THE MISSING HOURS by Julia Dahl

 

From the critically acclaimed author of Invisible City and Conviction, The Missing Hours is a novel about obsession, privilege, and the explosive consequences of one violent act.

From a distance, Claudia Castro has it all: a famous family, a trust fund, thousands of Instagram followers, and a spot in NYU’s freshman class. But look closer, and things are messier: her parents are separating, she’s just been humiliated by a sleazy documentary, and her sister is about to have a baby with a man she barely knows.

Claudia starts the school year resolved to find a path toward something positive, maybe even meaningful – and then one drunken night everything changes. Reeling, her memory hazy, Claudia cuts herself off from her family, seeking solace in a new friendship. But when the rest of school comes back from spring break, Claudia is missing.

Suddenly, the whole city is trying to piece together the hours of that terrible night.

MY THOUGHTS: 

This was a hard book to read. Not because it wasn't good but because it was that good. It's a tough subject matter and this author did a great job with it. A sexual assault on a young college woman by two young men. All three privilege, white and wealthy. But that didn't matter. What happened was horrible. What these young men did was unforgivable.

Claudia is a young, somewhat silly, young woman who loves to party. She also seems to love attention. But not in a really bad way. She's just a party girl and makes mistakes. What happened to her though was the most horrible thing imaginable. Then to have to worry that she would be blamed which of course she would. This society always blames the woman. Even though she was drunk beyond conscientiousness, or maybe because of that, what happened to her was even worse. Two young men, Chad and his new friend, took advantage of her. They raped her and videoed it. Then preceded to send it to at least three people. 

Chad is a lawyer's son. His dad, Ridley, is like the worse person you could imagine. He thinks money can make anything disappear and he tries using it to make what his son did disappear. He's one of those who thinks, "boys will be boys" and "why ruin a young man's life." His son did a horrible thing. His son will have to live with what he did forever. He deserves to live a life of shame and humiliation for what he did. All because Claudia wasn't into him. Because she rejected him. And I'm sure power played a part, even though it takes no power to do what they did. 

This story is told from several points of view. What happens in this family and other families throughout this story are laid out there. The victim and the accused both have a story. But the end means is someone should have to pay for what they did. Claudia executes a plan for revenge and personally I think the boys got off light. If they truly do get away with it. I think she honestly had a right to seek revenge but did it make her feel any better? Who knows. Most victims never get this chance. Money does help in this case I suppose. But it also hurt. Claudia made a lot of mistakes in her young life but she did not deserve what happened to her. 

This book has a lot of nice characters. One I liked and disliked at the same time was Trevor. He was a good young man but he was also delusional in many ways. He helped Claudia in a lot of ways but that didn't really benefit him. He should have kept on studying and kept his life on track in my opinion. But they again he was a plus to this story. He was needed. Claudia's family is messed up too so no wonder she was. But they do love each other. They do try. I liked them for the most part. I liked most of the characters with the exception of Ridley and his awful son.

I would actually have liked a little more closure for Claudia. But it still ended pretty good and I believe she finally got justice. I hope it helped her.

Thank you #NetGalley, #JuliaDahl, #StMartinsPress for this ARC. This is my own true feelings about this book. 

5/5 stars. I recommend this book but be warned it does contain rape, not explicit, but still.. It's there.