The Missing, Book One: Found

Jonah Skidmore lives with his adoptive parents and younger sister (not adopted) Katherine. His friend Chip Winston is also adopted, though initially he’s not aware of the fact. Both boys receive mysterious unsigned letters reading ‘You are one of the Missing.’

The boys launch a quest for their birth identities. The authorities in the form of the FBI become involved. It transpires that Jonah and Chip, along with 34 other babies, arrived in a pilotless plane which delivered its human cargo, then vanished. The secret of the boys’ origin is revealed at a conference for the teenage adopted: the drama evolves from that point.

The narrative of this fantasy is fast moving. The language is relaxed and colloquial, albeit peppered with Americanisms. The characterization of the protagonists is strong and convincing, especially as they struggle to make sense of their status as children adopted from a bizarre background. Adopted children might benefit from this book, since it sympathetically describes the feelings of the children themselves and their families without didacticism.

However, the plot has a twist that is powerful but frankly beyond credibility. The major weakness of this book is that it doesn’t do the necessary groundwork before the complexity of the plot is unveiled. A complex plot demands careful stage by stage preparation. The reader’s response at the denouement should be ‘Of course… Why didn’t I see that coming?’ Haddix springs the whole jaw-dropping bundle too abruptly for it to evince anything but disbelief, marring an otherwise praiseworthy performance.