Book reviews
This review is spoiler-free, as any plot points discussed can be learned from reading the inside of the book jacket. It also originally appeared on my old blog, which no longer exists.
“This is it: somehow, in these pictures, the mystery of the accident is contained, and the explanation for Dara’s subsequent behavior, for the silences and disappearances. Don’t ask me how I know. I just do. If you don’t understand that, I guess you’ve never had a sister.” Lauren Oliver’s Vanishing Girls is ultimately a story about sisters. Nick (short for Nicole) and Dara Warren have been close since they were little, and have spent years sharing clothes, makeup, secrets, and their best friend, Parker. But all of that changed the night of the accident. Driving home from a party, Nick lost control of her car, and Dara (not wearing her seatbelt) was thrown from the car. Months later, Dara is no longer speaking to her older sister and she refuses to engage in any public interaction, partly because of the hideous scars that mar her once pretty face, and partly because she no longer knows what to say to all of the “friends” she feels abandoned her while she was recovering. But the novel pulls in another pair of sisters. Nine-year-old Madeline Snow and her older sister, Sarah, are the subject of extensive discussion in Nick and Dara’s household after Madeline goes missing while Sarah is babysitting her. As bits of their story unfold, it becomes clear that the Snows and the Warrens may be connected in several unsettling ways. “There’s something backward about living in a place so obsessed with the past; it’s like everyone’s given up on the idea of a future.” The irony in this statement is that Nick is living much of her life in the past. All of her actions are driven by the desire to return things to the way they used to be. Before. Before Dara started dating Parker. Before Nick allowed a rumor to color her previously pristine reputation. Before Nick crashed her car. Before Dara stopped speaking to her. Throughout the book, the reader is given glimpses of the past through “Before” chapters, as well as keeping up with the present situation in the “After” chapters. Additional information is provided through chapters consisting of news articles, online discussion boards, diary entries, and letters between characters. All of these elements combine to allow the reader inside the minds of Nick and Dara, as well as seeing what is going on outside of their little world. The turning point in the story occurs on Dara’s birthday. Despite the huge surprise Nick tempts her with, Dara chooses that night to run away. Torn between annoyance at her sister’s dramatic tendencies and true fear that Dara may have been abducted by whoever took Madeline Snow, Nick attempts to find Dara. Her search leads her to discover several dark secrets that Dara would have preferred to keep buried, including her connection to Sarah Snow. As Nick is pulled further down into the rabbit-hole of Dara’s world, she begins to learn that she really didn’t know her sister at all, and she is now positive that Dara is in serious danger. I can’t say more without ruining the ending, so I’ll stop there and move on to my recommendation. In all honestly, this book took a few days for me to finish. It didn’t grab my attention from the first page, and there were a few times that I set it aside and worked on other things instead of reading. It does take some effort to get into. That being said, I blew through the second half of the book without putting it down once. And as soon as I finished it, I immediately wanted to read it again, as I was having a hard time believing the ending. Having finished it, I now believe that Lauren Oliver intentionally crawled with the beginning of the story in order to build anticipation for the sprint of the second half. So if you decide to give this book a try, don’t give up on it. It gets significantly better and will leave you considering an immediate reread.
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Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
March 2017
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