Reconstructing Amelia suffers from having been compared too much to Gone Girl. Gone Girl, it is not. But it’s not bad. It entertains—enough. And it is well written—enough.
Reconstructing Amelia is a mystery, not-quite-thriller, told in the new style of piecing together a full story from different perspectives. The problem, though, is that the delivery does not work as promised: Kate, Amelia’s mother, is said (in synopses of the book) to be figuring out the circumstances of her daughter’s death by reading texts, Facebook posts, etc. But much of the daughter’s story is told instead in first-person by the daughter. Thus, the reader is learning a lot that Kate is not.
That aside, I enjoyed the story. It is good, and it surprised me more than once Mostly, though, I appreciated the fresh approach on issues of teenage homosexuality. McCreight handles the issues well, hopefully further expanding society’s acceptance of people in spite of differences in whom we love.