The Disappearances
Author: Emily Bain Murphy
Published: July 4, 2017
400 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 Stars
Description from Amazon:
What if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?
Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home—and the place where Juliet grew up.
Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own. A place where the experiences that weave life together—scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream—vanish every seven years.
No one knows what caused these “Disappearances,” or what will slip away next. But Sterling always suspected that Juliet Quinn was somehow responsible—and Aila must bear the brunt of their blame while she follows the chain of literary clues her mother left behind.
As the next Disappearance nears, Aila begins to unravel the dual mystery of why the Disappearances happen and who her mother truly was. One thing is clear: Sterling isn’t going to hold on to anyone’s secrets for long before it starts giving them up.
Kim’s Review:
This book was really good! The only thing stopping me from giving 5 stars was that the beginning was a little slow. It did take me several chapters to get into the story, but once I did, I loved it! Sterling, CT sounds like such a cool, little New England town! Aila and Miles are a bit moody, but they did just lose their mother so it wasn’t too bad. And once the story became clearer, little elements started to fascinate me. If you’re an overly practical person, you might want to turn your practical thinking gears off, because not everything is going to make tons of sense. Shakespeare plays a huge role, so there’s also a lot of suspension of disbelief. The role of literature in this story is awesome! When you find out more about the curse and what caused it, you’ll delve into a mystery you didn’t even know existed! Add in a little teenage drama and angst, and you get The Disappearances. It was also nice to see that little Southern towns aren’t the only ones getting picked on for “closemindedness”, apparently Yankees suffer from it as well. Sorry, that’s my Southerner coming out! ?