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Quantum Girl Theory
On December 1, 1946, Paula Jean Welden put on a bright red parka, left her Bennington college dorm for a hike, and vanished. Eighteen, white, blonde, wealthy; her story captivated a nation, but she was never found.
Each chapter of Quantum Girl Theory imagines a life Paula Jean Welden may have lived after she left that room: in love with a woman in a Communist cell and running from her blackmailer in 1950s New York. A literary forger on the verge of discovery at the advent of the computer age. A disgraced showgirl returning home to her mother's deathbed. Is she a lobotomy victim, is she faking amnesia, is she already buried in the nearby woods?
Or is she Mary Garrett, the hard-edged clairvoyant running from her past and her own lost love by searching for missing girls in the Jim Crow south? A trip to Elizabethtown, North Carolina, leads Mary to a twisty case that no one, not even the missing girl's mother, wants her to solve. There, Mary stumbles into an even bigger mystery: two other missing girls, both black, whose disappearances are studiously ignored by the overbearing sheriff. Mary's got no one else to trust, and as her own past tangles with the present, it's unclear whether she can even trust herself.
This brilliant jigsaw puzzle of a novel springs off from a fascinating true story to explore the phenomenon of “the missing girl“: when a girl goes missing, does she become everyone people imagine her to be?
Each chapter of Quantum Girl Theory imagines a life Paula Jean Welden may have lived after she left that room: in love with a woman in a Communist cell and running from her blackmailer in 1950s New York. A literary forger on the verge of discovery at the advent of the computer age. A disgraced showgirl returning home to her mother's deathbed. Is she a lobotomy victim, is she faking amnesia, is she already buried in the nearby woods?
Or is she Mary Garrett, the hard-edged clairvoyant running from her past and her own lost love by searching for missing girls in the Jim Crow south? A trip to Elizabethtown, North Carolina, leads Mary to a twisty case that no one, not even the missing girl's mother, wants her to solve. There, Mary stumbles into an even bigger mystery: two other missing girls, both black, whose disappearances are studiously ignored by the overbearing sheriff. Mary's got no one else to trust, and as her own past tangles with the present, it's unclear whether she can even trust herself.
This brilliant jigsaw puzzle of a novel springs off from a fascinating true story to explore the phenomenon of “the missing girl“: when a girl goes missing, does she become everyone people imagine her to be?
272 pages, Hardcover
First published March 8, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
January 14, 2023
This book is better than its sad cumulative rating, but I also understand why the average is so low. So, here's a tip if you're considering reading this but wary of that 2.95 rating or not sure if it's for you: the title says it all when it comes to what Erin Kate Ryan is interested in doing with this book. Do not read Quantum Girl Theory because you want to know if the missing girls in the overarching storyline were killed and by whom. Read it because the very concept of exploring all of the possible lives a real-life missing young woman might've led after her disappearance sounds like a cool concept, and understand that in only one of those scenarios (albeit, a recurring one) she's a psychic detective trying to solve a mystery. The mystery is thrilling in some points, but it's really the possibilities of different lives led by Paula Jean that propels this book forward. Some of the writing and characterization was exquisite.
January 14, 2022
Quantum Girl Theory is a meandering, cross-temporal musing on the mystery of missing girls. Drawing inspiration from the case of Paula Welden, a Bennington college student who disappeared in 1946, this book follows a few strands of plots centering around what may have happened to Paula and who she became after vanishing into the Vermont woods. I found the premise extremely promising, but the execution left me a bit underwhelmed. I found myself a bit confused by the circuitous vignettes, and the main storyline - a woman (formerly Paula) making a living off the rewards of families seeking information on missing girls - was not as compelling as I'd wished. There is some interesting threads of race and sexuality that I wish were explored deeper, as the intersectionality of these missing girl's/women's identities added an interesting extra layer.
2/5: A unique, semi-mystery that ultimately could've used a bit more structure and depth.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
2/5: A unique, semi-mystery that ultimately could've used a bit more structure and depth.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 11, 2022
This is a beautiful and dangerous book that will haunt me for a long time. The prose is elegant and playful. The story is, too. In other books, when a girl goes missing, she is erased. In other books, we get the story of the people around her: their grief, their search, their revenge. But this book sticks with the girl, imagining her life, her many other possible lives. It interrogates the usual erasure in smart and subversive ways. But it's also just a good story--suspenseful, compelling, and ultimately redemptive, but not in the way you'd predict.
