The second half of this book was far superior to the first half, so I'm glad I kept going. Overall I enjoyed her writing, and the basic story, but I didn't really connect to any of the characters and I found the first half dragging and started just skimming pages to get to the good stuff.

This book gave me whiplash. Just when I'd think I had things figured out, WHAM - went another direction. The writing is page-turner-worthy and the story is compelling. Plenty of mystery, lots of twists, and some real insight on how nobody truly knows everything about those they love.

A great beach read!

This book went in very unexpected Int directions. The many tosses and turns keep you engaged and excited waiting for the outcome. Janelle does a great job with character development and by the end of the story you are in love a very complicated family. I wasn't sure what to expect and it wasn't until the end that you were anywhere close to knowing what happened. I enjoyed the book immensely, it was a page turner.

Billie Flanagan is an exciting woman. She lives for the moment. On the other hand, her husband, Jonathan, and her daughter, Olive, are a little more reserved. When Billie goes missing after a hike in Desolation Wilderness, her family is sure she is dead, but when Olive starts to have visions of her mother, she is unsure. Together, Jonathan and Olive embark on a quest to find Billie, and in the process discover secrets she kept and a bit about themselves as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, Spiegel & Grau, and Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Sybilla "Billie" Flanagan is the type of character you're not sure if you love or hate. She lived her youth free and reckless and now as a wife and mother, she's your typical "room mom" always there for school activities, to help where needed, snacks for Olive after school, and a home cooked meal on the table every night. But this is not the life she envisioned for herself, she misses the days when life was much more carefree. After spending time with her husband and daughter at the beach, Billie decides to take a weekend hike to sort out the thoughts that are going on in her head. Unfortunately, she never makes it home. Much to the devastation of her 16 year old daughter, Olive, who was going through enough as a teenage girl in high school. When she starts having visions of her mother at every turn, and Jonathan finds things hidden amongst Billie's belongings, they question whether she is really dead, or if she has just left them. Together, they will try to find the answers to the questions they have.

This is the first book I have by Janelle Brown, but it will not be the last. This was a totally enjoyable book. You felt like you were sitting with Olive in the Subaru searching all over for her mother. This was a great summer read. There are a couple of twists you don't see coming, but it fits with the character of Billie. The more you learn about her, you're not sure if you want to be her friend and go along for the ride, or hate her for all the secrets she keeps from the ones she loves. I wasn't sure if I was routing for Olive to find her mother, or to just accept the fact that she was dead.

Highly recommended!!

This is a well-written book that deals with the fallout of a mother disappearing. Her husband and daughter go through a range of emotions as they begin to question whether she is truly dead.. People from her past and present provide more and more unsettling information. Descriptions of the California coast and mountains are very vivid, while some of the characters are a little superficial. The ending(s) provide a mixed bag of emotional satisfaction and wonderment. I found the book hard to read, but was pleased I persevered to the end.

Billie Flanagan, oh what a messed up selfish person you are! Even is death she is monopolizing peoples lives and driving them crazy. I cannot decide if I feel sorry for her or for her husband and daughter.
This was definitely a page turner for me but the only character in the whole story that I truly liked was Olive, the daughter. Both her parents were a bit messed up; Mom for her selfishness and Dad for his obsession/love for her mom. I felt that Olive was overlooked and as a teenager struggling with her identity and mourning her mother she should have been a lot more lost than she was!
There's not much I can say without spoilers but I will say even though I did guess the "big twist" this was still a compelling thriller with interesting characters. I just wish Billie had been a bit more likable and that through her backstory we could have seen her grow a bit more. 3.5/5 stars

Well written story, grips you right from the beginning and holds your interest. Suspenseful enough to be a page turner, but more psychologically intriguing than tense. All in all, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it as a relatively quick mystery read. Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau!

This book was quite suspenseful, about the time you thought you knew everything you get another surprise. Well written, a book you don't want to end. I highly recommend this book!!

Billie, Jonathan and Olive appear to be a perfect family. The beautiful and quirky mom, Billie, dotes on her family and is the perfect mom. Except for her tendency to disappear for the weekend, to spend time alone hiking in the wilderness. Husband Jonathan is blind to her faults, seeing her need to be alone as a minor quirk in an otherwise perfect personality.

Then, Billie disappears while on a solo hiking trip. Her body is never found, but her hiking boot is found in a river. She is presumed dead, but with the absence of a body, her family must go to court to declare her dead. As the one year anniversary of her death approaches, Olive begins having "visions" of her mother, that cause her to believe Billie is alive. Jonathan begins to learn disturbing facts about Billie's life before him. And the court date to declare her dead is coming up fast.

