Opening line:
"It's a good day, or maybe even a great one, although it will be impossible to know for sure later."
Billie Flanagan has gone missing while hiking by herself and a year later her little family, husband, Jonathan and daughter, Olive, are still trying to cope with her absence. Jonathan is writing a memoir about his fun, bright, adventurous wife while Olive is having visions of her mom that make her think her mom is not dead. Olive starts following the clues which leads her on a crazy chase with lots of twists and turns and surprises.
I totally called one of the twists from the beginning but the other twists added more. I kept listening to the story because I wanted to know what happened to Billie.
Thanks to netgalley for the read!


For the sensitive reader: 56 swear words (18 F words, affairs though not graphic)

Wonderfully written book. The characters are believable as they make their way through a heap of emotions. And one begins to wonder about the whole family.

This was a novel that kept my interested and made me feel invested in the stories and the characters. She gave you characters that were real in a novel that makes you question what is real and what isn't.

A surprisingly suspenseful novel that keeps you wondering but doubting throughout the read and then the ending. Whoa! Janelle Brown did an amazing job with this one.

At first read I found this book boring. But that was the first chapter. That first chapter does not do this book justice. This book continued to make me think I know what was going on and each time I was completely off base. I liked and hated the character Billy.
I enjoyed how this book defines the saying of “you can know someone for years and not know them.” I enjoyed the alternating chapters going from the present time to the Jonathan’s book that he’s writing in honor of his wife Billy. We get to see Billy through his eyes of their relationship/marriage. Billy was such a unique and intricate character.
I may not be a huge fan of the ending but I am pleased to have all my questions answered by the end of it book. I give this a 3.75 out of 5.

I had high hopes for Watch Me Disappear, the premise sounded great, but it did not work out to be great. It was okay, but not what I hoped for.

Billie, Jonathan, and their daughter Olive lived a normal, happy life, until one day Billie just disappears. She had done this before and always came back, but this time she did not return. Olive starts to see her mom Billie and thinks she is still alive somewhere and begins to try to track her down. The story kind of wanders from there with a lot of little side stories and random bits thrown in. The ending almost saves the book...almost.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC of Watch Me Disappear!

This is my first read from Janelle Brown and I was absolutely enamored! While it wasn’t a suspense filled novel and read more like a mystery, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and Brown’s writing!!

For all lovers of built up mystery, this ones for you!

I have this book slated as an incredible “cannot put down until the end arrives novel.” Crisp language! Thought provoking questions on personal truths and deception that only an author of this caliber can deliver. Not since Gillian Flyn’s Gone Girl has a book gripped me so and taken me on such a twisty-turning ride that begs you to grasp an understanding from every character’s point of view; and such a thrilling challenge to do so. Great choice for a book club...or to break the toil or monotony in a trail of pedantic reads. Get your blood moving — read this!

I recently finished the audiobook for Watch Me Disappear and I really enjoyed it (5 star rating and all!). For me, I liked the connections to Lois Duncan books (my favorite as a kid) and the hiking throughout. I also really liked how it wasn’t completely straight forward to figure out what happened. Did Billie flee from secrets? Did she get injured and die while hiking? You won’t know the truth until the end, but odds are you will enjoy the ride.

If you are looking for an absorbing story, you definitely will want to dive into, Watch Me Disappear.

The story centers on a mother who goes on a solo hike in the Desolation Wilderness and vanishes from the trail. Although her body is never found, they conclude that she fell to her death, never returning again to her husband and daughter.

When her daughter begins having visions of her mother, she starts to believe that she is still alive and guiding her to where she is. When she reveals her mother’s secrets to her father, her husband also becomes convinced that there is more to this story.

Prepare for a very twisted and unpredictable plot right up until those final pages. Brown captures her reader in this clever thriller and won’t let go until you have made your way through the entire spider web of mystery.

If you are looking for a fresh book club pick, I would highly recommend this one as it explores the subject of finding and sometimes the losing of our identities as mothers.

Got stale and DNF. At the recommendation of a patron, I went back and read the last page. Not worth trying to trudge through the stale middle for over a year for that ending.

This took me a bit to read. I kept picking it up and then drifting to something else. I think because it made me uncomfortable, this unraveling of the mystery of Billie's death. I wanted to find out everything, but at the same time, nervous of the outcome. In the end, a very well put together tale and recommend it.

