ARC Review--The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig.I am looking for the things that are buried.

From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind.

I received this ARC from the publishers via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


I was a huge fan of Jodi Lynn Anderson's Tiger Lily, so I was excited for her new release. The Vanishing Season seemed to have quite a lot going for it, a murderer on the loose and that just screams mystery! But sadly, this really just didn't live up to any of my expectations. As a paranormal/fantasy reader I was hoping for that excitement and intrigue, but what I got was a contemporary novel. If you enjoy contemporaries than this just might be the read for you!

Maggie and her parents just moved to this small town of Door County. Maggie is the sort of shy and quiet teenager, she's nice and friendly and ambitious.  She soon meets Pauline, her neighbor, who's a girl her age who's like the complete opposite of Maggie, being bold and daring and outgoing. She's kind of scattered-brain sometimes too. Then there's Liam, who's hopelessly in love with Pauline. The three of them form a friendship of sorts.

Lately, there have been girls going missing around the area, then they turn up later, dead. I was really intrigued by this part. Expecting a whole murder mystery going on, but sadly, this part played such a minor role in the story. It does lead to Pauline's mom sending her away until the murderer is caught. Which leads to Maggie and Liam spending a lot of time together. It wasn't really insta love, remember, Liam is in love with Pauline, but she doesn't see him that way. So Maggie and Liam have a sweet romantic relationship going on.

In the midist of all this, there are excerpts in the chapters that come from a mysterious voice. I wasn't sure if it was a ghost or even a wisp, since it doesn't seem to know who it is either. It might be a wisp. It might be a ghost. But this entity sees everything going on. It seems to know things too. It was quite strange, and this is what kept me hooked for awhile.

That was about it as far as the story goes. Granted, Pauline does come back and there's huge relationship drama going on when she sees Maggie and Liam together. Even though, she's found herself her own boyfriend, but she doesn't like him all that much. So yeah, the drama runs very high in this one.

I guess what I was expecting from this was a great murder mystery going on. I didn't get that. True, there is a murderer on the loose, but it wasn't the main part of the story. It was barely even a key point. This is solely about Maggie's life in a new town. She finds love quickly, has it taken away. Her parents are great, but money is extremely tight, so that's always a pressing issue. She's homeschooled, but doesn't mind it. There just was never anything that stood out to me in this one. Maggie is an ordinary girl who does ordinary things and experiences ordinary things. It was basically completely ordinary, with the exception of those excerpts from the mysterious entity.

I just couldn't enjoy this one. I kept going and going, thinking that something is bound to happen! I wanted to know who or what this entity, voice, thing was. And that does get revealed. But it didn't make up for anything. I was completely devastated by this book, because I thought it was going to be so much more than it seems. But sadly it just wasn't. 

However, I want to state again, that I am a paranormal reader. I thought that this one was going to have some paranormal twist to it. And the entity is a very minor sort of twist, I was just expecting more from it. But if you are a contemporary reader, I would recommend this one to you. You might just love it! But as someone who loves the paranormal, like myself, I would say it's not your or my cup of tea.


Overall Rating 1.5/5 stars--again this rating is more so based on the fact that it turned into a contemporary novel instead of a paranormal read. I don't care for contemporaries and thought that the paranormal twist to this one would've been stronger, and it wasn't. Hence my low rating. This rating is based on a paranormal reader's interest. 


The Vanishing Season releases July 1, 2014