The Night She Disappeared

“I think about that a lot now. Was I the last friendly, normal person to touch her?”

After Kayla is abducted, other characters start to speculate on what has happened to her. Henry often uses euphemistic language to hint at the atrocities that Kayla might be undergoing. This reflection also establishes Drew’s thoughtful, empathetic nature early in the narrative.

“Does he mean, like, dead? I try to picture it, but something inside me just says no way.”

From the start, Gabie has a strong, instinctual belief that Kayla is alive. This belief guides her actions throughout the novel and pushes her to keep searching for the truth even when everyone else has given up on Kayla.

“She must be dead, or she will be soon. That’s what happens when a girl gets taken. Maybe her body is already in a shallow mountain grave. Isn’t that what they always call it in the paper? A shallow mountain grave.”

Gabie is keenly aware of the common outcome for young female kidnap victims. Like everyone who engages with any form of media, she has heard many stories of young girls being abducted, abused, and murdered. The commonality of this type of crime narrative leads people to suspect that Kayla’s story will end in the same way.

“It looks like she struggled, the attacker hit her, possibly raped her, dumped her in the river, and she died. None of those things necessarily in that order.”

Kayla disappearance invites morbid speculation because she is a young girl presumably taken by an older man. This quote illustrates a particularly violent possibility, as Gavin, the diver, contemplates whether Kayla may have been assaulted posthumously. There is no evidence suggesting that Kayla was raped, but the police are looking at her disappearance through the lens of similar crimes.

“I answer every question with a single word. Or, when I can, with even less. Maybe just a look to remind them that Kayla isn’t an abstraction to us, that Kayla is real.”

Gabie calls out the insensitive nature of the speculation around Kayla’s fate. Her abduction is sensationalized like a piece of true-crime media, and its consumers forget that she is a human being independent of whatever has happened to her.

“Kayla is wrong in so many ways. Angry when Gabie would be sweet. Defiant when Gabie would be submissive. Ungrateful, damaged, dirty, disgusting. Gabie will be none of these things.”

Robertson displays a twisted misunderstanding of Kayla and Gabie that is based in sexism. He fetishizes Gabie’s presumed purity and is disgusted with Kayla for displaying her strong personality. His perception of teenage girls is based on stereotypes, so he is unable to understand that Gabie and Kayla are unique human beings whose behavior under duress can’t be predicted.

“I can take Kayla down to the river and let her go. Release her from her troubles.”

The Willamette River is a motif associated with Kayla’s death—the police expect to find her body there, and Robertson indeed plans to dispose of her there. He twistedly frames this as ending her troubles to paint himself as a merciful person rather than a cold-blooded killer.

“Are you saying girls who are pretty deserve to be kidnapped? They deserve whatever happens to them?”

Drew asks this after Gabie muses that it makes more sense for Kayla to be abducted over herself. He admonishes Gabie for attributing Kayla’s disappearance to her looks when the responsibility for the crime rests only on the perpetrator. This moment plays into the theme of how young, pretty girls are often seen as ready-made victims. It also highlights how the plot is shaded through the eyes of an adolescent protagonist.

“The sad truth is the American justice system allows police officers to lie. And they will lie if they think it will build a case against you.”

In this chapter insert, Henry uses a post from an attorney’s website to highlight that authority figures can behave unethically. This clues readers in to the fact that Thayer and the Portland police are not necessarily trustworthy characters.

“It is not a matter of whether you did or didn’t do it. Because I’ve got your blood on the rock you used to bash her head. DNA doesn’t lie.”

This quote has been contextualized for the reader by the preceding chapter insert, which highlights how the police can legally lie to suspects. Cody’s DNA wasn’t on the rock, but Thayer uses this lie to try and extract a confession from his prime suspect.

“Brock usually looks sleepy, but today he just seems sad. Looking at him, I think there’s no way he would hurt Kayla. Even if she hurt him.”

Henry sets up a large pool of suspects early on. The fact that the perpetrator is someone Kayla knows, as established by the investigation of the crime scene, means that even people who appear harmless on the surface may be hiding something. During this chaos, Gabie relies on her instincts about the people around her to figure out who is guilty. In the absence of concrete evidence, Gabie’s instinct also serves as the reader’s best guide for whom to trust.