I also wrote about a twisting metaphor in the book: https://bit.ly/quantmet
I also wrote about a twisting metaphor in the book: https://bit.ly/quantmet
February 5, 2022
I was attracted to this book because the premise is based on a true crime: a young woman disappears while hiking and is never seen again.
The proposition is that this girl went on to become a seeker of other lost girls, a clairvoyant of sorts. This is a captivating concept, but the focus is continually bogged down and blurred by meandering thoughts.
While the writing style, concept, and intrigue are good, this storyline was difficult to follow.
Sincere thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is March 8, 2022.
The proposition is that this girl went on to become a seeker of other lost girls, a clairvoyant of sorts. This is a captivating concept, but the focus is continually bogged down and blurred by meandering thoughts.
While the writing style, concept, and intrigue are good, this storyline was difficult to follow.
Sincere thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is March 8, 2022.
March 17, 2022
This book is so much more than what it says on the box (or, in the blurb, if you will). This is no run-of-the-mill historical fiction or women’s detective mystery. This book is part lyrical prose, part ghost story, part historical fiction, part detective story, part suspense, part thriller, and a whole lot of brilliant commentary on how missing girls are treated in America.
Our narrator is a sad sack. I’m sorry, but she really is. But that’s why I like her. She is, in a way, a miserable human being. Is it her fault she’s miserable? Both yes and no. Her misery, circumstances, and the story of how she ended up where she is in the beginning of this book show her both her culpability as an unreliable narrator and give us good reason not to like her. She’s a hustler, first and foremost. Coming in second is her curse of clairvoyance, which calls into question every memory or vision she sees.
Let’s take a step away from this narrator, who was once a missing girl herself but seems to have lived several different lives since then. Are they all her? Is she all them? In the end, shouldn’t every missing girl be equal to every other missing girl? That’s the question this book is asking. Is every missing girl the same as every other missing girl, or do some missing girls count for more? And there’s a question asked more than once in the novel hitting at the heart of this question: When does a girl stop being a girl? When do people just give up on missing girls, and when does a missing girl stop being just a missing girl and becomes more of a distant memory?
This book starts off strong and doesn’t let up. The stories within, both from the POV of our narrator and from the web of related and connected, are filled with suspense, ghosts both literal and figurative, a thin veil of terror, and heaps of longing and regret. For these characters there is really no future, but there is so much in each of their pasts that lead them to their end.
It’s a tragic and haunting story filled with almost a southern gothic feel at times, while still feeling like a beautiful piece of literary fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Our narrator is a sad sack. I’m sorry, but she really is. But that’s why I like her. She is, in a way, a miserable human being. Is it her fault she’s miserable? Both yes and no. Her misery, circumstances, and the story of how she ended up where she is in the beginning of this book show her both her culpability as an unreliable narrator and give us good reason not to like her. She’s a hustler, first and foremost. Coming in second is her curse of clairvoyance, which calls into question every memory or vision she sees.
Let’s take a step away from this narrator, who was once a missing girl herself but seems to have lived several different lives since then. Are they all her? Is she all them? In the end, shouldn’t every missing girl be equal to every other missing girl? That’s the question this book is asking. Is every missing girl the same as every other missing girl, or do some missing girls count for more? And there’s a question asked more than once in the novel hitting at the heart of this question: When does a girl stop being a girl? When do people just give up on missing girls, and when does a missing girl stop being just a missing girl and becomes more of a distant memory?
This book starts off strong and doesn’t let up. The stories within, both from the POV of our narrator and from the web of related and connected, are filled with suspense, ghosts both literal and figurative, a thin veil of terror, and heaps of longing and regret. For these characters there is really no future, but there is so much in each of their pasts that lead them to their end.
It’s a tragic and haunting story filled with almost a southern gothic feel at times, while still feeling like a beautiful piece of literary fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
November 13, 2023
SO fucking good. i wrote my undergrad thesis on hangsaman / shirley jackson and specifically fell down the rabbit hole of paula welden’s disappearance, so to read this was deeply unsettling and reparative in a way? all the potential lives and experiences a missing girl might’ve had—how she becomes more of a presence once she’s gone & how fucked up that is. just genius.
