Review: The Vanishing Season

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Grade: D+
Release date: July 1, 2014
This ARC was provided by Read Between the Lynes in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: 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.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: If I'm being completely honest (which I will be), I'll say that the only thing I liked in this book was its setting.  I've been to Door County twice, and it's a great place.  Okay, and maybe I liked Maggie and Liam together.  But the rest of this book let me down.  It's sort of horror/paranormal (which isn't really my thing) but it's also contemporary romance.  At first, there seems to be a bit of a love triangle, but then there isn't, but then there is.  Don't even get me started on that ending.  I can't even grasp what actually happened.  I think someone (not saying who) died?  And I think someone might've been our unseen narrator all along?  I really don't know.

The Verdict: If you liked Jodi's Tiger Lily, then you'd probably enjoy The Vanishing Season, too.  They're both depressing, but at least The Vanishing Season doesn't completely wreck a childhood favorite.

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