Mila has an exceptional talent for reading a room, sensing hidden facts and unspoken words that others do not notice (she’s basically Sherlock Holmes as a 12 year old girl). Mila is on a road trip in the USA in search of her father’s best friend, Matthew, who has mysteriously disappeared. Collecting information from Matthew’s history, she slowly pieces together the story that everyone has missed whilst discovering a more important truth. As she gets closer to solving the mystery, a betrayal leads her to call in to question her trust in the one person she thought she could read best. It’s all about the questions you ask.
Mila is definitely an interesting narrator to read from. Even though she is just 12 years old, Mila is mature for her age and witty beyond her years. Some may argue that this makes the narrative less believable as a young girl however some, myself included, believe that making Mila sound older is the entire point. She’s not some stupid kid. Due to her abilities she is able to make accurate and vivid observations about the people and environment around her and someone with that kind of ability isn’t likely to not appear more intelligent than the age that they actually are. As the story progresses and more clues are revealed, Mila thinks things through and creates alternative theories for the whereabouts of Matthew and the motives for his disappearance. I found myself immersed in the mystery as Rosoff has a writing flair that entices the reader and includes them in the solving of the dilemma which I think is an amazing quality that an author can possess.
Rosoff addresses the issue of childhood versus adulthood in the book which are the two main themes besides mystery. Through unavoidable circumstances, kids can too often become tangled up in adult’s problems. Jake (one of the characters) is a prime example of teenagers getting caught up in the crossfire of his parent’s problems. Mila takes a more mature approach to adult problems. For example, there are often points within the book that she ends up looking after her father (referring to him as Gil) rather than her father looking after her suggesting that, although she is young, she knows more than the adults do. And the whole plot is about Mila becoming tangled up in a web full of complicated adult problems that eventually leads up to her disappointment. Despite the book being a conventional mystery story, it felt more like a coming of age story realising that adults who kids believe to be wise can make mistakes just as easily as any child can. Her inability to imagine herself as an adult is relatable and Rosoff managed to capture that feeling of a kid growing up and did so in a way that wasn’t demeaning or patronising as you find in lot of coming-of-age books.
The thing I feel inclined to warn you about is that there are no speech marks. At first it’s kind of bizarre but once you get in to the flow of reading it’s unnoticeable. It’s unnoticeable because the story and the characters and the writing style is so beautifully written that it’s all you can focus yourself in to. Even though it’s a coming of age story and supposedly targeted at a “young adult” audience, teenagers and adults can both enjoy because of the different perspectives and array of characters that can be related to.