April 12, 2022
I really love books about missing persons, so when I was invited to read this one, it sounded right up my alley! While this is based on a real missing persons case - of a young college woman who disappeared on March 1, 1946 - this is more of an experimental fiction book than a mystery. Ryan offers a multitude of Paula Jeans - where she may have been or might have gone - though the most detailed version puts her with a new name and given second sight that she uses to find other missing women. In 1961, she travels south to North Carolina to find another missing Paula, though the town is also missing young women of color, drawing "Mary" to uncover the town's secrets to uncover what happened.
But between this 1961 narrative, other possibilities of Paula's life emerge - some more satisfying and others more heartbreaking (abuses, lost loves and murder) with some familiar elements woven across. While I think that this could be a lively discussion starter for book clubs and other groups, this just didn't work for me. I like to have a more concrete story. This was overall unsatisfying - and it started to feel a bit like reading someone else's dream journal. There were some recognizable moments, but nothing truly relatable. I was tempted to set this one aside without finishing it, actually when I realized that it wasn't actually building towards anything, but ended up reading on. But, after finishing it, I do sort of wish that I had. The writing itself is solid, but the lack of characters that felt realistic and the hypothetical plot just didn't work for me.
But between this 1961 narrative, other possibilities of Paula's life emerge - some more satisfying and others more heartbreaking (abuses, lost loves and murder) with some familiar elements woven across. While I think that this could be a lively discussion starter for book clubs and other groups, this just didn't work for me. I like to have a more concrete story. This was overall unsatisfying - and it started to feel a bit like reading someone else's dream journal. There were some recognizable moments, but nothing truly relatable. I was tempted to set this one aside without finishing it, actually when I realized that it wasn't actually building towards anything, but ended up reading on. But, after finishing it, I do sort of wish that I had. The writing itself is solid, but the lack of characters that felt realistic and the hypothetical plot just didn't work for me.
December 24, 2021
Quantum Girl Theory
By: Erin Kate Ryan
Publication date: March 8, 2022
Date Reviewed: December 23, 2021
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House, Erin Kate Ryan & NetGalley, for allowing me access to this arc in exchange for my honest review.
Quantum Girl Theory is quite a great read! I’m sad it’s over, I will Definitely be purchasing this one for my own library at home… I absolutely Loved the book & am really looking forward to more work by Erin Kate Ryan. This was the first book I’ve read by her but it’s most definitely Not the last. I highly recommend Quantum Girl Theory, it’s a solid 5 stars from me!
#QuantumGirlTheory #NetGalley
By: Erin Kate Ryan
Publication date: March 8, 2022
Date Reviewed: December 23, 2021
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House, Erin Kate Ryan & NetGalley, for allowing me access to this arc in exchange for my honest review.
Quantum Girl Theory is quite a great read! I’m sad it’s over, I will Definitely be purchasing this one for my own library at home… I absolutely Loved the book & am really looking forward to more work by Erin Kate Ryan. This was the first book I’ve read by her but it’s most definitely Not the last. I highly recommend Quantum Girl Theory, it’s a solid 5 stars from me!
#QuantumGirlTheory #NetGalley
July 21, 2023
If Quantum Girl Theory had to be a type of candy it would be black licorice. It gave me such a gloomy aftertaste that I had to take breaks between chapters and read other things so I wouldn’t accidentally go into anise-phylactic shock.
Please note that I think QGT is every bit deserving of a 4(+) star rating because it is a beautifully written book despite the fact that it STILL took me more than a month to read because it felt like every gorgeous word had to crawl through a pit of broken glass before it could even be read.
Please note that I think QGT is every bit deserving of a 4(+) star rating because it is a beautifully written book despite the fact that it STILL took me more than a month to read because it felt like every gorgeous word had to crawl through a pit of broken glass before it could even be read.
Read
April 27, 2022The staple plot of many a mystery novel, young women who vanish, and real-life perils of young women collide in this arresting first novel that begins with the 1946 disappearance of Bennington co-ed Paula Jean Welden and spins into stories and speculation about the fates of girls who have gone missing. Among these girls, is Mary Garrett who hires herself out as a finder of missing girls. Mary is driven by an unreliable second sight. Her existence is precarious and, like the women in the novel, she is haunted by her past and remains an at-risk female at the mercy of an unforgiving society in which men and institutions hold the power. Ryan's novel is dark and intriguing, a book fired by fear and imagination and fueled by a sometimes reluctant sisterhood of women without agency.
