Hyper relevant and real

The Vanishing of Leah Lockwood is a hyper relevant, scary and real story where we follow Leah, a young girl who dies during a viral challenge on the social media platform TRENDVERSE. Her girlfriend Maya is determined to make someone pay for Leah's death and she'll do whatever it takes to find the person who started this dangerous trend.

This story has a way of immediately grabbing your attention because it's shocking close to the reality we currently live in. People want to be seen and liked and in order to do, they have to go viral. One of the best ways to do so is to challenge yourself and even go as far as performing dangerous stunts. What I really liked in this book is that the author created a thriller-feeling by really making someone responsible for Leah's death. It's not just the app, but there's an actual organisation behind it which makes it more scary. While as a reader you're not really expected to dig into the truth yourself, it's really interesting to see Maya and her friends figure out the truth bit by bit.

There were even some plottwists I didn't see coming so that definitely kept the story interesting to me as well. But what stood out most to me in this book is its thematic. On the one side it's a story about the dangers of today's pressure and social media, but on the other side, it's a story rooted in grief and loss. There's plenty of room for the different people in Leah's life to deal with her passing, but there is also room for growth and I really enjoyed that.