by Mandy McHugh
The disappearance of a young internet celebrity ignites a firestorm of speculation on social media, and to find her a detective will have to extinguish the blaze.
Chloe Cates is missing. The 13-year-old star of the hit web series, "CC and Me," has disappeared, and nobody knows where she's gone — least of all ruthless momager Jennifer Scarborough, who has spent much of her daughter's young life crafting a child celebrity persona that is finally beginning to pay off. And in Chloe's absence, the faux-fairytale world that supported that persona begins to fracture, revealing secrets capable of reducing the highly-dysfunctional Scarborough family to rubble.
Anxious to find her daughter and preserve the life she's worked so hard to build, Jennifer turns to social media for help, but the hearsay, false claims, and salacious suspicions only multiply. As the search becomes as sensational as Chloe's series, Missing Persons detective Emilina Stone steps in, only to realize she has a connection to this case herself. Will she be able to stay objective and cut through the rumors to find the truth before it's too late?
Told from multiple points of view including Jennifer, Emilina, and pages from Chloe's lost diary, Chloe Cates Is Missing is a suspenseful novel of a child pushed to the brink, and of the troubled family that desperately needs her back.
The disappearance of a young internet celebrity ignites a firestorm of speculation on social media, and to find her a detective will have to extinguish the blaze.
Chloe Cates is missing. The 13-year-old star of the hit web series, "CC and Me," has disappeared, and nobody knows where she's gone — least of all ruthless momager Jennifer Scarborough, who has spent much of her daughter's young life crafting a child celebrity persona that is finally beginning to pay off. And in Chloe's absence, the faux-fairytale world that supported that persona begins to fracture, revealing secrets capable of reducing the highly-dysfunctional Scarborough family to rubble.
Anxious to find her daughter and preserve the life she's worked so hard to build, Jennifer turns to social media for help, but the hearsay, false claims, and salacious suspicions only multiply. As the search becomes as sensational as Chloe's series, Missing Persons detective Emilina Stone steps in, only to realize she has a connection to this case herself. Will she be able to stay objective and cut through the rumors to find the truth before it's too late?
Told from multiple points of view including Jennifer, Emilina, and pages from Chloe's lost diary, Chloe Cates Is Missing is a suspenseful novel of a child pushed to the brink, and of the troubled family that desperately needs her back.
Reviews-
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November 1, 2021
McHugh's debut tackles an age-old question: What's a mother to do when her daughter, who's been the star of her obsessively curated mommy vlog for nearly 10 years, disappears? Thirteen-year-old Chloe Cates, whom the offline world knows as Abigail Scarborough, is the creation of Jennifer Cates, nee Jen Groff, whose online production of "CC and Me," nourished by commercial tie-ins and Jennifer's boundless appetite for grooming her daughter for stardom, has finally been generating enough income to surpass Jackson Scarborough's salary as associate director of his Albany firm's marketing team. Even before she vanishes from her bedroom one night, leaving her window open and her cellphone behind, Chloe's carefully fictionalized life has been built on papering over her constant resentment of the stage mother from hell. And that's not the only tension that bubbles beneath the domestic surface. Chloe's older brother, JJ, has set her up with her own social media accounts as Abigail. Abby's met a boy online who knows nothing of her avatar. Jackson has skeletons in his own closet. Even Emilina Stone, the police detective assigned to the case, is the last person in the world Jennifer wants to see because the two of them share knowledge of a guilty secret that goes back to their own school days, gradually revealed in an obligatory series of flashbacks. McHugh manages this tangle of subplots with practiced efficiency, quickening the pace of dramatic, if not exactly surprising, revelations till the final pages. Never remotely plausible or even original, but a tale guaranteed to keep genre fans up till dawn.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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November 22, 2021