January 29, 2023
Non mi aspettavo chissà cosa da questo romanzo, ma senz'altro un thriller discreto, come se ne leggono tanti. A fine lettura trovo invece che sia assurdo che sia stato dato alle stampe e che ne sia stata fatta tanta pubblicità. Credo che ci siano tantissimi aspiranti scrittori che sperano di essere notati da qualcuno e che riescono a produrre qualcosa di decisamente migliore.
La protagonista è una donna, in difficoltà, che si reca in una cittadina della provincia americana per partecipare alla ricerca di una ragazza scomparsa, sperando di poter ottenere così la ricompensa che è stata promessa. Mary è a sua volta una ragazza scappata di casa e da anni ha delle visioni che non sempre riesce ad interpretare correttamente, ma che l'hanno già aiutata a ritrovare altre ragazza scomparse.
Al racconto dell'indagine di Mary negli anni 60, si alternano spezzoni della sua vita precedente, da quando è fuggita di casa, delle persone che ha incontrato e delle mille vite che ha vissuto ed identità che ha avuto.
L'idea aveva un potenziale, ma la resa è stata pessima.
La narrazione è portata avanti in modo contorto e snervante; per quanto si possano dare colpe anche ad errori di traduzione, molto dello stile non può che essere frutto della stessa autrice, che dimostra di non saper usare la penna.
Ho davvero fatto fatica ad arrivare alla fine e comunque l'ho fatto portandomi dietro la sensazione di aver perso tempo che avrei potuto invece dedicare a letture ben più meritevoli.
Se non ho capito male il libro è stato scritto per sostenere un'associazione gay e i suoi progetti. Ottimo intento, ma a maggior ragione avrei sfruttato il testo per dare più risalto alla problematica. Mi sembra invece che sia rimasto tutto sul piano della non accettazione della coppia lesbica, della derisione, quando non del considerarlo un problema, senza far emergere altro, senza affrontare fino in fondo la questione.
In definitiva un libro pessimo e decisamente non consigliato!
La protagonista è una donna, in difficoltà, che si reca in una cittadina della provincia americana per partecipare alla ricerca di una ragazza scomparsa, sperando di poter ottenere così la ricompensa che è stata promessa. Mary è a sua volta una ragazza scappata di casa e da anni ha delle visioni che non sempre riesce ad interpretare correttamente, ma che l'hanno già aiutata a ritrovare altre ragazza scomparse.
Al racconto dell'indagine di Mary negli anni 60, si alternano spezzoni della sua vita precedente, da quando è fuggita di casa, delle persone che ha incontrato e delle mille vite che ha vissuto ed identità che ha avuto.
L'idea aveva un potenziale, ma la resa è stata pessima.
La narrazione è portata avanti in modo contorto e snervante; per quanto si possano dare colpe anche ad errori di traduzione, molto dello stile non può che essere frutto della stessa autrice, che dimostra di non saper usare la penna.
Ho davvero fatto fatica ad arrivare alla fine e comunque l'ho fatto portandomi dietro la sensazione di aver perso tempo che avrei potuto invece dedicare a letture ben più meritevoli.
Se non ho capito male il libro è stato scritto per sostenere un'associazione gay e i suoi progetti. Ottimo intento, ma a maggior ragione avrei sfruttato il testo per dare più risalto alla problematica. Mi sembra invece che sia rimasto tutto sul piano della non accettazione della coppia lesbica, della derisione, quando non del considerarlo un problema, senza far emergere altro, senza affrontare fino in fondo la questione.
In definitiva un libro pessimo e decisamente non consigliato!
February 9, 2022
I have been trying to read this book for 5 days and have only gotten a 1/4 of it read. This is based on a true crime, that happened on December 1, 1946. Paula goes missing and the story is about what could have happened to her. Killed, ran away, captured and held captive by someone, or, as the book, a seer (clairvoyant).
I love True Crime. They always intrigue me, so I figured I would love this. Not so. While the premise is good, even great, to me it just got bogged down. I kept wanting something to happen, and nothing was.
As always, remember just because someone doesn't like a book, doesn't mean you won't. My thoughts are not along with others that have read this book. Some have loved, some have said it's just okay, and others, like me, didn't like it or DNF'D it. It's all up to the person reading the book, and how it hits them at that time.