“If I disappeared who, besides my parents, would really miss me?”

The Night She Disappeared houses a coming-of-age story amid its central mystery. In addition to playing detective, Gabie deals with the common dilemmas of adolescence, including first-love, self-esteem, and identity issues.

“‘You shall call me master,’ he repeats.

‘You’re my master,’ I say. Not meeting his eyes.”

Robertson fetishizes the uneven power dynamic between himself and Kayla. Kayla’s refusal to meet his eyes symbolizes that she hasn’t really accepted defeat and will continue to fight for her survival, even as her calculated response projects submissiveness to him.

“At that moment, I split apart. There’s one girl who has to do what he says. The girl who doesn’t even have a name. The one who’s like a dog that’s been beaten so many times it no longer bothers to lift its head or bare its teeth. And then there’s the real Kayla. The one who screams and rages and swears.”

Kayla’s survival is due in part to her ability to play the role Robertson lays out for her. While he thinks he is controlling her, she is manipulating his perception of her, making herself seem docile and resigned while she plans an escape attempt.

“She should be giving me her full attention. But instead she is nearly flirting with this boy, right in front of me. It makes me want to hurt her. Just a little.”

Robertson again displays that he doesn’t think of Gabie and Kayla as full people with agency. He expects them to act the way he wants them to act, a weakness that leaves him unable to predict that Kayla will fight back—and that also conveys to the reader that if he were successful in abducting Gabie, she wouldn’t live up to his vision of the perfect captive either. Since he still plans on abducting Gabie, the reader knows it wouldn’t end well for her.

“If Kayla is alive, I wonder if she really wants to be.”

This quote from Drew highlights the danger of the common narrative about female victims. Drew speculates that death might be the best option given the alternatives of ongoing assault and abuse, but Kayla’s chapters show a different reality. She desperately wants to live and is doing everything she can to stay alive.

“‘Who was that?’ Drew asks.

I don’t know what to answer. Is this guy the hunter…or the hunted?”

The knowledge that Kayla’s abductor is someone she knew and trusted makes it hard for Gabie to decide whom she can trust. Still, she doesn’t jump to conclusions when she meets Cody despite his erratic demeanor, displaying that she is a good judge of character.

“Chances are my place is empty too. Which is why I say yes.”

Despite their many differences, Gabie and Drew share a sense of loneliness. Their parents are often gone, leaving them alone at home. The motif of empty houses is important to their relationship.

“‘The police must have had a reason to talk to this guy,’ I finally say.”

Here Gabie displays an understandable desire to trust the police. They should be the ones solving Kayla’s disappearance, but one of the novel’s central themes is the way authority figures can fail the people who need them.

“Can you really change your destiny?”

This is a question each of the novel’s main characters grapples with. Drew wonders if he can escape his mother’s fate, Gabie worries that she will end up in Kayla’s shoes, and Kayla fights against the fate her captor has planned for her. In the end, all three succeed in changing their destinies for the better.

“Is he embarrassed? Does he care? Does he wish I would just go away?”

When Gabie and Drew run into classic teen-romance conflicts, Henry uses the changing chapter perspectives to examine how each of them approaches the situation. Seeing them fret over the same issue highlights both their character similarities and their differences.

“Suddenly I feel ashamed of myself, and my nice car, and my big house. My two parents with their good jobs. Does Drew hate me for these things?”

Just as Drew feels ashamed of his background, Gabie is embarrassed by her fortunate upbringing. Both spend more time worrying about the other’s perception than they do judging one another, a comedic contrast that the readers can see but the characters can’t.

“And I wonder how many of them are strangers, people who feel like they own a little piece of Kayla now because they’ve seen her picture on TV or read about her a dozen times. They’re probably disappointed they can’t buy popcorn.”

Drew recognizes the exploitive nature of some of the interest in Kayla’s case. Strangers treat her life and presumed death like a piece of entertainment rather than acknowledging her personhood. As The Night She Disappeared is a crime thriller, this quote functions as a meta callout of the genre.