Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review! For this review, we dive into another book that has been on my to-be-read list for a very long time called The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea. A super interesting book that dives into many different aspects of the mystery like forensic work, family trauma, and survival guilt.
Main Characters:
- Megan McDonald: A high school senior who was abducted for two weeks and kept captive, was able to make it out of captivity alive
- Nicole Cutty: Was taken at the same time as Megan, except Megan was the only one to come back
- Casey: Nicole’s boyfriend who is found dead a year after Megan escaped captivity
- Livia Cutty: Nicole’s older sister who is a forensic science student, takes an interest in Megan and finding her sister
Some warnings:
- Includes kidnapping and forceful captivity
- Includes murder
My Review
The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea is exactly what the title presents. It’s a twisty psychological book that follows the aftermath of two high school seniors going missing, but only one returning. When Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald go missing after a beach party the small area they are from is in panic. Even more panic arises when only Megan returns. Megan eventually can turn her experience into stardom, but the reality is she just wants to hide from the past. Livia Nicole’s older sister however can’t hide from the past, and with her sister still missing, wants all the answers.
While the main theme of this book has been done a lot (the final girl of sorts) I still found it to be really interesting and dynamic. I gave the book an 8/10 rating. There were so many unique attributes that were added to the mystery of this book which made it really enjoyable for me. I really enjoyed the character of Livia. She’s a driven, educated woman, and is very passionate. I enjoyed the forensic aspect that her character added to the book because I felt like it was distinctive what her role was. Despite the emotional connection to her missing sister, she plays the more logical mindset in the book. Her unique look into the criminal justice world makes her a very interesting perspective to have when it comes to the mystery of Nicole. It’s interesting though because it’s clear early on that Nicole and Livia are the classic opposite siblings. Livia is logical and calm, and Nicole is harsh and aggressive. We get perspectives from the past and present so that’s how we as the reader get to see what Nicole was like before she went missing. Nicole isn’t an easy character to like, and that may be Charlie’s goal. She’s extremely insecure but tries to cover that up by being straight-up mean, rude, and overly sexual. Her desperation is frankly sad, and it’s clear she doesn’t have a ton of respect for herself and just wants to seem great to everyone else. Don’t get me wrong doesn’t mean that she deserved to be kidnapped but it’s hard to have a lot of empathy for her when she’s presented as such an unkind person.
The topic of Nicole not coming back, and Megan coming back is an interesting one. Like Livia and Nicole, Nicole and Megan are total opposites. While Megan is also presented to be fairly insecure she has self-respect and knows her worth. It’s also clear early on that it’s odd that Megan and Nicole were taken together. The two weren’t exactly friends and seemed to actually dislike each other. I thought the fact of Nicole being a part of a capture club to be a really unique piece to the story. A capture club is for people who are grossly fascinated with kidnappings and like to recreate and discuss them. It’s an interesting key when looking into the type of person Nicole was. Someone who is fascinated with kidnappings gets kidnapped? Seems odd to me. It adds this really dynamic piece into the book where we the reader start to question who Nicole really is, and if she really was kidnapped or planned it, or if she’s even still alive. If she still is alive why did she want to run from her old life, or why hasn’t she found her way back?
We also learn that Megan doesn’t remember a lot from the kidnapping (traumatic amnesia of sorts mixed with drugs) and that when Livia starts to connect with her it brings things back. Eventually, the two start to work together to put together the pieces of what may have happened to Nicole. I appreciated how Charlie could jump from the past to and present in a non-confusing way. Sometimes where there is such a mix between the two in a book it can be a bit hard to jump the timelines. I felt that in this book it was easy to follow because the past parts were well planned with the present. As Livia would start to figure things out in the present we would get a look into the past. There were some parts though that were a bit of a drag and just felt like filler, but most parts were interesting and not slow.