McHugh’s gripping debut focuses on Jennifer Scarborough, who has been grooming her daughter, Abby, for media stardom for nearly 10 years. Since Abby was four, she has been photographed, videoed, and packaged under the name Chloe Cates in Jennifer’s popular blog, CC and Me. Jennifer, who cherishes her identity as a blogger and entrepreneur, won’t let anyone stand in the way of her dreams for her daughter—not even the girl herself. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Abby writes in her journal: “Everybody knows CC Spectacular, but Abby Scarborough doesn’t exist, not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat—nowhere that counts... Who cares about me when Chloe is the star?” Chloe’s subsequent disappearance is national news, and the internet is fueled with viral hashtags like #CatchChloeCates trending on every major platform. Emilina Stone, the detective with the Children and Family Services Unit in Albany, N.Y., who’s assigned the case, declines to reveal to her superiors that she and Jennifer were childhood friends. Chapters told from multiple perspectives skillfully tease out the characters’ respective secrets to reveal the rage lurking beneath their smiling faces. McHugh is off to a strong start. Agent: Anne Tibbets, Donald Maass Literary. -
January 1, 2022
Abigail Scarborough is missing, and her family is concerned. But when word gets out on the web that Chloe Cates is missing, everyone is upset. The two 13-year-olds are actually the same person. Abigail has no life to call her own, but Chloe is the star of the hit online series CC and Me. She is nothing but a "brand." The story unravels, as do the lives of everyone involved, in multiple, angst-ridden voices and poignant diary entries. The highly dysfunctional Scarborough family takes center stage, and Abigail's manipulative mother is revealed as an absolute monster. Her ambition knows no bounds. "Chloe could be the next JoJo Siwa if we play our cards right." Complicating the situation is the fact that she and the detective assigned the case, Emilina Stone, both share a horrific secret. Once a mean girl, always a mean girl? This is a promising debut on a timely topic that might seem unbelievable save the recent headlines about the struggles of Britney Spears and the never-ending list of child stars and their misfortunes.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Publishers Weekly Gripping debut [...] Chapters told from multiple perspectives skillfully tease out the characters' respective secrets to reveal the rage lurking beneath their smiling faces. McHugh is off to a strong start.
- Laura McHugh, award-winning author of What's Done in Darkness Mandy McHugh delightfully claws away the glitter to reveal the darkness and dysfunction roiling beneath the surface of a seemingly perfect family. Everyone has a secret they're desperate to hide, everyone is lying, and it's great fun (can I call murder fun?) to fit the shifting pieces together. A spectacular debut from a promising writer.
- Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot It's a mommy blog gone terribly wrong in this captivating debut from Mandy McHugh. CHLOE CATES IS MISSING has everything I want in a domestic thriller: propulsive storytelling, razor-sharp prose, disturbing behavior, explosive secrets, and a uniquely dysfunctional family. Settle in for this stunner; once you start reading, you won't be able to stop.
- Catherine McKenzie, USA Today bestselling author of I'll Never Tell and Six Weeks to Live McHugh weaves these stories together seamlessly in an of-the-moment thriller that will leave you guessing what the truth is until the final page. A terrific debut!
- Jaime Lynn Hendricks, author of Finding Tessa From the timely social media relevance, to the constant tension, to the tightly weaved plot, this one doesn't let go until delivering an ending that will leave your mouth hanging open. With chilling prose and an atmospheric setting, I'm already looking forward to her next.
- Tara Laskowski, award-winning author of One Night Gone and The Mother Next Door In the way that we constantly check our retweets or shamelessly devour the latest social media scandal, I compulsively devoured Chloe Cates Is Missing. With characters you love to hate, this novel is Drama with a capital D—and is utterly terrifying in its snapshot of our selfie society's obsession with popularity and perception.
- Lindsay Cameron, author of Just One Look Fast-paced and brimming with secrets to unspool, Mandy McHugh's razor sharp debut explores the dark side of internet fame and is as addictive as social media itself. A refreshingly original read that will have you rethinking what's behind those carefully curated online personas.
- Christina McDonald, USA Today Bestselling Author Full of disturbing secrets, a supremely dysfunctional family and an unapologetically unlikeable protagonist, McHugh raises important questions around what parents should be allowed to post about their children on social media. Scratch the shiny surface of this perfect family and you'll see the dark secrets lurking beneath the glitter. A smart and textured thriller.
