve justice. I'll be ordering two copies for my high school library true crime fiction readers!

Rachel Benton

I would give this a 3.5 stars. I loved the ending of this. I definitley suprised by who ultimately who did it. There was some definite and turns you had to go through to discover all this. The story focuses around Caroline, whose friend Madison has disapeared. Caroline defintley has some family issues going on. She is lesbian, and her parents are not accepting of her lifestyle. Top it off she was dumped by her girlfriend. As the story goes, you will see that both Carolina and Madison carry dark secrets. I liked the story, but was I over the moon by it? No. I do think we were to much in Caroline's head in this. The constant blaming, self-doubt, and typical teenage angst was wearing a bit thin. Plus, I wasn't really buying the relationship between Caroline and her parents. Plus, I'm not buying the school has not contacted her parents about her skipping classes and basically flunking out school? I do like the message the author was sending about missing girls. About how girls goes missing all the time, but some of these cases are ignored due to privilage, and economic status, and even race. I think Caroline realized that she can't run away from her problems, but instead of being mad at the system and bitter towards the police for how they handle things. I think she should have realized that she needed to be the change herself. Like going back school, maybe going into law enforcement herself? Overall , it was good story, glad I read it.

Makayla Reed

I read this book at the most perfect time. I received the arc for this book last year and never got around to it until now.

This was everything that I needed right now. It gave me A Good Girl's Guide To Murder vibes and I became obsessed with this book. It was engaging and surprising. I had no clue who was taking all of the girls until the big reveal happened. I was shocked and it was brilliant.

With conversations about privilege, sexism, justice and who really matters when they go missing, this is a stunning book that brings to light that truth of who really matters in the eyes of law enforcement.

This was my first Andrea Contos book and I hope that there are more thrillers to come. Contos is a genius when it comes to setting up a perfect thriller and stringing the reader along to only have our mouths drop when the truth is revealed. Do I wish I read this earlier? Yes, but also I don't think I would have appreciated it as much as I do now.

Throwaway Girls

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