It’s clear in this book what role each character plays, and that is due to Charlie’s strong character-building. We can see as the reader each important piece that each unique character would bring to the story, and each character flowed really well together. I appreciated that while for example, Nicole was a very abrasive character she often had other characters calling her out and challenging her personality. I struggled to understand how someone like Nicole could be ‘popular’ but it’s clear that she just viewed herself that way and often other characters would see through her fakeness. I appreciate as well that even though there are some disturbing parts in the book it’s all relevant to explaining the full picture. It was hard to hear the parts about Megan’s experience in captivity, but Charlie’s descriptive abilities made it so we had a very clear picture of what exactly it was she experienced.
I will say that even though there’s a fairly small cast of characters in this book I was defiantly left wondering up until the end. Charlie’s ability to tell the mystery was really interesting and I really enjoyed all the twists and turns. I think that Charlie made the characters so dynamic that we as the readers would be left guessing the whole time. The dislike from some characters may take away from the issues of others, and for example, Nicole’s rudeness tends to overshadow anyone else’s rudeness. Her risky behaviour makes the reader question the type of person she is but also makes us question if we are really getting the full picture of her and the other characters. If you’re in the mood for a dynamic and filled with twists and mystery I would definitely recommend this one. While the theme is a bit basic, the unique characteristics of this book make it hard to put down and keep the reader guessing the whole time. The ending was explosive and I totally didn’t see it coming.
Summary and Commentary
***Please be aware this section will have spoilers***
The book starts off with a past perspective on the day of the abduction. We see Nicole driving erratically and in a panic, trying to reach her sister on the phone. We can assume since this prologue is labelled the abduction that Nicole is in the process of being abducted, but by whom we don’t know. We then get a perspective two weeks after the abduction. The person we are getting the perspective from has been kept in forceful captivity in bad conditions. The reason I say person is I noticed in this part that Nicole’s name wasn’t used and only she was so I wasn’t exactly sure if this was Nicole or not. Whomever it is escapes captivity and we get her perspective of her running to safety. We find out at the end of this section that it’s not Nicole, it’s someone else who was taken at the same time she was. Next, we get a perspective from the present. We learn the person who escaped is named Megan McDonald. It’s a year after Megan escaped, and it’s clear she’s still quite uncomfortable with the ordeal she went through. Megan is doing an interview regarding her escape, but it’s clear she doesn’t really want to be there. An aspect of Megan’s story that makes it even uglier is that she wasn’t the only one who was kidnapped, but was the only one who escaped. Nicole has yet to be found, but Megan can’t piece together her capture enough to give any information as to where they were kept. Megan is presented to be a bit of an insecure, quiet, woman. When I say insecure it seems that it comes from her identity being built around something she doesn’t want to be attached to, which was the kidnapping.
We then get to meet one of the other main characters in the book Nicole’s older sister Livia. Livia is a forensic pathologist, and it’s clear her drive for her work comes from her personal connection to crime. Livia admits that she’s often waiting for her sister’s body to come across her table one day. Livia is presented to be a confident, smart, and strong woman. Despite her struggles in life, she generally uses her struggles to push herself harder and do good things. The loss of her sister pushed her to try to always bring answers to families. One day Livia gets a body on her table for what’s presented to her as a suicide by jumping off of a bridge. When she starts the autopsy she quickly notices that this person’s death was not a suicide. I’ll just say I really enjoyed these autopsy scenes with Livia. It was super detailed and really well written and added a really interesting clinical piece to the book. Livia discovers that the body was more likely hit by a car and then hit in the head repeatedly with a sharp object. Clearly, it’s a homicide and not a suicide. Once the findings are released it’s a bit of a news story. Livia gets a call from one of Nicole’s old friends. The story about the homicide victim was released along with his name. Turns out Nicole’s old friends recognized him. He and Nicole were dating the summer she went missing. It’s bone chilling for Livia to think she just autopsied her sister’s boyfriend, and with that a boyfriend that she didn’t know about. Livia talks about how she feels about Megan. It’s clear she has no ill will for her but a part of her doesn’t understand why Megan came back and not her sister, and how she doesn’t know what happened to Nicole.
