Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie

PUBLISHED 2006

Lauren is adopted and eager to know more about her mysterious past. But when she discovers she may have been snatched from an American family as a baby, her life suddenly feels like a sham. Why will no one answer her questions? How can she find her biological mum and dad? And are her adoptive parents really responsible for kidnapping her?

Lauren runs away from her family to find out the truth, but her journey takes her into more and more danger – as she discovers that the people who abducted her are prepared to do anything to keep her silent.


(INTO THE OLD WORLD READING CHALLENGE)
(WISH I'D READ THAT CHALLENGE)

It is embarrassing how long it took me to read this book. It took me forever!  Well not quite. Maybe just over a week…but the point still stands. It took ages! I just couldn’t get into it and no matter how hard I tried and whatever angle I looked at it from I just couldn’t find it in me to like the main character. I am sure for  a 12-14 year old who is feeling like their parents don’t understand them and wishing that their ‘real’ family would come along and rescue them any day this book would be the order of the day but I found it more annoying than anything else.

Lauren knows that she has been adopted and thanks to a school project her curiosity surfaces and she starts asking questions that her adoptive parents either skirt around or don’t answer at all and then she starts to suspect that she was stolen from her biological family after she sees the picture of a little girl who could have been her on a missing children website.

I am sorry but I just didn’t like Lauren at all. She didn’t think how her actions would affect the people in her life at all and painted everyone else to be the bad guys. But oh no, she was never in the wrong. Heaven forbid she actually made a mistake.  All the time she was constantly saying things like ‘how could they say that, didn’t they understand x/y/z’ everything was me, me, me and by then end of the book I seriously wanted to slap some sense into her.

And even when she found her real parents she wasn’t happy! Honestly! There is no pleasing some people.

The one character that I can honestly say that I loved was Lauren’s youngest biological sister, six year old Madison. She was adorable. And because of Lauren and her actions she got hurt. Stupid girl!

There is some action, some suspense, a little bit of romance (that was kind of predictable) and a few curses dotted through out (that would be bad words, not the magical kind).

So, perhaps the age group that this is aimed at would love the storyline but I found it annoying and the main character selfish and unthinking towards anyone else's feelings but her own.

2 out of 5