Watch Me Disappear was an interesting book that kept me turning pages till the end.

First off, I really enjoyed this book. The characters were very realistic and easily relatable.

Olive is a teenage girl who's mother (Billie) has died. Her father, Jonathan, doesn't know how to cope with his own grief, much less that of his daughter's. Family friend, Harmony, isn't too far away and easily swoops in. Olive begins to have "visions" of her mother at random times and in random places. Her mother is always friendly to her and as Olive moves to reach out to her mother, she inadvertently ends up hurting herself. Soon Olive begins to think she's psychic and her mother is still alive. She begins to convince her father of the same, but he's reluctant to accept his wife is still out there somewhere until pieces of her past begin to resurface, making him question everything.

You must read the book to find out how the twists play out! Will recommend it to my friends who like a "Gone Girl" type thriller..

This is by far one of the best books I have read in 2017! This is a outstanding combination of thriller and mystery with the perfect elements to surprise every reader. i read it from cover to cover in one sitting it was so good . This was far better then Gone Girl and more exciting, more suspenseful and better written . The author has a well crafted fast paced style of writing with a talent for descriptive elements that are thrilling to read. it is so thrilling you cannot put it down.
The basis of the story is the disappearance of a Berkeley housewife and the effect the grief has one her daughter and husband left behind. A avid hiker she disappeared while hiking in a area she was familiar with. Her daughter soon begins to have visions from her Mom and feels she is still alive and trying to reach her . She begins to search for her Mom on her own and what happens from here on will thrill, surprise and make every reader gasp out loud while. reading.
I look forward to the next book by this amazing author and am thankful for the ARC and chance to read this wonderful book.

Billie is a loving, doting mother and wife. She appears to have the perfect life, but when she disappears on a hiking trip and her family is left to assemble the pieces of her life, they begin to question everything. Is Billie really dead? Is there meaning to her daughter, Olive's visions? What happened in the past and what happened in the months leading up to her disappearance?
Can Jonathan, her husband, and Olive move forward together in their new lives without Billie?

The storyline was engaging; I was drawn in and curious. The pace of the novel was also appropriate.

The epilogue, that so neatly tidies up the loose ends, was almost a disappointment though. I'm not sure that the reader needed it all answered. I suspect Janelle Brown intended to leave the novel with an air of mystery still, but it didn't have that affect on me. I think I may have enjoyed the novel more without it.

There were a few grammatical errors (wrong words, missing capitalization, etc.) that I hope was cleaned up before publication, as they were mildly distracting.

Overall, a good fiction novel, appropriate for fans of thriller or mystery.

3.5/5 stars

Who is Billie Flanagan?

Janelle Brown makes you ask this question over and over throughout this novel. Is Billie the beautiful, devoted wife and homemaker her husband Jonathan and 15-year-old daughter Olive believe her to be? Or do her occasional absences to go hiking alone indicate that she is someone else?

Billie disappeared during her last hike, and now, nearly a year later, Jonathan and Olive struggle to make peace with her death. Jonathan accepts that his wife has died, despite the absence of her body, but Olive's vivid dreams make her think her mother is very much alive and needs Olive's help, demanding to be found. Jonathan is desperate for his wife to be declared dead because he and Olive need the $250,000 life insurance settlement, but Olive cannot let go of the sense that Billie is still alive.

To get some answers, Jonathan begins to investigate his wife, and in the process he learns that he never really knew her. Like, not at all. Billie didn't so much live a lie as she was a lie.

Janelle Brown keeps you guessing. Is Billie really dead, or is she out there somewhere? And if she isn't dead, why would she make it seem that she is? And if she is dead, aren't Jonathan and Olive better off without her? The more you learn about Billie, the less you like her and the happier you are that she didn't return from that hike.

I liked this book, but I had a difficult time really getting into it. The mystery about Billie didn't keep me glued. It's one of those books that, as I read it, opened me up to distractions, if that makes sense. I felt like I should like Jonathan more than I did, but his emotionally selfish response to Billie's death made me want to shout at him. Olive, on the other hand, made me want to hold and comfort her. She's only fifteen. She needs more than her father could give her.

As for the mystery about Billie, I had my suspicions. And really it isn't so much what happened to Billie as why. The why kept me guessing.