In the next chapter we get a past perspective, but one before the girls were kidnapped. We get to see what Nicole was like before she went missing. Nicole for lack of better words is a bit of a bitch. She attempts to make herself feel better by beating down those around her with her words. Nicole is hyper-sexual and desperate to have people like her no matter what she has to do. She often wants to have what others have as soon as it’s clear to her that it’s something that’s not hers. She is a bit obsessed with being better than other people, or I guess being perceived that way. Nicole has a boyfriend that she met online and the two are planning to meet up. I wondered if maybe he would be the kidnapper. The relationship is a bit odd, but it’s one that seemingly would make sense for Nicole. We also learn that Livia and Nicole had a cousin who went missing when they were kids. Her disappearance seemed to affect Nicole more than it affected Livia. These past parts with Nicole were kind of just a lot of teenage drama and showed the ways that Nicole was a shit-disturber. Nicole also really doesn’t like Megan because she wants her boyfriend.
Back in the present Livia goes to meet Nicole’s friend Jessica who called her earlier to learn more about Nicole’s secret boyfriend, who is now dead. Livia learns that even Nicole’s friends don’t know much about him. He was older so Nicole kept him and what they did a secret. Jessica shares she did tell the cops about him, but maybe it is clear why they never followed up with him. We also learn that earlier when Nicole was trying to call Livia she didn’t pick up, and it’s a big regret for her. The fact that she didn’t answer the call eats at her a lot, and that seems to be her drive to find out what happened to Nicole because she feels a bit responsible. Livia goes to talk to Casey’s mother to find out more about him. She finds out he was a bit of an odd guy, and had an even odder connection to Nicole. His brother went missing and had yet to be found. When Livia hears this from his mother she can’t help but think about how Nicole was after their cousin went missing. She isn’t able to get much else from his mother in terms of useful info.
We get a bit more of a look into Megan’s life after she escaped. It’s only been a year since the ordeal, and through the pressures of her parents, Megan has already released a book. It’s clear if given a real choice Megan would have never written the book and it seems to make her uncomfortable being in the spotlight, especially when Nicole didn’t make it back. Megan feels like even though she’s the one who made it back the real her died the day she was kidnapped. Her father being a cop means that with her return her parents have been obsessive over her, and trying to push her to be ‘normal’ again. The push for her to be normal has made her feel even more abnormal. Megan’s going on a journey with her therapist to build together the pieces that she can’t remember from her time in captivity. The whole therapeutic process is very retraumatizing so they have to take the process slow, but Megan desperately wants to remember who took her. It seems like Megan was maybe drugged during her time in captivity and that’s why she can’t remember anything. Megan gets frustrated that the therapeutic process isn’t moving as fast as she would like, but seems to get the most frustrated with herself.
We get a look into the past about a month before Megan and Nicole go missing. Nicole is with her friends and splits off from them. She gets approached by this guy and ultimately gets kidnapped. I was like wait this girl gets kidnapped twice?? Turns out the initiation to this weird Capture Club (it’s like a freaky kidnap club) that’s run by Casey is to be surprised kidnapped by the group. It’s extremely screwed up but Nicole seems to get a kick out of the whole thing so it’s clear she’s found her people. Everyone in this club likes to discuss current and past kidnapping cases but to an unhealthy degree, that’s more than just liking true crime. Clearly, Nicole has found her perfect match in this Casey guy who founded the club. I wondered if this would have anything to do with the kidnapping later on because it seemed coincidental not to. It’s clear that Nicole is hyper-sexual and tries to use that to her advantage, if it doesn’t work she freaks out. The girls have some issues for sure. After some time with the club, they discuss Nicole getting to be a part of their next club initiation. She’s super excited to torture someone else in the way her friends did to her so that’s cool I guess. Look I would never have wished Nicole’s kidnapping and disappearance on anyone but it’s very ironic with how obsessed she is with them that it ultimately happens to her. The girl they kidnap to bring into the club they do it in a super messed up way and they traumatize the poor girl. I mean they take it way too far and play on her insecurities.
Back in the present Livia goes to Casey’s old apartment. She talks with his landlord because he’s the one who reported Casey missing. Casey left the apartment without a trace. He hadn’t gotten rid of Casey’s stuff and allowed Livia to go take a look. In the drawer of his desk, Livia finds a folder filled with articles about different missing girls. The whole thing is odd to her and she wonders if Casey maybe had something to do with Nicole’s disappearance. She finds some odd connections with Nicole and some of the other missing girls in the folder and takes it with her. In the folder, Livia finds a paper dedicated to Diana Wells, but it seems like the girl is alive and fine. Livia reaches out to Diana and the two meet up to talk. So you know the girl that was Nicole’s first initiation ritual into the club? Yeah, that’s Diana. Diana tells Livia all about the club, and of course, Livia is disturbed to find out that not only was Nicole’s boyfriend a part of the club, but Nicole was too. Diana never ended up joining the club as the initiation was too traumatizing, and like girl I get it. Livia starts to realize that she really didn’t know her sister at all, and feels a lot of guilt for that. She didn’t realize just how much her cousin’s disappearance affected Nicole, but also acknowledged that she never asked. Livia finds out the name of another club member and goes to talk to him as well. Side note, I got that Livia was driven to find out about her sister’s kidnapper but how did she have all this free time to do all this investigative work on the side? Back to it, Livia goes to talk to Nate who was a Capture Club member. She gets an even more disturbing look into her sister, and she isn’t sure why Nicole got together with these people. Livia finds another name in Casey’s file but this one is dead. Her name is Nancy and she went missing similarly to Nicole and Megan. Nancy had been kept in captivity for 6 months and then died when her captor gave her too much of a sedative. Having read Megan’s book Livia remembered that Megan referenced being drugged with the same drug that was found in Nancy’s system. This makes Livia really start to think that whoever took Nancy also took Megan and Nicole.
We get another look at the past but more so at Casey. Turns out Casey did more than just kidnap for the club, he kidnapped for hire. Casey would receive a request from the other kidnapper with what type of girl he would like, and a bag full of money. Casey would bring the girls to an agreed-upon spot for the other guy to then take over. I mean given that Casey had his own sibling go missing this is pretty fucked up, but what it does mean is he’s not the killer, he’s just a demented freak. I wondered though if he would really have kidnapped his own girlfriend for the killer, seems off but it’s possible. It’s clear though he also uses his club to then follow the stories of the girls he takes afterwards, which is even more screwed up.
Back in the present Livia decides it’s time to talk to Megan. She kinda ambushes the poor girl at work, but the two can talk a little. Megan can’t tell Livia much about her time in captivity, and I appreciated how decently respectful Livia was despite her desire to find her sister. Livia tells Megan about what she discovered with the missing and murdered woman Nancy. Megan tells Livia she going on a journey to try to bring back her memories but that the drugs used on her have made that difficult. Given that Megan’s Dad is a police officer Livia asks her if she thinks they could go to her father with this. Megan seems to get a bit of life back and knowing that they may find the person who did this to her she wants to help Livia. Megan isn’t sure that this is enough to bring to her dad. She wants to but she also worries that this may affect him. She thinks they need more so that they give him a definitive idea of who did it, with no room for him to feel guilty. She feels like if they find more of a connection between her case and Nancy then she would be comfortable going to him. Since Megan works at the courthouse doing filing she thinks that she may be able to sneak Livia in to look at Nancy’s case file some more. The two plan to get together later to do it.