Thanks to Random House, Netgalley, and Ryan for the opportunity to read this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#randomhouse
#netgalley
I love True Crime. They always intrigue me, so I figured I would love this. Not so. While the premise is good, even great, to me it just got bogged down. I kept wanting something to happen, and nothing was.
As always, remember just because someone doesn't like a book, doesn't mean you won't. My thoughts are not along with others that have read this book. Some have loved, some have said it's just okay, and others, like me, didn't like it or DNF'D it. It's all up to the person reading the book, and how it hits them at that time.
Thanks to Random House, Netgalley, and Ryan for the opportunity to read this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#randomhouse
#netgalley
December 16, 2021
This book tells, in part, the story of Paula Welden, a woman who went missing in Vermont in the 1940s, though through a fictional lens. I found the story intriguing, This story tells a hypothetical end to Paula's story - as she was never found. I enjoyed the writing and storytelling, though at times found it slightly meandering. This was one of my most anticipated books of 2022 and I am very pleased to have read it early!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the chance to read this book!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the chance to read this book!
June 20, 2022
This book was...meh. The premise is what interested me, but the execution was not what I had hoped. Based on a true crime and mixed quantum theory this book could have been genius. The concept was genius. The story was slow and often confusing.
April 28, 2023
Really enjoyed this one… it subtly works on your subconscious to really unnerve you and very expressively written.
April 18, 2022
Interesting book based on a true crime that read too slow for me. I really enjoy true crime but in this book I kept waiting for a something big to happen and nothing really popped.
Thank you to Netgalley, Random House and the Author, Erin Kate Ryan for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Netgalley, Random House and the Author, Erin Kate Ryan for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 2, 2022
Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan is a historical mystery mixed with a quantum physics theory resulting in the idea that missing girls have an unlimited possibility of realities that creates various worlds within which they may live. I think the premise is very intriguing, and it carried me through reading this atmospheric novel written from 3rd person perspective. I’ve always found quantum theory fascinating. Unfortunately, the story was very dry and confusing at various points, making it hard to maintain interest and focus. The story jumps around in all these different versions of our reality, and I struggled to follow where, why, or who I was with at any given point. I prefer a more fast-paced, focused mystery and would gladly give up a bit of atmosphere to achieve that end. I also enjoyed that it is based on the actual case of Paula Jean Weldon, and it is a nice touch to aid in suspended disbelief. And the psychic abilities of the main character, Mary, were both compelling and confusing, but I didn’t need to be confused any more than I already was. If you are looking for a historical mystery mixed with the more sci-fi quantum theory and you are not easily confused, then Quantum Girl is just the kind of story you will want to sink your teeth into.
February 5, 2023
La storia di una scomparsa, cold case che deliberatamente scelgono di tralasciare coloro che sono rimasti indietro, preferendo immaginare le molte vite diverse che la ragazza potrebbe invece aver vissuto. La ragazza quantica. Una nuova storia si sovrappone a un'altra, incastri delineati come altri romanzi hanno tentato prima ancora.
Le molteplici possibilità si frastagliano, eppur - rimangono intatte. Tentativo pregevole, ma sono rimasta distaccata quasi per tutta la durata della lettura, il vortice quantico di Erin Kate Ryan mi ha congedata lettrice esterna ed il cuore non si è perso tra le pagine.
Le molteplici possibilità si frastagliano, eppur - rimangono intatte. Tentativo pregevole, ma sono rimasta distaccata quasi per tutta la durata della lettura, il vortice quantico di Erin Kate Ryan mi ha congedata lettrice esterna ed il cuore non si è perso tra le pagine.
August 6, 2023
I can’t understand why the book has low ratings. I enjoyed both the premise and execution.
April 12, 2022
I was interested in the historical fiction aspect of this story. I was hoping there would be a pay off with the story switching from present to past. It never came. The only connections were using the characters in past and present. Then giving them small back stories. This book read like three smaller stories poorly sewn together. There is no closure. I read until the end because I was in disbelief that this was all I was going to get from this book.
June 8, 2022
I own this book in a goodreads drawing.
A rather strange novel about a girl who uses clairvoyance to find missing girls around the country in the 1950's. She may be a missing girl herself.
I found the news articles to be the most interesting part.
A rather strange novel about a girl who uses clairvoyance to find missing girls around the country in the 1950's. She may be a missing girl herself.
I found the news articles to be the most interesting part.
