Three twelve-year-old girls went to a train yard late one night. Unfortunately, one girl, Cora Landry, emerges on a stretcher with numerous injuries. Violet Crow is covered in Cora’s blood and keeps insisting that an urban legend caused Cora’s injuries, while Jordyn Petit keeps tripping over her own stories. What happened that night to Cora?

It’s hard to talk about BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND without revealing spoilers, as part of the enjoyment of this story is how Heather Gudenkauf unveils the various details, and I don’t want to ruin that for anyone. I love that we get to see perspectives from many of the different individuals involved, and I particularly appreciated Dr. Madeline Gibson for her work with Cora in the hospital. The diary entries are a chilling portrait of what so many children face today when they struggle to fit in with their peers.

Told through a variety of formats, including Cora’s diary, various narrators, and police interviews, BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND weaves a dark and compelling tale. Readers familiar with a news story (and the subsequent HBO documentary) featuring the Slender Man will recognize the inspiration for BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND, but Heather Gudenkauf puts her own diabolically clever twist on the story line. Heather Gudenkauf is a master at crafting stories that are both suspenseful and deeply emotional, and BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND is yet another stellar example.