Book Summary

This was a fictional mystery/psychological thriller. Sherrie chose this book because a FB friend, who is a voracious reader, recommended it for its twists and turns, so it sounded like it would be a book where the weekly discussions would be interesting.

After a career-ruining scandal, Leah moves to rural Pennsylvania with an old roommate, Emmy, for a fresh start. But when Emmy suddenly vanishes — and no one can find any trace that she even exists — Leah becomes the prime suspect. Now she has to dig into her past to clear her name and figure out if she ever really knew Emmy at all.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The book is set in a contemporary, modern-day time period, roughly around 2016-2017, as reflected through modern journalism, media pressure, cell phones, emails, and online news coverage, in addition to present-day small-town and urban settings.

What did or didn’t we like about this book?

It was a book that lent itself to some good discussions each week, as it did keep you guessing a bit. We had several discussions around whether Emmy was real or imagined. I really didn’t care for the Leah/Kyle love interest; it just seemed too predictable. Also, we’ve recently learned of an acronym: TSTL (too stupid to live), and it sort of felt like Leah was TSTL at times. She put herself in some unrealistic and dangerous predicaments. 

Where did we go after the book was over to celebrate finishing the book, why, and what food/drink/activities did we choose?

We stayed at Sherrie’s house for a sleepover. We don’t always travel out of town when we finish a book, especially if the trip for the prior book was somewhat far away and/or expensive, so we choose a local spot to stay (frequently a member’s home), and choose local activities to participate in. Having said that, details of this post-book celebration are sketchy as it was read 5 years ago(ish), and I’ve been unable to locate documentation (written or photo) detailing our activities. I believe we watched a movie, we played some drinking games (for sure; which may have caused the lack of memory about activities😊), and for some reason, we played Rock, Paper, Scissors (not sure why, but do remember that it got pretty intense). The most memorable part was Lisa donning basically all of the t-shirts in Kenny’s closet (it was a lot; I believe 22 or so).