The Body in the Woods: A Point Last Seen Mystery

Each main character feels like an outsider and struggles to fit in. Alexis wants to be seen as a typical teenager, but her difficult home life and her fear that her mother’s mental illness will eventually mean she’ll be put in foster care make appearing normal difficult. Nick finds being biracial in a mostly white city and school challenging. After experiencing racial bias and microaggressions, he dreams of enlisting in the army, imagining that there, his race won’t matter. Ruby, who has a mild form of autism spectrum disorder, wishes she could read her peers better. Instead, she learns to always be playing a role rather than actually being herself.

After their intense experience hunting and being hunted by a serial killer, however, the three become close enough friends to share with each other their feelings of being outsiders. Moreover, they decide that being different from each other makes their bond stronger: Their strengths complement each other’s and their weaknesses can find support through friendship.

The novel’s characters have to survive in a variety of ways. Some face physical danger: Lost hiker George has to find a way to keep warm while awaiting rescue; the killer’s victims try to fight off his murderous attacks; and at the climax, the three teenagers must fight an armed Becker and stay alive. Others face more figurative peril: Alexis must navigate life without her mother while never letting on that the adult responsible for her has run off, and Ruby has to live in a neurotypical world as a neuroatypical person. Finally, most of the characters must learn how to live despite systemic oppression and other societal obstacles: Nick has to find himself despite experiencing prejudice as a biracial young man, while the novel’s unhoused characters face a hostile world that sees them as lesser. Fighting to survive can itself sometimes imperil survival—that’s why Bran’s organization, the Trauma Intervention Program, exists.

One striking example of long-term endurance is what happens in the homeless shelter after Tiffany Yee’s photograph is placed on the memorial wall. As other young women mourn her death, the shelter’s program organizer interrupts and tells everyone to get on with breakfast. The world doesn’t stop for Tiffany—keeping normal routines going remains crucial for the unhoused women’s survival.