Book Review: "The Night My Sister Went Missing"

Here it is! My First actual post! The book is called "The Night My Sister Went Missing" by Carol Plum-Ucci. The book is basically about 17-year-old Kurt Carmody, and average teenager living on Mystic Island, New Jersey. If you want to read the book, read it

All in all, it's one of the best short novels I've ever read and it's very intriguing. It's written for teenagers and young adults, but it could be a good book for the middle-aged crowd, as long as they are open minded. It has a good plot, with a good twist at the end, one that is completely unexpected, plus a little, "Where are They Now?"-type epilogue. If you continue reading this blog post there is a synopsis that contains major spoilers, SO DON'T READ IT UNLESS YOU DON'T WANNA READ THE BOOK!!

Kurt and the group of kids he hangs out with, the "Mystic Marvels" have a party on and burned-out pier. One of the "Marvels" brought a derringer pistol, basically a "lady's weapon" that became common in the "Wild West". It gets passed around by the curious teens until they hear a "POP!" and screaming. Then Casey Carmody, Kurt's sister, is gone.

The rest of the book is about the unraveling of the mystery of who owned the gun, why it was brought to the party, and what happened to Casey. The gun was owned by Stacey Kearney, who becomes a major character despite having only a few portions of the book where she is actually present. In the end, it turns out she is pregnant by her grandfather, who molested her, the gun was brought to the party by her ex-boyfriend, who thought Stacey would have her influential family fudge a paternity test and have him pay child support for the rest of his life. Mark, the ex, sees a white sweatshirt in the half-moonlight, Casey and Stacey both having white sweatshirts, and he shoots at Casey, thinking it's Stacey. The gun misses as the derringer is defective and has a bent barrel. Casey being afraid for her life and being a fantastic diver, takes the plunge under the pier despite heavy waves. She gets out of her sweatshirt and gets cut up by barnacles on the pier, but manages to find a surfboard. A riptide carries her out to sea, but she manages to get back to shore despite her injuries. In the morning, it is Stacey who finds her using night-vision goggles she stole from her grandfather's museum. Kurt, having been with Stacey, goes out to get Casey, and as he is gone, Stacey commits suicide.