The book muses on how well we know people. Do we ever really know anyone? You can only know as much about a person as they are willing to open up to you. And apparently Billie did not open up to her family.

I enjoyed reading the book, and trying to decipher all the clues. Is Olive really having visions, or are they just her subconscious wishes? They seem to lead her towards Billie, but how real are they? I felt for Olive as a character, a lost child trying to find her mother. Jonathan is a less likable character. He falls too easily into the arms of Harmony, Billie's BFF. And Harmony is the shadiest character of all. I spent the whole book wondering what Harmony was up too.

The progress in the book was steady, but slow. Things do not happen quickly here, but unfold slowly. This is more a character study than a mystery. I was interested enough to keep reading, but I can't say it was exciting. I would have liked more of a suspense/mystery atmosphere. I give this book 3.5 stars.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown is a recommended mystery about a missing woman and the family she left behind.

A year ago Billie (Sybilla) Flanagan went on a solo hike in the wilderness and never came back. Her shattered cell phone and a boot were discovered, but a body was never found. Now the family she has left behind are looking for closure and maybe some answers. Jonathan, her husband, is close to getting a declaration of death in absentia so he can collect the life insurance on Billie. They desperately need the money. At the same time he is writing a memoir about his love for Billie and their life together. Olive, their daughter, begins to have strange visions of her mother in which Billie is still alive. Olive is seeing her in different situations where Billie is talking to her daughter, telling Olive to find her.

As the two try to come to terms with Billie's death and absence from their lives, Jonathan begins to uncover secrets from Billie's past and lies she told him. Suddenly their lives together don't seem as clear as he once though they were, and maybe Billie was having an affair. Jonathan's stories about Billie become darker. Adding to the tension is Harmony, Billie's best friend and an old friend. What does she know about Billie's past and why is she always around. And then there is a coming-of-age moment for Olive.

This is a well-written but rather slow paced novel that keeps turning the same questions over again and again, with a few new details each time and little advancement of the plot until you are well into it. Alternating between the chapters detailing Jonathan and Olive's lives are excerpts from Jonathan's memoir about Billie. The excerpts aren't quite as successful in Watch Me Disappear as they have been in other novels.

Admittedly, I didn't find any of these characters that appealing, especially Billie. She's supposed to be independent and a force unto herself while also being whimsical and unique, but I can't believe that Jonathan didn't notice some of the discrepancies in her travels along with her darker nature. I also think that when authorities were looking into Billie's disappearance while hiking, they would have likely look into her background much more closely and talk to some of the people that later Jonathan and Olive talked to. Olive's visions were presented as supernatural at first and it might have been a better choice to leave them at that and not present an explanation that never provided any true clarification.

The ending is satisfying, but, no matter how good the writing is, for me it felt like it took too long to get there. This is a much more subtle mystery that explores how well we know family members than a tension filled drama.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the Penguin Random House Group.
on 7/14/17: http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2058329000

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
A mother makes decisions based on what she thinks is best for her child/children OR makes decisions based on what she thinks is best for her own self. Before anyone judges the decisions, take a walk in her shoes.......

When you get a story that you just have to read to the end....this is it. Billie Flanagan decides to go on a solo hike and just disappears from the trail. There is evidence of a struggle, but no body was ever found. Her family moves on the best they can, but then Olive her daughter, sees visions of her mother. This causes concern by her father Jonathan, and together they start to dig into Billie's past. This story shows you that, you may not know someone as well as you think. There are many twists and turns and questions. A very good thriller! Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this book and give a review of it.

When I first got the opportunity to read this novel, I was a bit unsure how I would feel about it. I tried to read another novel a few years ago by Janelle Brown, All We Ever Wanted was Everything, and I was unable to get through it. Watch Me Disappear is so different--in a good way! I really enjoyed the story, characters, pace, writing flow, just about everything with it really. The ending was not all that surprising, but it was still good and the whole story could be realistic. I love that it alternates between the different characters and each of their voices are clearly distinct. The only thing that I didn't feel like that fit was Olive's "visions" but it isn't something that really bothered me--more puzzled on how it related.

It takes a bit to really hook you, but keep reading it and you will not be able to put it down!

A mother disappears and you want to find out everything about it. This has so many twists and connections and missteps that you won't want to put it down until the very last word. This is the new Gone Girl: Mom edition which means better!

Billie, both a wife & mother, goes missing on a hiking trip and disappears. The assumption is that she is dead; they find her car in the parking lot of the trail head and one of her hiking boots, but they never find a body. Her husband, Jonathan and her daughter, Olive struggle to move on with their lives; Jonathan begins drinking and Olive pulls away from her father. Around the 1 year anniversary of Billie's disappearance, Jonathan is awaiting the death certificate for his wife from the court, however his daughter seems to not be entirely sure her mother is really dead. Olive decides to start searching for her mother herself and eventually her father agrees to help.

