"The Missing Years"

“The Missing Years”

Written by Lexie Elliot

Review written by Diana Iozzia

“The Missing Years” is Lexie Elliot’s second thriller, following her fantastic debut, “The French Girl”. Her second book follows suspicious but clever Ailsa, who has inherited half a house, the other half owned by her father. Her father disappeared 27 years ago. When Ailsa and her sister Carrie move into ‘The Manse’, the two become very uncomfortable, feeling a foreboding presence coming from the house.

Ailsa sees neighbor Jamie in her house in the middle of the night and becomes frightened. He gives a strange excuse that he didn’t realize the house was occupied; he was looking for his sister, who often sneaks into the house. Ailsa and Carrie become friends with Jamie, his sister, and a group of other people who all know about Ailsa’s father.

We have two mysteries: what ever happened to their father? Also, what is this mystery behind the creepy house and the odd neighbors? This book brought me back to many different types of books, films, and tv shows I’ve enjoyed over the years. Specifically, I felt reminiscent of “The Amityville Horror”, the “Welcome to Dead House” episode from Goosebumps (ha, ha), “Big Little Lies”, “The Haunting of Hill House”, “Hinterland”, and “I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House”. I also enjoyed that “woman comes back to eerie hometown” vibe that is present in two of my favorite thrillers, “The Roanoke Girls” and “Sharp Objects”.

For the most part, I was a bit disappointed with this book. Not devastated, but I felt that this completely paled in comparison to Elliot’s first book. Elliot’s main brilliant writing elements still rang true, but I felt that the plot and premise were just not intriguing enough. I enjoy her character building, the ensemble cast of characters, realistic dialogue, thorough and visual detail, and brilliant climaxes. Elliot writes a spot-on climax, chilling readers deep to the bone. Readers can barely keep their eyes open and stop themselves from shuddering, waiting to see the villain’s next move. As mentioned earlier, Elliot’s characters are always excellently written. Some characters are more interesting and more necessary to the story than others, but they all weave their way in. Her plots are thoroughly developed, but I feel that the characters really complete the book.

I loved “The Missing Years” and “The French Girl” for weaving past and present story elements together, without using flashbacks. We are told about the past, but not through detailed scenes. I like that the books feel more like diaries than full of intense scenes one after another. I feel that some may feel this is a slow pace, but I disagree.

There are two aspects that I really disliked, but I think I can still push past them. Before every chapter, there is a few paragraphs giving a scenario in which the father could be alive. Some of them include him living in strange marriages or odd countries, but it felt really out of place. I mean, every chapter. The scenarios become darker as the book proceeds, but I felt that they could have been taking out, without diminishing the book in any way. In addition, the second point of dissatisfaction was the Scottish dialect. I understand the want for an American audience to feel more engaged in the story, to make it seem more realistic. In my personal perspective, my fiancé is from England, near Scotland, so when I often visit him, I am already familiar with the accent, so I can read it in my head. Because I visit England often and plan to move there, I love the English / Scottish tidbits. They feel special for me. There are some English things referenced, but I still felt the book was heavily Americanized, sans the dialect. For example, sentences read “I dinnae ken if I want to go,” instead of “I don’t know...” I felt that this jumped me out of the book, leaving me less engaged, because it annoyed me. I’m sure this was done with the author’s intent, but I felt it too distracting, ruining some of my enjoyment.

I find this book hard to rate, because I liked half of the aspects of it. I just did not love it. I cannot wait to read more by Lexie Elliot, but for now, I’ll just re-read “The French Girl”. I recommend this book for the characters and the prose, but just not the plot. I really did enjoy the climax, so if that makes or breaks a book for you, I hope you’ll like it too.

I received this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for reading and reviewing it. Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the opportunity.