Thank you to the author for the ARC! (I'm part of her street team for this book so I was approved for the ARC through NetGalley)

Content warnings:

Spoiler

death, graphic description of a burnt body (in a nightmare)

I started reading this book at an odd time, and it took me almost a month to finish, but I don't want that to influence my review. Normally this would take me less than a week to read, but I was in an odd head space and it took me a while to get into the story. The concept is really interesting: Bailey's best friend Vanessa dies in a car accident leaving Bailey's house late one night. Bailey, who is fairly adept at coding, modifies a program that one of her moms created to make a bot of Vanessa using their texting history because Vanessa left in a hurry and Bailey is sure Vanessa was keeping something from her. Bailey becomes obsessed with V, the version of Vanessa she has created, and in her grief does things that are extremely out of character, especially once she finds out that Vanessa may have been hiding something even bigger than Bailey expected.

I really love the format of this book. It's told through regular prose as well as text conversations between Bailey and her friends, including V, the version of Vanessa that lives only in Bailey's phone. The story unravels slowly at first with Bailey stuck for a long time in her grief at losing her best friend and using her conversations with V to soften the harsh reality of Vanessa's death.

The way grief is handled in this book is really interesting to me. The author did a really great job of showing how grief is not a linear thing. You don't follow a path of healing in a straight line. Bailey regularly regresses throughout the book: she gets back together with her ex-boyfriend, partially out of a need to feel something familiar and comfortable; she also will have moments where she feels like she's moving on from her best friend's death but will then feel like it hits her anew and it's like she's lost Vanessa all over again.

The author also, I think, did a really great job of showing how people's relationships can change after the death of someone they had in common. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think that was particularly well done.

As well as being an examination of grief, MESSAGE NOT FOUND is also a mystery. Bailey is determined to find out why Vanessa left her house in a rush that night and why she was on a road Bailey thought Vanessa had no business being on. The more Bailey finds out the more the mystery deepens, and I don't want to spoil anything, but at one point I actually threw my iPad down on my bed, flailed my arms in the air and screamed silently (to avoid scaring my roommate and the cat). I thought I knew where this mystery was going, but the rug was completely pulled out from under me!

I definitely recommend this book, and it's a bit of a wait until it comes out (March 29, 2022), but add it to your list! If you were a fan of Dante Medema's debut THE TRUTH PROJECT, I think you will like this one as well. It's a solid sophomore effort, and I can't wait to see what else she comes up with!