October 13, 2022
Unfortunately I was asked about this book and trying to describe it just convinced me how much it sucked.
March 29, 2022
Using the real-life unsolved disappearance of Paula Jean Belden in 1946 as a jumping-off point, the author alternates between chapters in which Paula's life might have unfolded in different ways from that point and chapters in which Paula, using the pseudonym Mary, has visions which lead her to find other missing girls. The chapters about her searching for missing girls focuses on the disappearance of a white girl and two Black girls in the 1960s.
The language is lush and the tone is dreamy. The author's style owes something to Shirley Jackson, who also wrote fiction inspired by Paula's disappearance from Bennington College, where Jackson's husband was a professor.
Crimes against straight white women are treated vastly differently from crimes against women of color and homosexual women by the media and law enforcement. This truth is at the heart of the book.
The book has many great qualities but it ultimately failed to completely satisfy due to the bewildering number of pseudonyms used in non-Mary chapters. Trying to keep track of what was going on required frequent flipping back and forth to keep timelines and names straight.
The language is lush and the tone is dreamy. The author's style owes something to Shirley Jackson, who also wrote fiction inspired by Paula's disappearance from Bennington College, where Jackson's husband was a professor.
Crimes against straight white women are treated vastly differently from crimes against women of color and homosexual women by the media and law enforcement. This truth is at the heart of the book.
The book has many great qualities but it ultimately failed to completely satisfy due to the bewildering number of pseudonyms used in non-Mary chapters. Trying to keep track of what was going on required frequent flipping back and forth to keep timelines and names straight.
August 24, 2022
Loved this book!! 😍😍😍 The suspense kept me turning the pages, the smart writing and character and settings all through the book impressed me. The topic of missing girls, and the clever interplay of the many people one person could be, once reality’s container is crashed open—that whole thing gave me so much to think about. And though I didn’t expect it, I saw myself in these pages—in the way I shame myself continually though no one would blame me, in the way women are always constrained by others’ expectations, and in the way memory and anxiety can play with each other in a moment where I should be present and quick. Sigh. I loved the realization that community can heal pain, and the strength that comes from forgiving one’s self. I highly recommend all my friends and acquaintances read this book! Finally I must add that I know the author, and as a friend I am extremely proud to see this book ( what a gorgeous cover!), to feel it in my hands, and to read it with joy and wonder at its success. I know an amazing amount of work went into it!! Huge congratulations on this dazzling first novel, Erin.
August 14, 2022
Elements of “the things they carried” combined with a modern true crime central plot, where what is “true” may be elusive but it’s the feelings and the emotion that ring truest. Some readers seem to find the book “meandering” or disjointed, but I felt that it was purposely designed this way and was part of the allure and craft of the prose.
With interweaving possibilities and the unlimited potential of a missing girl’s true narrative. “Once she is gone a missing girl becomes everything that everyone thinks she might be; our theories create her fate”.
For fans of typical “crime fiction” this won’t necessarily be your cup of tea if that’s what you’re expecting, but I found this to be much more literary and beautifully written.
With interweaving possibilities and the unlimited potential of a missing girl’s true narrative. “Once she is gone a missing girl becomes everything that everyone thinks she might be; our theories create her fate”.
For fans of typical “crime fiction” this won’t necessarily be your cup of tea if that’s what you’re expecting, but I found this to be much more literary and beautifully written.
August 11, 2022
When I started this book I honestly had no idea what to expect. While reading this book you follow a character who is trying to solve the mystery of why this girl went missing and if she is dead, who killed her? I listened to this book on audio because it does have some interviews and articles in it and I love listening to those types of media. However, it only added to the story and I read it in one sitting! I just wish it would've been a little bit longer.
March 31, 2023
anhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as someone who went meticulously pages through shirley jackson‘a album of clippings of paula jean welden’s disappearance, to say i was excited for this book is an understatement, but it really blew away even my high expectations. each vignette was equally perfect, something that feels especially remarkable in a book like this. loved it.
April 3, 2022
I love the idea and the way the story was told with small vignettes around a more major story all imagining what the lives of a missing girl could be. It's a book that I need to read again to truly understand the ending. 4/5
January 13, 2022
Mind. Fuck. Original idea.
December 15, 2021
QUANTUM GIRL THEORY: A missing girl, by virtue of having endless possible lives, is more real than a non-missing girl, who gets only one life, at most.
