Janelle Brown | Watch Me Disappear

This is going to be the busiest summer ever! I have three weddings (one of which I am in) and so many things scheduled. I also have a ton of exciting galleys coming to feature on my blog and I couldn't be more excited to start them!

Last night, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of "Watch Me Disappear" by Janelle Brown through NetGalley and I finished it in one day.

While for some key reasons, this wasn't the thriller I was expecting. However, I really did find myself enjoying this one a lot. I would label this one as more of a Domestic Thriller/Domestic Fiction with a hint of mystery to it. See my review below.

Plot:

It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan—a beautiful, charismatic Berkeley mom with an enviable life—went on a solo hike and vanished from the trail. No body, only a hiking boot, was ever found. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan by drinking, Olive by growing remote.  

But then Olive starts having waking dreams—or are they hallucinations?—that her mother is still alive. Jonathan is worried about Olive's emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he ever knew about his wife. Is it possible that Olive is right—that Billie isn’t dead after all? 

Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth—about Billie, their family, and the stories we tell ourselves about the people we love.  

Review:

So diving into this one, I could tell from the first mysterious chapter that Billie was going to be one complicated woman. I was right. 

What I am finding lately in regards to the mystery/thriller/suspense genre is missing girls or missing women. No matter what happens between Page 1 and the last page, we aren't focusing so much on what each author is trying to tell us. There are hints and clues missed because ultimately we just want to find out what has happened. 

This is not that kind of story.

This book quickly sets into a year after Billie has gone missing and focuses on her husband, Jonathan and their daughter, Olive. We do see some grieving still, but it really has a small and well-written supernatural element when Olive questions if she's psychic and seeing Billie. This isn't over the top or a huge buzzkill for me. In fact, I really liked it.

Told between alternate chapters of Olive's life and her journey with trying to find her mother as well as her life as a high school student and a memoir Jonathan is writing about his life with the woman who is presumed dead and never to be seen again, this really kept me on my toes. There wasn't huge cliffhanger endings in the chapters, there weren't constant dead-end clues. There were just two really fantastic characters looking to find their lost loved one and finally get some answers. 

As a domestic thriller/fiction novel, I was kind of glad there wasn't a ton of suspense or thriller elements to this one as it was really nice to focus on the two characters and what they are experiencing. Don't get me wrong, Billie is still a huge element to this book but Jonathan and Olive are the ones we really get to take this journey with.

I won't lie, at times during this one I felt like I was given more information than I needed to know and thought this might be some filler pages to get to where we were meant to be with this one. I was wrong. Everything is wrapped up with a neat little bow at the end of this one and the very last page made my jaw drop.

This is definitely a great summer read and it reminded me somewhat of "When She Was Gone" by Gwendolen Gross. I actually would recommend both reads. 

Rating: 4/5