Abby is missing long before she disappears at the beginning of Missing Abby by Lee Weatherly. Narrated by Abby's former-best-friend, Emma, the plot examines how their friendship deteriorated in the past while looking at the events surrounding Abby's disappearance in the present.This novel, Weatherly's second, uses Abby's disappearance to tell Emma's story. The novel is told in chapters, one for each day after Abby is reported missing. As the story moves farther away from that day, the focus shifts from wondering what happened to Abby as readers begin to wonder what happened between the two girls. Because at thirteen, they are still girls--a fact that is not always obvious from the narration that seems to sound more like the voice of a seventeen-year-old.Through a strange coincidence, Emma is the last person to see Abby before she gets off a local bus and vanishes. When Emma has to report everything she remembers about that day to the police she also starts to remember their old friendship. Anger often flares up through the worry Emma shows for Abby. Weatherly handles these conflicting emotions well, her narration making it clear that Abby is missed even while Emma is still angry with her.Just why Emma is so angry at Abby is not clear until the last half of the story. Her reasons for ending the friendship are revealed in dribs and drabs that interrupt the regular narrative: "Freak. The word slithered into my mind, breaking the spell." Through these fragments readers can piece the girls' back-story together before Emma reveals the finer details.Weatherly maintains a level of suspense throughout the story as Emma and Abby's friends try to learn what happened to her. Emma's cryptic references to "Balden" and "Karen Stipp" also draw readers further into Emma and Abby's past. At the same time, the plot remains necessarily one-sided as Abby never gets the chance to tell her experiences.I really like the message of this story. How, interestingly, it is only after Abby goes missing that Emma is able to realize how precious Abby was as a friend and subsequently find herself again. The writing only falters at the end, where Weatherly seems desperate to neatly tie up the loose ends of a story that was never clear-cut or neat.
Language used: EnglishNumber of Pages : 199Where did I get this book? : I borrowed this one from the school's library.A li'l bit of review:This story tells about a search of a missing girl, named Abby. One thing to notice, there isn't chapter in this book. The author divides the story based on the days of Abby's missing. So instead of having "Chapter One" to "Chapter Fourteen", this book has "Day One" to "Day Fourteen". Get it? :DThe one that narrates the story is Abby's childhood friend, Emma L. Townsend. Emma, however, has moved into a nother part of the city. Emma's new life has been perfect till one day, she read the news that Abby's missing. Ems is surprised since she admits that she saw Abby on the day Abby was reported missing. Emma even took the same bus as Abby, they sat on the same seat, and talked about their past life. Then Ems, later on, is eager to find Abby and try to understand why she is missing. during the searching process, Ems is helped by a group of Abby's Goth friends. They later on build a friendship on their own. Emma also has a crush on one of Abby's Goth friends, Ski. Ski is a Goth boy with some piercings on his body. (I imagine this boy is sooooooo cute and cool .... hahahaha). Ok, back to the story, finally, Abby is found after 14 days of searching. But they only found the dead body. Yupe, Abby's dead. She fell down into a hole when she tried to set up a setting for her game, since she really wanted to be a Game Master.The moral that I get:Although this book talks about Goth life and Games, it really reaveals about the effects that You got when you've been picked on or bullied by your other powerful friends. Your past life affects you at the present and haunts you.My impression:Well, although this book is meant to be read by teens, to be honest, I think this book is a li'l bit "dark" :D. However, I really enjoy reading this book. If you're Goth lovers and into game-ing, you're gonna love this book.
Do You like book Missing Abby (2008)?
it was a really good book, yet very sad. The main character in the book is called Emma L. Townsend. I'd say that emma's a caring friend, and that she never meant to dump abby as a friend. I think even though abby and emma didn't keep in touch for a long time, they're really good friends and still think about each other and never wanted to be separated at the first place. i didn't think that abby would die... but when i finished the book, i was a bit shocked. i think it was a depressing thing for emma, after all, their last words weren't exactly what i'd call friendly... i almost teared up at the end, it was quite a distressing ending. I, personally, quite like the character abby. she was a straight forward girl and didn't really care about what others thought about her. i think she was quite a friendly girl as well, as she had so many people worrying about her and crying over her.
—Isabella Kuo
Aww,poor Emma. What a really sad and tragic ending. Well, at least it's over now and everyone can be at peace despite the loss. Anyway, I wonder what happens between Ski and Emma [Ski sounded pretty cute =D, hehe:]. By the way, in the end Emma made a lot of friends who accepted her the way she was despite her horrible past with that cow, Karen. I really didn't like her throughout the story. Yet that was so not cool to leave Abby alone and out of her life, Abby really loved Emma as a sister and I personally see this as a major betrayal, I wouldn't blame Sheila that much except you can't hate someone you've never met yourself.
—Gabriela
It starts with a missing persons report. Emma is shocked to read in the paper about her former best friend Abby who's gone missing. She's even more shocked to find out that Emma was the last one to see her. As the book's chapters count the days since Abby went missing, we find out more about Emma and why she fell out with Abby. She's hiding some things from her new friends and from her parents... and maybe from herself. As Emma works to find Abby, she is forced to deal with some buried feelings that she thought she wanted to forget.This is both an intriguing mystery story and a story about finding your true friends and being who you are. Although secondary characters are mostly one-dimensional, the story is really about Emma's transformation and she's a likeable, imperfect heroine.
—Abby Johnson
