TESSA TALKS BOOKS

Missing Clarissa by Ripley Jones

Perfect for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Ripley Jones’s Missing Clarissa is a gripping novel about two friends who start a true crime podcast—with dangerous consequences.

In August of 1999, dazzlingly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington, and is never seen again. The police question her friends, teachers, and the adults who knew her—who all have something to hide. And thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation. But with no leads and nobody, the case soon grows cold. Despite the efforts of internet sleuths and true-crime aficionados, Clarissa is never found—dead or alive.

Over twenty years later, Oreville high-school juniors and best friends Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast, determined to unravel the story of what—or who—happened to this rural-urban legend. In the process, they uncover a nest of dirty small-town secrets, the sordid truth of Clarissa’s relationship with her charismatic boyfriend, and a high school art teacher turned small-town figurehead who had a very good reason for wanting Clarissa dead. Such a good reason, in fact that they might have to make him the highlight of their next episode…

But does an ugly history with a missing girl make him guilty of murder? Or are two teenage girls about to destroy the life of an innocent man—and help the true killer walk free?

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What’s it about (in a nutshell):

Missing Clarissa by Ripley Jones is a fast-paced YA thriller that takes a high school project and turns it into a dangerous example of investigative journalism for two teenagers who initially just thought their podcast idea might be an opportunity for their ten seconds of fame.

My Reading Experience:

This is one of those “Oh! Wow!” thrillers that keep you guessing from start to finish. I always love the use of true crime podcasts. That little extra element always fascinates me, and I don’t even listen to podcasts. I loved the fast pace. It’s under three hundred pages, and with the fast pace, this book was a one-sitting read. 

I also loved the side plot of Cameron exploring her sexuality and admitting that she is gay. The story was a bit contrived, but it played out nicely. As a counselor who has worked extensively with teens, I think that an actual YA audience needs more of a real and not always-so-nice account of coming out (so they get more of a realistic idea of what they will have to deal with and how to overcome it). Still, as an adult, I loved the innocence of that part of the story.

Overall, this story has a couple of misses, but I found it highly entertaining and rewardingly suspenseful.

Read if you like:

• YA thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat
• Sexual diversity exploration
• True crime podcasts as a plot device

Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton

Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive—that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. Mickey’s just another colonist now. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. It’s not a bad life.

It’s not going to last.

It may be sunny now, but winter is coming. The antimatter that fuels the colony is running low, and Marshall wants his bomb back. If Mickey agrees to retrieve it, he’ll be giving up the only thing that’s kept his head off of the chopping block. If he refuses, he might doom the entire colony. Meanwhile, the creepers have their own worries, and they’re not going to surrender the bomb without getting something in return. Once again, Mickey finds the fate of two species resting in his hands. If something goes wrong this time, though, he won’t be coming back.