REVIEW: The Missing

The Missing
Author: Caroline Eriksson

Greta, her husband Alex and their daughter Smilla are all together in a boat, rowing across a lake to a small island. They are staying at a nearby cabin and taking an outing together. Once they reach the shore, Alex and Smilla decide to go investigate the island and walk away. Greta stays behind in the boat. Her husband and daughter never return. She waits....looks for them....then rows back to the cabin looking for her cell phone. They're gone. No trace. Greta isn't sure what to do. She feels ill....tries to eat...to sleep a little....thinks about calling the police. Where are Alex and Smilla? As she tries to piece her thoughts together, the chilling truth about Greta and her life begin to take form.

I listened to the audio book version of this novel. At nearly 7 hours long, the audio is excellent quality. Tanya Eby narrates. Her voice is easily understood and she reads at a perfect pace. I listened to the entire book, even though at times I really wanted to DNF and move on to something else. I think if I had been reading the print book I wouldn't have made it to the end. For me, the story is just too disjointed. The strangeness and non-linear story is central to the plot -- it's just how this tale works for its effect. But, I didn't like it. The plot develops too slowly. It took so long for hints about reality to really start coming that I lost interest. The main character comes off as annoying rather than someone I might sympathize with or care about. Her behavior and actions are just too odd. The constant whining, throwing up and strangeness is off-putting. I really struggled to get through this story. Does that mean it's a bad book? No. It just means it isn't for me. And it could also mean that the story lost something in translation to English. I do understand that the story is about a woman's loss of reality and her rambling, disjointed memories and understanding of her life and actions. It just didn't work for me. Too much rambling, confusion and just bizarre weirdness from the main character, not enough coherent story.