This book sounds really interesting to me when I read the synopsis, however it fell a little flat for me. Basically, as you would expect, once they start searching for Billie, they discover that she has been lying and things aren't exactly as they seemed to be. I never really connected with any of the characters and generally when that occurs, I don't find myself as interested in the actual story. I did find the second half of the book a bit more interesting when Jonathan starts digging into his wife's past. The writing is alright, but nothing that really grabbed me and pulled me into the story. The story is told mostly in the present, with some flashbacks to the past. I do have to say I found the ending to be pretty impressive, it wasn't what I expected after we find out everything else. I know that is a bit vague, but I don't want to give anything away. An interesting story, just never really grabbed my attention the way I expected it to.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC.

Awesome book. Loved it. Well written with great characters. Full review on Goodreads.

At a cursory glance, the Flanagan family is a typical Californian unit: a techie Dad with cool hair, a beautiful and athletic mother, and a mature teenaged daughter who cares about the environment. The trio share their existence in a cozy Craftsman set on a suburban street in Berkeley, passing their days grabbing lunch in vegan cafes full of lounging hipsters and on beaches with the crashing waves and sandy-haired surfers as their companions.

On the surface, Billie is a great mom. She creates Pinterest-worthy delights for the bake sales hosted at daughter Olive’s expensive private school. She stays perfectly fit by spending her weekends hiking the extensive trails in their area or finding the hottest new yoga class. Her interior is as impressive as her exterior, and Billie never fails to have something interesting to bring to the table when discussing human rights or animal activism. She left behind a checkered past wrought with rumors of a salacious father and a jailed boyfriend, all to fashion a comfortable little life in a sweet little town with a picture-perfect little family.

But, is it enough?

When Billie leaves for yet another of her weekend trips, expressing the need to – yet again – gather clarity and revel in some much-needed alone time, Jonathan doesn’t worry. The Pacific Crest Trail in Desolation Wilderness is nothing she can’t handle, and although he would prefer she not trek out on her own, he doesn’t dare say it out loud. Bille gave up her independence a long time ago in a gesture of devotion and love to their daughter, and he feels that he owes it to her to not question her need to regain a bit of what she’s lost now that Olive is getting older and doesn’t need her as much. He can’t lie and say that he doesn’t miss Billie when she’s gone, but he also doesn’t entirely mind the break from her constant barrage of perfection and soft spoken elitism. Part of him has always felt “less than” in her effervescent presence; he’s never quite managed to break into the coolness that she embodies, no matter how long they’ve been together.

But this trip proved to be a different kind of getaway. Billie never returned and was never found, not even after countless searches among the crags and caverns along the trail. The only thing left behind was a well-worn hiking boot, the object mocking the painful hole left behind in Jonathan and Olive’s life. Now, nearly a year later, they are both still struggling in vain to put their lives back together. . . to somehow glue the fragments of their shattered world into some semblance of normal. The measure of difficulty is beyond any degree they could have ever comprehended, especially as there was never a body to bury.

Nothing is working, and in fact, things are only getting worse as the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death looms in the near future. For Olive, the hardest part of losing Billie has been her attempts at figuring out who she is outside of her mom. Billie led her, encouraged her, and kept her on a path of righteousness while lending a free spirit to Olive’s otherwise naturally structured mindset. Without that guiding light in her life, Olive is lost. She knows her dad is doing his best but . . .

And then one day the unimaginable happens — Olive sees her mother. Actually sees her! Standing in the middle of the school hallway, Olive has a clear and concise vision of her mother standing before her, long hair billowing in the wind and toes sunken into the white sands of the beach. Billie looks right at her and asks Olive why she isn’t looking for her, her face a mixture of amusement and the slightest tinge of regret. But as Olive reaches for her mom she connects with the hard part of a wall, jolting her back into the here and now and leaving a huge knot on her forehead for good measure.

The visions and images don’t go away and although Olive desperately struggles to find a connection between her realistic daydreams and the tangible world around her, she can’t seem to gain purchase. She spends days and nights in an attempt to decipher the visions or consciously bring them on, and her weekends out searching for her mother in the places her mind has shown her. Clues run into dead ends and mysteries remain mysteries. . . and to make matters worse, her father doesn’t take her seriously and instead, drags her to a doctor who prescribes medication with the sole intent to kill the emerging clairvoyant side of her.

