3.5 stars

My introduction to Leno’s work, You Must Not Miss was a bizarre novel I’m not entirely sure how to classify. It’s a contemporary with an alternate world as a major part of the story — speculative fiction? Surrealism? Beyond that, I’m not sure how I feel about the novel as a whole.

The story was undeniably interesting, unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s an ode to grief, a call out of sexual abuse and rape culture, a representation of the desire to escape life’s problems without actually dying. However, despite these definite positives, the first three quarters of the story were slow-going and occasionally confusing. I was intrigued almost immediately, but it took a considerable amount of time for me to truly be hooked.

Magpie was a remarkably developed, morally grey character I couldn’t help but root for. Never very outgoing to start, the past six months prior to the story’s beginning have subdued Magpie considerably. She caught her father in bed with her aunt, she was sexually abused while drunk at a party, thus cut off by her own best friend, her mom fell into alcoholism, prompting her sister to run away to college and causing all of the responsibilities to fall on her own shoulders. The poor girl can’t catch a break, and she’s basically given up hope of passing sophomore year. As the novel progresses, Magpie grows more comfortable in Near, the utopian world of her own making, and plans to enact revenge on those who have wronged her before retreating to Near. While sometimes disturbing, I was fascinated.

The light in this grim story was the friends Magpie made after the party that ruined her. Though the rest of the student body deems them outcasts — Clare for her own grief, Brianna for a natural occurrence out of her control, and Luke and Ben for their queer identities — they were good to Magpie. Clare and Ben were my favorites, with the former replacing the friend Magpie lost and the latter standing by her through everything, open to the possibility of becoming more. Unfortunately that never happens, but I absolutely would’ve been down for it.

In the final eighty or so pages of the novel, I believe the story really picks up. I didn’t want to stop reading until I reached the end, and I actually put off unpacking until I did. Leno could’ve taken the story down a darker path, which certainly would’ve been intriguing, but ultimately I think the one she chose was satisfying.

My primary issue with the novel was the vagueness of the ending. A good, fulfilling conclusion could’ve made this a four star read, but I found the lack of detail a bit disappointing. Magpie targeted three people, and two of them got different treatment than the third. It’s hard to explain while remaining spoiler-free, but I’m not sure why those two were differentiated. What about the third? How did two bounce back from such an ordeal? What exactly happened to Magpie and Alison and Ann Marie and Clare and Ben? I would’ve loved answers, maybe another perspective or two in the epilogue.

You Must Not Miss is a novel that weaves important topics into an intriguing story, but I’m not sure it’s my cup of tea. As the months pass, I’ll either remember this for its strangeness or forget it entirely; only time will tell. I don’t see myself picking up any of Leno’s other work, but I’d recommend this to you if you can handle the content and are in the mood for something out of the ordinary.

Representation:
• Clare has anxiety.
• Luke is bisexual and ends up in a relationship with another boy, though it’s very minor.
• Ben is a trans boy.

CW: alcoholism, bullying, biphobia, transphobia, adultery, violence, sexual abuse, anxiety attack

I received this ARC via #bookishwish on Twitter. This doesn’t affect my opinion or the content of my review.