Interesting Storytelling Mechanism Could Be Difficult For Some Readers Yet Works Perfectly For Story Here. Ok, so the title of this review really is exactly what you need to know about it. It is going to be challenging for some readers in the way that it presents the story, as a sequence of nine short stories – complete with their own internal chapters and only a few bare “notes” between them – that seem disjointed but let’s just say to stick with it and all will be revealed. In the particular case of how the larger story is built here, this format actually works quite well indeed for the overall story while also giving readers who may not have as much time to sit down and devour a 350 ish page book in one setting much smaller divisions that can be read in tighter bunches. To the level that in theory Holmes is actually leaving money on the table, as I’ve seen other authors break these out into individual publications at first publishing and only combine them into one volume years later. (I can’t speak to how successful that would be as a sales strategy, but at least from the reader perspective with each being a contained story, there would be nothing really to objectively fault there.)
Despite not being listed as a series, and in fact with some elements of these exact tales seeming to be prequels of the tales with this central character that were published before this book, this actually is the third book to feature this character, no matter how the author and publisher list it on book review or sales sites.
This is one of those tales that goes *dark*. Truly disturbingly dark for most of us… but then, both books before it went to similar levels. So if you’re still here, there isn’t really too much darker to go, and fortunately some of the darkest stuff is left well off screen. For those that can handle the darkness, it is a truly compelling story. For those who can’t, spare yourself – for your own mental health. Please.
Overall this was truly one of the more interesting books I’ve read thus far in 2026 specifically because of the storytelling format Holmes went with here, and it also sets up at least one more tale quite spectacularly.
Very much recommended.
This review of Nine Missing Girls by Steena Holmes was originally written on March 16, 2026.