39. Going Dark

Going Dark. Melissa de la Cruz. 2023. [January] 336 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: The plane bucked with unexpected turbulence on its final descent, sending Josh’s stomach into his chest and causing him to grip the armrests so tightly his knuckles turned white. He’d finally dozed off while watching the in-flight movie when he’d been jolted awake by the sudden drop. Instinctively, he reached out to the seat next to him, only to find it empty. Of course, he’d forgotten. Amelia hadn’t boarded with him.

Premise/plot: Josh Reuter loves Amelia Ashley. Yet when these two get into a fight in Rome, Italy, he leaves for the States without her. That's when she goes dark. She disappears from social media. She doesn't respond to calls or texts. She vanishes. Her friends alert the police. Josh is questioned. Blood is found in his suitcase. He claims he's innocent. That she was alive and well--perhaps not mentally well, but physically well--the last time he saw her. As the police grow more and more suspicious, and the internet becomes more cruel, Josh faces a dilemma. 

Amelia Ashley is--or was, or is???--a social media star. Her "category" is food/travel. She's got quite a devoted following to her accounts. She shares her lives through photographs, videos, and blog posts. Josh Reuter is NOT a social media star. And that's the way he likes it. He may be a photographer, but, his private life is private. She includes him in several videos and posts. After she goes missing, he's tormented/bullied by his girlfriend's fans.

Harper plays a pivotal role in this one. She was not a fan of Amelia Ashley before she goes missing. Josh is a nameless familiar face. They share a class--abnormal psychology. Yet her side-business, her illegal side-business, gives her the tools she needs to get to the bottom of this missing person's case. Her discoveries--which she does not share with the police--reveal that BOTH Josh and Amelia have deep, dark secrets. 

The jacket flap pushes the idea that this one is "ripped from the headlines," and certainly on the surface that is true. The book also seems to be pushing the idea that coverage of missing persons is unjust, unfair, warped, racist, bigoted. While I don't negate that conclusion in its entirety, I'd just add that any person with a large following, a social media star, a person who has thousands of photographs, thousands of videos, media that is easy to "grab" for journalists...is naturally going to get more coverage. It is more of a news story--because those images, those videos, those words--are an easy hook to fit into allotted space. Another thing that I think is not considered enough in this one, is that the other missing person case explored in this one is of a girl who while yes is biracial and therefore "not white" she's also someone who has a) a history of running away b) a history of running away c) a history of going off her medication and....you guessed it...running away. That doesn't mean it's okay for the police to make all sorts of assumptions about her disappearance. (They assume that she has gone off her medication and run away.) So the conclusion that the reason this girl did not have a "trending hashtag" or a headline story simply because she was biracial...unfair at best. I think the trending hashtag has everything to do with her being a social media star....and not the color of her skin. As for headlines--I think there's more there to that argument.

My thoughts: I found this one super-compelling. It had multiple narrators--Josh, Harper, Amelia--and the points of view were so fascinating. As the mystery unfolded, it was just impossible to put down. I kept changing my mind with every chapter.

 

© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews