Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 I bought The Lost Girls on impulse because it was sitting on a Barnes and Noble table looking all psychological thriller-y and because I have zero self control. I found the book to be well-written and immersive, but a psychological thriller it is not, and I felt like the jacket copy lied to me. Also anyone considering reading it should be warned that there is a scene involving sexual abuse of a child. It's not especially graphic but it's there. 
 This book is really about the relationships between women-between sisters and between mothers and daughters. When Lucy writes about the summer of 1935 she's focused on how her relationship with her older sister, Lilith, changed dramatically as Lilith entered puberty. She writes about the loss of her childhood innocence for reasons that extend beyond what happened to Emily. 
 The tone of the whole novel is melancholy and thoughtful, whether through Lucy's sepia-toned memories or Justine's more grown-up reflections. It is never actually scary and it's also pretty easy to figure out what happened to Emily. It's not really a mystery in any regard. 
 If I had known what this book was really about, I probably wouldn't have bought it. I was looking purely for the scary-creep factor and it wasn't present in The Lost Girls. It's not a bad book, not at all, but it wasn't the book I was looking for. I felt cheated that the summary didn't actually represent the pages within. 
 If I had to grade The Lost Girls purely on it's merit as a work of literary fiction, I'd give it a solid B. As the psychological thriller it was marketed as, it gets a D. Emily's disappearance plays such a small role in the book and isn't even focused on until the end. It could be the glue that holds the competing narratives together-instead it's an afterthought. I'm going to average these grades together and the novel a C because while it wasn't what I thought I was buying, it was still a good book. 
 That said, when I'm paying hardcover prices, I expect to get the genre of book being pitched to me. 
 - Elyse