Sunday, January 10, 2016

Vanishing girls (Lauren Oliver)


After a car accident that involved the two sisters Nick and Dara, both of them stop talking to each other, so they start to grow away from each other, even though they used to be really close. Nick decides to try to save their friendship, but then Dara suddenly disappears, only a few days after a nine-year-old girl called Madeline Snow vanishes. During Nick's search for Dara, she not only learns that the two disappearances are linked, but also regains her memory of what really happened during the time of their accident.

"Sometimes day and night reverse. Sometimes up goes down and down goes up, and love turns into hate, and the things you counted on get washed out from under your feet, leaving you pedaling in the air."

This is the first thriller I've read in the last two years (and I basically only picked it up because it's written by Lauren Oliver), since I don't really like this genre that much, so I was quite glad that especially the first half of the book has more of a contemporary feel to it. The start in general is pretty slow and things only really speed up in the last two-thirds of the story, so I guess people who like super intense books won't enjoy this much, especially since the reveal is short and felt, at least for me, pretty unsatisfying. The ending definitely is quite predictable, particularly for people who read a lot of thrillers.
Even though a lot of people apparently have their problems with Lauren Oliver's books, I enjoyed her writing as well as the characters and their relationships. I didn't really like Nick and Dara that much, but I definitely did like some of the minor characters, and all of them are pretty realistic. What I loved was how the relationship between Nick and Dara is portrayed, and the book doesn't just show the nice parts about having siblings, but also the jealousy and rivalry that arise.
I also liked that the book is divided into "before" and "after" the accident, so that you get to experience the present as well as the past, but the chapters inside some of the "before"/"after" categories aren't chronological, which kind of confused me sometimes.
So if you're looking for a contemporary book with some mystery in it, you can definitely check it out without being disappointed after you finished it, but sadly I can't promise you the same for this book if you want to read an intense thriller.

Rating: 3.5 ✹

I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having a fantastic day!

Leah

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