And so becomes true life Paula Jean Weldon and her bright red parka — she falls into the mystery of forever-missing girls. In the narrative, this quantum Paula is not missing, but living 15 years later as Mary Garrett, a self-made detective/recently gifted psychic who specializes in, um, missing girls. This 21st century quantum version of Paula could be Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin. Mary inserts herself in cases as having a “deep women’s intuition” which is really “I’m a missing girl — I know something about why you go missing and try to stay missing.” Without the internet or tech of today, Mary really has to gumshoe her way to resolutions and rely on the “Sight”.
Rather than specifically “solving” the real Paula’s fate, the book is a musing on the imagined fates of all forever-missing people, much like Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman and Donna Tart’s The Secret History which also took up the Weldon story in the Bennington Triangle of missing persons. However, Mary has psychic dreams of missing girls and somewhat scattered memories of how Paula became Mary — it was sometimes confusing to follow the present storyline and discern what were Mary’s visions vs. what were Mary’s memories. Part of the narrative was about “The Girl” who we assume was Paula turning into Mary, but I felt it would have been clearer to just call that person Paula of 1946. Much of the present day story (1961) revolved around Mary’s desperation regarding her next meal, her next place of lodging, and wondering how she will ever earn some money to move on. A dark cloud hovered over much of the story with just Mary’s circumstances, not just the fates of the missing. And then suddenly, we’re in 1996, seeing another quantum Paula who has survived another 35 years.
3 stars, although I really wished I could have upgraded that. The premise of incorporating the story of a real missing girl was intriguing and kept me going. I was totally drawn to the mysteries of Paula/Mary and the missing girls that Mary hunts, but the structure seemed often to be scattered, flitting around timelines and past or future visions that may or not have been true. There were too many stories to keep track of. The ending(s) were what totally put me over the edge. At one point I thought the story of Paula was wrapped up, but then the last chapter, the story of Mary ends abruptly and was unsatisfactory. Did that quantum Paula die?
Thanks Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO. None whatsoever! This broke a streak of reading 8 books in a row with green-eyed people.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO. It’s mostly December in Vermont for Paula; February in North Carolina for Mary. There are also mentions of imaginary orchids and lady slippers.
And so becomes true life Paula Jean Weldon and her bright red parka — she falls into the mystery of forever-missing girls. In the narrative, this quantum Paula is not missing, but living 15 years later as Mary Garrett, a self-made detective/recently gifted psychic who specializes in, um, missing girls. This 21st century quantum version of Paula could be Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin. Mary inserts herself in cases as having a “deep women’s intuition” which is really “I’m a missing girl — I know something about why you go missing and try to stay missing.” Without the internet or tech of today, Mary really has to gumshoe her way to resolutions and rely on the “Sight”.
Rather than specifically “solving” the real Paula’s fate, the book is a musing on the imagined fates of all forever-missing people, much like Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman and Donna Tart’s The Secret History which also took up the Weldon story in the Bennington Triangle of missing persons. However, Mary has psychic dreams of missing girls and somewhat scattered memories of how Paula became Mary — it was sometimes confusing to follow the present storyline and discern what were Mary’s visions vs. what were Mary’s memories. Part of the narrative was about “The Girl” who we assume was Paula turning into Mary, but I felt it would have been clearer to just call that person Paula of 1946. Much of the present day story (1961) revolved around Mary’s desperation regarding her next meal, her next place of lodging, and wondering how she will ever earn some money to move on. A dark cloud hovered over much of the story with just Mary’s circumstances, not just the fates of the missing. And then suddenly, we’re in 1996, seeing another quantum Paula who has survived another 35 years.
3 stars, although I really wished I could have upgraded that. The premise of incorporating the story of a real missing girl was intriguing and kept me going. I was totally drawn to the mysteries of Paula/Mary and the missing girls that Mary hunts, but the structure seemed often to be scattered, flitting around timelines and past or future visions that may or not have been true. There were too many stories to keep track of. The ending(s) were what totally put me over the edge. At one point I thought the story of Paula was wrapped up, but then the last chapter, the story of Mary ends abruptly and was unsatisfactory. Did that quantum Paula die?
Thanks Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO. None whatsoever! This broke a streak of reading 8 books in a row with green-eyed people.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO. It’s mostly December in Vermont for Paula; February in North Carolina for Mary. There are also mentions of imaginary orchids and lady slippers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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