Message Not Found - Dante Medema

Bailey and Vanessa shared everything: laughter, secrets, and packets of Pop Rocks to ward off bad days. But that all changed the night Vanessa left Bailey's, headed for home, and ended up swerving off a cliff nowhere near her house. Now Bailey, who thought she knew Vanessa better than anyone in the world, is left with a million unanswered questions, and the only person with answers is gone.

To help grieve her loss, Bailey creates a chat bot of Vanessa using years' worth of their shared text messages and emails. The more data she uploads to the bot, the more it feels like she's really talking to her best friend. That is, until the bot starts dropping hints that there was more going on with Vanessa than Bailey realized--a secret so big, it may have contributed to Vanessa's death.

This compelling puzzle of a story, filled with engrossing twists and turns, is written in alternating prose and text message formats. Teens will gobble up this fast-paced page-turner.

I feel like this book is falsely advertised as a fast paced, twisty mystery, which it absolutely is not. Because of this, I expected something completely different and since I didn't get it, I didn't enjoy it as much which is a shame bc this is a GOOD. BOOK.

BUT it's not a thriller, nor filled with "engrossing twists and turns" It's a book about grieving, about loosing your best friend and dealing with complex emotions. Finding out who you are without this person in your life. Figuring out what your relationships with other people should look like now. Basically, some very important questions and topics.

I loved all of the characters because they didn't fit a specific formula or a trope. They were so wonderfully written with so many layeres and emotions, it was amazing. They also surprised me with their decisions, their relationships and reasonable deductions. While reading it was like watching real people, do real things and respond in real ways.

Now it's time for some cons:

1. false advertising

2. the amount of times Vanessa is described as a "book girl" or "bookish" or has a "book blog"

3. the slow pacing

4. how Bailey didn't really have any serious repercussions for doing illegal stuff and violating people's privacy

I know grief makes you do crazy things, but actions should have consequences. Despite these cons, I still think it's a lovely book that talks about real people with real problems and I couldn't help but feel sad for Bailey and root for her to get better ♥