What Happened To Those Girls – by Carlyn Greenwald

[Author of Murder Land]

This book is about a girl named Emma who figures out that her three friends lied to her. Her friends go on a camping trip that she planned without her. She was mad about the situation until she found out the news that all her friends died at the campsite. Eight months later, Emma starts receiving videos of her friends and what happened that night from an anonymous texter after the body was found. Emma figures out that it wasn’t an accident like everyone else thought. After getting the texts a few days later, Emma teams up with Beck (one of the victims’ sisters) to go to the campsite and figure out what really happened. It was out of their curiosity, but it could have been a bad move.

There are a lot of characters in this book, but I will tell you about only the six important characters in the book. The characters are Emma, Beck, Paisley, Opal, Harlow, and Natalie. First, there is Emma. The main character in this story, she is the “I,” since this book is written in first-person point of view. The second character is Beck, the next important character. She helps with the investigation by teaming up with Emma. She is also the older sister of Paisley. Third, there is Paisley. She is a very interesting character. Telling about her is mostly a spoiler, but briefly, she went on the camping trip with Opal and Harlow. Later in the story, she goes mad. Fourth, there are Opal and Harlow. They are side characters in this story and also go on the camping trip. They were killed by the mysterious killer. They are also friends with Emma. Last, there is Natalie. She is the park ranger who gets suspicious. There are other important characters that are not mentioned here because it is a big spoiler to the storyline.

I really enjoyed this book because, personally, I love horror and mystery. In this book, there were so many suspects, and there were so many plot twists. I couldn’t guess who actually was the killer of Emma’s friends. This book is so much of a thriller. Even the cover said “Midnight Reads,” which I recommend you should do when you get the chance to read this book.

For basic information: There are forty chapters with one epilogue. The book has 310 pages. There aren’t any pictures in the book, but there is this one page that says “Eight Months Later.” The book is divided into four parts. The first part has no name. There is “THE WOODS, PT I; THE WOODS, PT II; THE WOODS, PT III.” I read it during summer break in fifth grade. I couldn’t find the exact Lexile level, but it is between the 600–800 Lexile range. It wasn’t hard to read. I would still recommend reading it at least in fifth grade just because of the content and language. Still, it is a really fun book to read.