Fiction | Paige's Page

Shayna goes to Paris after her sister is found dead. While visiting her sisters apartment to pack up her belongings, she reads a message in their secret twin language that she is really alive so she decides to retrace the steps of her sisters last days to try and find her. She trusts no one and tells no one that her sister is really alive. Why is her sister hiding? Who tried to kill her?

Overall, this story was hard for me to get through. It was underdeveloped and the mystery was short lived. The ending was predictable and it was slow to get there. There is little to no build up for the suspense; I was continuously bored and just wanted to just flip to the last few pages because everything in between was so pointless. The whole thing was just a poor quality mystery/suspense novel. Meanwhile, the entire prose was absolutely ridiculous.

The main character, Shayna, is a pre-med student who is described as very intelligent in the beginning. Her character doesn’t seem to maintain this intellectual trait throughout the mystery though.

I kept reading hoping there might be a major surprise and revelation towards or in the end but there wasn’t. It was under 300 pages though, so I suffered through.

The Missing Sister is Elle Marr’s debut novel. Visit her website here.

Read Publisher Weekly’s review for The Missing Sister.

The Missing Sister was selected as one of PopSugar’s 31 new thriller and mystery books to look out for in 2020.

Follow Elle Marr on Facebook or Twitter.

|Purchase on Amazon|Goodreads Review|

Told in first person, our main character and narrator Lillian travels to see her friend, Madison, who has a job offer for her. It isn’t until after she accepts the job as governess to Madison’s step-children that Madison tells her the kids burst into flames when they feel angry or frustrated.

The fire children do not make an appearance until 26% (on a Kindle). The first 1-7% is the foundation of Lillian and Madison’s relationship. This includes how the met, their school-girl-days, and their current status. The story of their girlhood makes you feel emphatic towards Lillian and resentful towards Madison. From 7-26% it is Madison preparing Lillian for the children, and Lillian adjusting to her new rich life at her friends mansion house since Madison married a wealthy Senator. From 26%-until the end is the adventure of Lillian with the flammable twins.

Lillian’s voice and POV is what makes the story so comical. Her comparisons, overemphasis, self-deprecation, and sarcasm created lots of laughable moments.
While the beginning starts off hilarious, the story itself that revolves around the relationship of the main character and the two children who are combustible is starkly serious. Though obviously cynical, I felt the twins ability to burst into flames an affect of both satire and analogy. The embedded theme for their paranormal state of combustion seems to mirror the treatment of children who have behavioral challenges that might just be misunderstood or have yet to receive proper coping skills. Does love have its limits? The flammable twins struggle to feel love from their father because of their flaw and ultimately want to feel accepted by their family.

“They didn’t want to set the world on fire. They just wanted to be less alone in it.“

Family dynamics, parental love, and acceptance is a focus in this funny but short tale that includes wearing inflammable clothes and applying noncombustible stuntman gel to those around. How will Lillian learn to handle the children when they “burst into flames”?

I loved this book and laughed out loud! But at the end, I teared up!