What Olive doesn’t know is that her dad takes her more seriously than she thought. Jonathan has been doing some digging of his own, and is finding himself more and more baffled and unhappy by what he’s finding. Looking through the couple’s finances over the last year shows that Billie successfully siphoned off nearly $20,000 between their savings and checking accounts. And after a search through Billie’s laptop uncovers a hidden and locked file as well as some strange photos of a house he’s never seen and a bookmark to a private investigator’s office, Jonathan is left in a state of utter dismay. Did Billie really die that weekend, a year ago? Or did she disappear in another way entirely?

Both Olive and Jonathan begin to spiral out of control, their tandem paths peppered with insecurities, meddling friends, enigmatic strangers, and the question that haunts them both — is Billie still alive?

Watch Me Disappear is the third book by noted journalist and novelist Janelle Brown. A novel that has no qualms with delving into the complexities and flaws of each character allows readers to appreciate Brown’s raw and honest portrayal of the burdens Billie, Jonathan, and Olive all carry — each unique and solely theirs to shoulder. The people that we love are not always who or what we imagined and expected them to be, and Brown’s weaving of lives and story lines reminds readers that the human way of doing things is more often than not to see what we want to see. Billie, at her core, was not a good person. . . and it was fascinating to see how she infected lives with her selfishness while at the same time ingratiating herself.

Giving this novel a solid 4.5 out of 5 star rating, I am eager to pick up the other two novels Brown has penned. Her distinct descriptions of each character was a pleasure to read; at each turn of perspective I felt that Brown slipped into the character’s skin with ease and exceptional depth. While I did feel that a couple of the side story lines were a little contrived, I appreciated Brown’s attempts at creating even more ways for readers to connect with the realness of the characters. Several times I was sure that I had this novel and its mystery figured out, only to be given a twisting turn onto another avenue.

Watch Me Disappear is a clean and easy read for lovers of a good mystery, and is recommended for readers aged 15 and up. This book is available on all platforms on July 11, 2017.

I saw this book on NetGalley and instantly LOVED the cover. How gorgeous. Then the description pulled me into reading it. Billie Flannigan went out for a hike in the wilderness and never made it back home. Now a year later, her husband Jonathan and daughter Olive are having trouble adjusting to life without Billie and their new normal. Then Olive starts seeing her mother in hallucinations – is she psychic? – and is convinced that her mother is still alive.

As Olive explores what might have become of her mother, Jonathan does some investigating of his own. Was his life with Billie what he thought it was?

I should warn you right now: this is going to be another of my vague reviews. Watch Me Disappear is one of those novels where I just don’t want to say too much and give something away.

The further you read, the more the onion peels back on Billie’s character, and the lies she told her family. Jonathan begins to wonder if Billie really died in those woods, or if she just left her family for good. The Billie he knew wouldn’t do that. But the new Billie he’s learning about just might.

Watch Me Disappear is full of questions. Is Olive psychic? Who was Billie, really? Did Jonathan know her like he thought he did? And ultimately, what did happen to Billie that weekend when she ventured out on her own into the woods? At times maybe too many questions, but in the end they all worked together to tell the story.

As far as the characters go, Jonathan and Olive were pretty likable. I was rooting for them to get to the bottom of Billie’s disappearance so no matter the outcome they could continue with their lives. I wrote something about Billie’s character, but I just deleted that because...spoilers.

The biggest thing that didn’t work for me was the “psychic” piece. Jonathan is just getting ready to have Billie ruled as dead in court so he can collect on her much-needed life insurance. Olive’s visions begin and put her at odds with her father, kick-starting their own investigations; Olive looking into Billie’s disappearance, and Jonathan into Billie’s past. The visions did get the plot rolling, but I wasn’t convinced on that particular piece of this puzzle.

One thing I really liked was the ending. Instead of leaving things ambiguous and the reader guessing, Ms. Brown does finish the story and let you know exactly what happened to Billie on that fateful hiking trip. Some readers may appreciate an ambiguous ending, but I like to have all my i’s dotted and t’s crossed, so the ending worked well for me.

Overall this is a page-turner and a fun summer read.

When Billie Flanagan disappears while hiking in the woods, her husband and daughter miss her terribly and finally, mourn her when they believe her dead. But slowly things about Billie's life are revealed -- parts of her life her husband of daughter never knew, Billie's daughter , Olive, begins to have visions of her mother and Billie's husband begins to believe that Billie has simply run away and that perhaps he didn't know her at all. They begin to discover who they are without her all the while still trying to figure out what really happened to her. The book is exquisitely written and you will fall in love with all of the characters and get caught up in the mystery I loved it!

Beautiful writing...just beautiful. I liked the story and the mystery but I loved the writing.