The two get together later on to sneak a look at the files. Livia finds a green scrap of cloth that was put into evidence when it was found in Nicole’s abandoned car. She seems interested in it and wants to take it. We as the reader don’t know yet what the connection would be, but I won’t lie I was a little disappointed seeing Livia do this. She’s presented to be a very smart professional person and this is just a dumb thing to do. It could ruin the value it has in evidence and so like I get that she wants to find her sister but this kind of ruined this image we had of her being really well thought out with her choices. Livia then realizes that a barbeque set that was in her sister’s trunk was missing the sharp two-prong piece. This seems to be really significant but at this point, I wasn’t sure why. The next day it turns out that the cloth was significant because Livia recognized it when she did Casey’s biopsy, it was a piece of the shirt he died in. This means that he probably died the same night Nicole went missing, and they were probably together at some point. Turns out this missing BBQ tool is significant because it could be a match for the tool that was used to stab Casey in the head. So did Nicole kill him, or did her kidnapper? We kinda get this vibe that Livia may think it was Nicole but idk she seemed to love him in her messed-up way.
Livia reaches back out to Nate Casey’s Capture Club buddy. In the hopes of getting more info from him about what could have happened the night Nicole went missing she brings Megan with her. Knowing her a kidnap weirdo Megan’s presence may get him to talk more. She also hopes that he may know if Casey liked to kidnap people not for club reasons. Given he had all this info on those missing girls who went missing similar to Megan and Nicole she feels like he might be connected in some way. We the reader clearly know that he is, so it was a bit boring having Livia just slightly starting to figure this out. Turns out that Casey seemed to know about these missing girl cases just as the story broke, he was always on top of them. Nate also fills them in that one of the other girls that Casey knew about early into her story was recently found dead. She had clearly been kept in captivity. Livia wants to know how she died because if it’s like Nancy then she may have been taken by the same person too. Livia travels out the next day to the place this other woman named Paula’s body was in. Paula had similar long-term injuries to Nancy but died differently. She was beaten to death, but she did have the drugs in her system. So it seems like she was one of the kidnapper’s girls as well.
With all this new info Megan and Livia decide it’s enough and go to her dad with what they know. Megan’s dad who is the sheriff doesn’t love that Livia has brought this stuff back into Megan’s life. Megan tries to convince him she doesn’t want to hide anymore, and pretend she’s fine when she’s not. Megan’s dad promises to do what he can, but he doesn’t seem to like it. Seems he just wants Megan to move on from the past. Megan in one of her therapy appointments starts to get closer and closer to remembering. She tries to go too far for her Therapist’s comfort and dashes out of the room. It didn’t seem like she remembered anything important but she was frustrated and scared with how close she was getting. She wants to remember but I get why it would be so frightening too. Livia goes back to Nate to try and pull some more info from him now that she knows all this stuff. One night Megan has a nightmare and hears and noise. She notices it’s a noise that she heard just before her therapist brought her out of the last session. We the reader don’t get to know how she recognizes the noise but she seems to know it now. Megan reaches out to Livia to let her know they need to talk in person. She knows who took her.
We get a look back into the past. It seems like the night that Nicole and Megan go missing, Nicole had set up a plan with Casey to fake kidnap Megan. Nicole was all pissed with Megan for being with this guy she liked and decided to do the most fucked up thing about it. I wondered if maybe this guy that Casey gave the girls to decided he wanted Megan and Nicole and killed Casey for it. Casey eventually gets to the party and he and Nicole go with their plan. I mean look I’ve disliked some people in my time but this is a new low. I get she wants to scare her but traumatize her for life? Why? I get she’s jealous of her but it’s a bit hard to feel bad for Nicole when she was this screwed up of a person in real life. I guess it could be argued Casey influenced her but like she went along with his easily and quickly she didn’t need to be convinced.
Back in the present Megan and Livia finally get together so Megan can tell her what she figured out. I thought she might remember the kidnapper but turns out she just remembers where he kept her. Megan wants Livia to take her to the cellar she was kept in because she hopes she may remember something from it. I thought this was kinda stupid because it seemed like he would probably have other girls there. Maybe Nicole? The two go out with no worries for their safety even though it’s also the middle of the night. They go to this abandoned neighbourhood and Megan just seems to know that this is the spot.
