Missing Clarissa

Gr 9 Up–Two decades ago, a beautiful teenage girl went missing without a trace, and present-day friends Cam and Blair decide to take a crack at her cold case and document it in podcast form for a journalism class. Reckless Cam blazes forward in her investigation, ignoring journalistic ethics and at times common sense, almost costing her a best friend, her new girlfriend, and her safety. Jones explores problematics of the true crime genre throughout, often via monologues from Cam’s love interest Sophie; how society fetishizes beautiful girls who are victims of violence; the comparative lack of media attention received by missing and murdered women of color; how a carceral framework for justice further marginalizes the communities that are most likely to be victims. While these moments can feel heavy handed, they are a welcome interjection to the genre. The mystery builds and comes to a thrilling denouement.