Book Review: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

 

 

Title: Vanishing Girls

Author: Lauren Oliver

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Series: This book a stand alone

Source: Digital ARC courtesy of Edelweiss

Book Summary: (Via Goodreads) New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping story about two sisters inexorably altered by a terrible accident.

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late.

In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

Characters: Nick, Dara, and Parker

Plot: Nick and Dara are sisters with a close bond.  Nick is the responsible older sister and Dara is the younger sister who is always getting into trouble, trying risky and dangerous things.  One night after a party the sisters are in a horrific car crash and after, nothing is the same.

What I Loved: There is so much to love about this book!!!  I would like to begin with a disclaimer that this book is awesome BUT it has some major twists.  However, I will not give any spoilers so if the review seems to be missing something, it is!!!!! This book is told in alternating points of view and at different time periods to you are getting the story of the sisters and what led up to the crash and the aftermath in bits and pieces.  As Nick tries to regain her life back by working and interacting with people again and at the same time trying to come to grips with the aftermath of the crash on her and her sister and her family you can see just how far she has slipped into despair and guilt over what has happened.  She begins working at the local amusement park at the insistence of her mother and even though she is hesitant she begins to come out of the shell that she has built up around her. She also at the same time is trying to find out what what caused her sister to go down the path that she did and what she could have done to help her.  This is part of the guilt that is very much destroying her.  This book is truly a psychological thriller so not only is it a little difficult to discuss without giving away a major plot point but it also makes you rethink (and in my case reread) everything in this novel.  I found myself going back to different points in the book and seeing things much differently!!!! Since I am a librarian in a school this book will not only be LOVED by my students but will make for a great discussion! I can’t wait for my students to read it.

What I could have done without: It is not that I could have done without it but at the beginning it was a little confusing.  The chapters alternate between different points of view (although each chapter is labeled with the person’s name) but what really got me was the different time periods for example some of them are labeled before and after and some have exact times.  Once you get into the story it is less of an issue but at the beginning I had a difficult time with keeping things straight.

Final Grade: A

Book Review by Janine