In the past again Nicole is following Casey in her car as he has Megan’s in his. Nicole has to keep her distance because Megan may be able to recognize her voice. Nicole realizes that Casey isn’t taking Megan to the place they discussed and starts to worry about what he’s doing. It seems like Casey is bringing them to the same spot that Livia and Megan are going to in the future the abandoned neighbourhood. Another car pulls up as Nicole and Casey get out and I wondered if it was the kidnapper. Casey and Nicole take Megan into this abandoned house and Nicole starts to second guess what they are doing. She notices that Casey has drugged Megan and is starting to get upset with the situation. Casey decides she wants to bring Nicole into his world. He knows where the cellar is so he keeps the girls and takes Nicole there to show her his ‘real takes’. I did feel a bit bad for Nicole but it was hard to put out of my head how she held a hand in this all happening. I was glad that she was how messed up this all was but I felt bad that she was in a bit too deep now. Nicole is frightened by Casey when she sees the girls hears his excuse and runs from him. When getting away from him she hit him with her car. Turns out Nicole just didn’t notice that the other kidnapper was there and he sees her leave. She speeds away and we are left off with Nicole seeing a police light in her review mirror. That’s when I started to put the pieces together. The author had dropped a few other clues earlier on but I just didn’t give it enough attention or want to believe it.
Megan’s dad the sheriff is the dirty dog. Dang. He clearly was getting Casey to get girls for him, but he probably wasn’t too happy when he found his own daughter. When he pulls Nicole over she of course doesn’t realize that he was following her from the abandoned houses, and she tells him what happened with Casey and the girls. The sheriff must have thought that Casey brought Nicole for him and got away, he didn’t know Megan was waiting for him yet. Back with Livia Megan finally tells Livia she thinks it’s her dad. Of course, both are horrified. She knows now why he let her go and not the others. Casey would bring him the girls and just didn’t realize he was bringing him his daughter. The one thing I wondered about was how the BBQ thing came into play. Nicole hit him with her car, but how does he get stabbed. Livia and Megan go into the cellar where her dad kept her. They find another missing girl in the cellar. Her name is Elizabeth. Elizabeth is chained to the wall so Megan stays with her while Livia goes to call 911.
Turns out that when the sheriff brings Nicole back to the houses making it seem like he wants her to show him where the girl is. He then subdues her once they are back. Casey is still barely clinging to life after Nicole hit him with her car. Of course, instead of reflecting on his own actions, Megan’s dad goes to take his anger out on Casey for bringing him his own daughter. Now we know how the BBQ set comes into play, the sheriff takes it from Nicole’s car and kills Casey with it. I mean look Casey didn’t exactly deserve kindness but the guy was asking him to bring him girls, it’s not Casey’s fault he’s messed up. When Livia calls the police you will never guess who shows up. The sheriff tries to take down Livia but she can get the best of him. We see now why he didn’t want Megan to dig things up. Turns out that with Livia and Megan trying to figure things out he freaked and decided he needed to start cleaning up the house. He had Nicole all this time but had killed her a few days before Megan and Livia got there. He was going to kill Elizabeth soon but they foiled his plan.
I won’t lie I kinda hated the ending. I would have rather Nicole had been killed months before and not a few days later. It just felt so fucked up for Livia to have been so close but not close enough. I wouldn’t have minded a happy ending for Livia is all. Livia and Megan get Elizabeth out. The book ends in kind of an even more messed up way in which Livia finds out that Nicole’s body has been brought into the morgue, the one thing she was waiting for from the start. I didn’t hate the ending but didn’t love it. I just felt like it was a bit anti-climactic other than the twist of who the bad guy is.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Feel free to follow me on all my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I drop a new review.
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