I received Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor as a Goodreads Giveaway Winner.

Jess Winter's life is uprooted when her mother, Maud, moves her to the town of Sycamore after Jess's father starts a new family. Slow to find her place in the new town and new school, Jess eventually becomes friends with Dani and Dani's boyfriend Paul. When Jess, who's been known to go out in the middle of the night to walk and process her thoughts, doesn't come home one night after everything in her life explodes before her eyes, questions start circling about what has happened to her. Fast forward to present day. The mystery of what happened to Jess Winters has been a conundrum for the town of Sycamore for 20 years. When newcomer to the town, Laura Drennan, stumbles upon human remains, the unanswered questions the town has been avoiding about Jess's disappearance are finally forced out into the open.

Full of suspense and mystery, Sycamore is engaging from the very beginning. It is told from two main perspectives; of Jess 20 years ago and the events that led to the mystery of what happened to her, and of various people from Jess's life in present day as they recount their memories of Jess and begin to find answers to her mysterious disappearance. I enjoyed the varying viewpoints as it kept the story from becoming dry, although it was a little confusing in the beginning, as Laura and Maud's reasons for moving to Sycamore are almost identical and difficult to tell apart. I appreciated how real Chancellor was in her characters and how she never let the story go dry; it was always engaging and kept me curious about what was going to happen next. There were several pivotal points in the story where I wish she would have given more detail to help clarify what was taking place as I felt it was a little muddled in her lack of detail, as if she was trying to propel the story forward too fast. Overall, though, it was a great story with a diverse and relatable cast of characters. It lacks an abundance of twists and turns and an overload of complexity, which makes it an easy mystery to follow, especially for those who have difficulty putting a bucket load of pieces together. However, note that I'm not saying that the mystery is simple by any means, either.

This is a great read for anyone who loves a good mystery and enjoys suspense, however it is lacking in the "thriller" aspect, so while it keeps you guessing and wondering what happens next it does not have the edge-of-your-seat, heart-pounding quality that I would normally associate with the thriller. Still, a very exciting and worthwhile read for anyone interested in a good mystery that isn't overly riddled with complexity.