A review by sennowa
Girl Missing by Tess Gerritsen
3.0
This is just fine for what it is. Of this genre and format, this is probably one of the better books I've read over the years. I like the characters, though it occasionally felt like the male lead was following whatever the situation needed rather than an actual consistent character (several scenes with him felt almost like he was replaced by someone else, though the characterization was more or less ironed out towards the end of the book).
Some characters and their related subplots feel like a late addition to the story that wasn't properly mapped out and got into the final script without a previous draft - the flip-flop relation of the characters towards Maeve is one that felt like that to me. I do like that the 2 main characters have chemistry, but some of their romantic moments, especially at the very beginning, came entirely out of nowhere and were awkwardly placed in-between no romantic dialogue/thinking whatsoever, so I still placed it on my "poorly paced romance" shelf even though I feel like it's a solidly structured relationship at the end.
The book does suffer some pacing issues - the beginning and the last third feel pretty solid, but a quarter through to the middle it starts dragging and scenes don't connect well with each other, subplots get introduced one after another in a way that overshadows the previous ones, but it's not too noticeable, so for all I know this is just a personal issue for me.
One thing I did enjoy is that this book has relatively okay(-ish) politics, which I never expect of this genre. But cops aren't monumentally good guys, the main characters care about addicts and poverty-stricken people, at least a bit, and all the people who don't are portrayed as not really good people altogether. All in all, that's more than I have expected of this, even if there are undoubtedly still issues. The male lead is a political blank slate though, which I guess is a way to avoid a conversation about wealth and inequality, which in retrospect the book exploits but does almost nothing with and has no legitimate conversations about. Oh and the main character drinking and driving? Definitely didn't like that.
Overall, this is, again, a perfectly okay book for what it is, and it doesn't pretend to be more than that. Quick and easy, I found it still enjoyable to read even with all that I've mentioned above.
Some characters and their related subplots feel like a late addition to the story that wasn't properly mapped out and got into the final script without a previous draft - the flip-flop relation of the characters towards Maeve is one that felt like that to me. I do like that the 2 main characters have chemistry, but some of their romantic moments, especially at the very beginning, came entirely out of nowhere and were awkwardly placed in-between no romantic dialogue/thinking whatsoever, so I still placed it on my "poorly paced romance" shelf even though I feel like it's a solidly structured relationship at the end.
The book does suffer some pacing issues - the beginning and the last third feel pretty solid, but a quarter through to the middle it starts dragging and scenes don't connect well with each other, subplots get introduced one after another in a way that overshadows the previous ones, but it's not too noticeable, so for all I know this is just a personal issue for me.
One thing I did enjoy is that this book has relatively okay(-ish) politics, which I never expect of this genre. But cops aren't monumentally good guys, the main characters care about addicts and poverty-stricken people, at least a bit, and all the people who don't are portrayed as not really good people altogether. All in all, that's more than I have expected of this, even if there are undoubtedly still issues. The male lead is a political blank slate though, which I guess is a way to avoid a conversation about wealth and inequality, which in retrospect the book exploits but does almost nothing with and has no legitimate conversations about. Oh and the main character drinking and driving? Definitely didn't like that.
Overall, this is, again, a perfectly okay book for what it is, and it doesn't pretend to be more than that. Quick and easy, I found it still enjoyable to read even with all that I've mentioned above.