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Reviewed by Demetria Head for Readers' Favorite
The Girl Who Was by Myunique C. Green is a YA thriller that focuses on the disappearance of Simone Brooks. She is a high-achieving student whose absence has her school and community talking. Everyone, from teachers to social media, seems to be making Simone into a symbol of perfection. But there is one student, Jada, who has been observing her from a distance. Jada gives her perspective by retracing the last fourteen days leading to Simone’s disappearance. From her point of view, the same students who talked about Simone behind her back were now pretending to have known her in her absence. Also, from her view, Simone had many faces when no one was looking. As Jada retraces fragments of Simone's life, the story begins to raise unsettling questions. What will these questions reveal about perception, memory, and whether people really understood Simone before she disappeared?
Myunique C. Green did a great job by taking a psychological approach to The Girl Who Was. Having the story written from Jada’s perspective also blurred the lines a bit between observation and fixation. The pacing built tension, especially when it came to small but significant details. Jada’s character was interesting. I wasn’t sure whether I should like her or dislike her. She seemed self-serving, especially when it came to her recollections of Simone. At times, I found myself suspecting her as the one responsible for Simone’s disappearance. But I also loved how the author used Naomi to challenge the dominant narrative and introduce an alternative perspective. I appreciated how controlled the writing was in this story. Readers who love introspective thrillers like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson would most appreciate The Girl Who Was. It had a good balance of ambiguity and heavy psychological tension.