Absolutely riveting. When a mother disappears, her family are left wondering - why? And what happened? Although they believe that she is dead, they still dream... still hope...

This is a hugely engrossing mystery, with a lot of complex and meaty relationships, memories and interwoven subplots. I wasn't sure if there would be a twist, as it's been compared to Gone Girl, and there was. It was a gut-punch. Thanks for the opportunity to read!

This book was a quick read for me! The short chapters had me getting through it quickly to find out more. I had to find out what happened to Billie! Would recommend this to a friend.

Billie Flanagan has been gone for a year. She disappeared after hiking by herself on the Desolation Wilderness trail in El Dorado County, California. She is presumed dead, but the “presumed” piece of her disappearance creates some complications for the family she left behind. Billie’s husband, Jonathan, and her teenaged daughter, Olive, struggle to navigate their loss. Olive has ghostly, ethereal visions of her mother, a troublesome barrier to the much desired “normal” teenage life. A lingering unsigned death certificate prevents Jonathan from effectively managing the household finances. The twists reveal a complex web of friends and family secrets, where no one is safe from betrayal. The answer to “what really happened to Billie?” will keep you turning pages well into the night.

This book wasn't perfect by any means, but I'm still giving it 4 stars because I thought the bones were fantastic.

Watch Me Disappear centers around Billie Flanagan, or rather, her husband and daughter. It's a year after her death/disappearance, and new circumstances are making them question rather or not she is really dead.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of the three main characters, but I did take issue with lots of the secondary characters. I found Harmony and the way she fit in particularly odd, and I wished there was more about Jonathan and her relationship. It felt forced and I couldn't understand his line of thinking in that. I also thought Olive's relationship with her friend could have been fleshed out more, as well as the character that comes in the very end.

While there were parts of the book that I felt were far-fetched, even for the topic at hand, I really enjoyed the overall layout of the story. I liked Jonathan's memoirs, as well as the way the end was handled. I did not see the ending coming entirely, which is always a nice surprise.

This book was very interesting. It is told mostly in the present tense and follows a young lady named Olive. It has been a year since her mother went out on a solo hiking trip and never returned. Everyone assumes that she has died, so when Olive begins seeing her it is very confusing for her. This begins the search for Olive and her dad to determine if Billie is actually dead or in trouble.

I enjoyed this book very much. Once it took hold of me I felt like I couldn't put it down. It had me second guessing things for most of the way through it. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys a quick, engrossing read.

Billie went on a desolate train to go on a hike by herself. When she doesn't come back, her family is left to pick up the pieces of what they have left and move on.

Billie's body was never found which was sort of strange. Only her shattered phone and a hiking boot were discovered on the trail. I think this makes it even harder for her family to deal with her death because they never really got closure.

Jonathan, Billie's husband. drinks a lot as he begins to work on a memoir of Billie. That is his way of coping. Olive, Billie's daughter, become really closed off from her family and friends, withdrawing from everyone.

When Olive starts having strange visions of her mom still alive, she begins to wonder if there is any truth to the visions since they never found her mom's body. Olive shares these visions with her dad and they both begin to question things. At first Jonathan was worried that Olive was having issues dealing with her mom being gone, but as things started happening more, they both set out to find the truth.

Jonathan and Olive set out to hopefully find Billie on their own. The lessons they learn on their way, prove to be invaluable for both of them. The way that Janelle Brown pulls you in from the beginning of the book and keeps you until the very end is something else. I love her writing style and the way that the story flows so easily.

I can't wait to see what is in store for us next from Janelle Brown. I am a fan for sure!

I just finished reading Watch Me Disappear, a book that caused me to miss more than a few hours of sleep. I found this book really intriguing. It kept me guessing most of the way through. I loved the psychic element thrown into the story. It is certainly not your everyday story and I found myself anxiously awaiting the conclusion to find out if Billie, one of the main characters in the book had truly died or had just made herself disappear. I really liked the character Olive, Billies daughter in the book. I found the character development to be well done throughout the book. I would recommend it to others for sure.

Janelle Brown does an awesome job at keeping the reader guessing in this engaging new suspense. She did a great job painting vivid, likeable characters and I found myself rooting for all of them, on different levels. Loved the varying POVs of the husband and daughter. Not sure all men would be so open in writing a personal memoir about their love life, but this was a good device to keep the reader on an intimate level. It's well written and I'll read more of Brown's books now.