This was not the book I was expecting to read. I liked the author was not scared so show the flaws in people, and how that can drive a wedge between family members, the people we think we know the best. This kept me gripped, wondering, waiting, up until the last page. The best kind of books!

A mother goes on a walk and never comes home. Was she the victim of a simple accident or foul play? We learn about the main character through those left behind in her life - a daughter, a husband, a friend. A solid mystery/thriller.

I really enjoyed this book. Had me turning the pages to figure out what happened! Everyone loved Billie .. and then she disappeared. Her husband and daughter understandably have a hard time coping. Olive, her daughter, b begins to have visions of her mother and thinks that this means she needs rescuing! Her husband begins to wonder himself but yet he really needs the life insurance money so isn't sure what to do. Hmm..
Definitely a page turner! Will read more from this author.

Good mystery. Wife goes missing and is presumed dead--but is she? Told from the POV of the husband and daughter left behind.

Great mystery filled with suspense and tension, and great intrigue.

Highly recommend as a “could not put down’ book. A teenage girl’s mother disappears and she doe not believe her mother is dead. A terrific read.

This book was so highly buzzed about and so highly compared to Gone Girl that I was looking forward to a very fast-paced and hard to put down read. While I did find myself getting into the story as it went on, I never reached that point where I couldn't stop to put the book down. It was just another thing on my list. And, yes, I finished it...but it never quite grabbed my attention as much as I thought it would.

Maybe it's because I was hoping for a different ending - the epilogue made me really mad. Or maybe it's because I wanted a different kind of justice in the story. I'm not sure.

Needless to say, it was a good story, but not as great as what I had built up in my head based off of other reviews I had read...

If you want a story with many twists and turns, then you have to read this book. So much is happening, my head is still turning after just finished it. The characters are endearing, the emotions are raw, this book is giving me goosebumps just thinking about it. It's THAT good.

Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

This took me a bit to get into, but then I honestly did not want to stop reading it. I was never sure of what the ending would bring, what was the real"truth" about Billie. Is she dead? Did she leave? Did someone abduct her? More questions than answers.

The character development of both the husband, Jonathan and the teen aged daughter, Olive was extremely well done. We got glimpses of Billie from Jonathan, thru Olive, and then through all of the versions of her life story that unfolded.

Looking forward to reading more from Janelle Brown.

The good - the multiple mysteries and points of view. The not-so-good - the characters themselves. When you find yourself disliking one or more of the main characters, it almost makes you feel cheated. But despite finding Billie in particular selfish and immature, I could not put the book down, so I would recommend this book to readers.

I really enjoyed Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown. The storyline is great and we learn more and more about Billie (the character who disappeared) after each pages. A good page-turner!

Nope. Just couldn't get into this as much I wanted. Billy was selfish in every scene, and no ending or resolution would have made me like her enough to make up for the earlier impressions. The ending had a twist, but still, nope.

There is a reason for all the buzz on this book! You will be guessing the whole way through and when you reach the last page will still have not imagined the ending!

This book had some really great parts. It kept you wondering until the end.

I had the good fortune to listen to this author when she visited our library for an event, and after hearing her speak, I was eager to start this book. We had a copy of the audiobook available at the library, and I needed a new listen, so I listened to it. Billie Flanagan, wife and mother, unexpectedly went hiking one day on the Pacific Coast Trail and disappeared. All that was found was one of her hiking boots. A year later the husband and daughter are still struggling with the loss and in the process of having her declared dead. Then one day Olive, the daughter, has the first of several visions of her mother, and her mother tells her to keep looking. Is she really seeing her mother or are these hallucinations? Olive feels her mother is alive and possibly in danger, finally convincing her father, Jonathan, that they need to keep looking for her mother. As Jonathan begins investigating, he finds out that Billie had many secrets, and with each secret brings more questions, ultimately bringing him to the realization that he didn’t know his wife as well as he thought.

This psychological suspense kept me engrossed, eager to find out the next revelation in this twisty novel. Jonathan had been writing a book about Billie to help with his grief and, chapters of his book are periodically inserted which help reveal the history and back-story. The story is well-written, and I was attached to the plight of Jonathan and Olive and their desperate search to find the truth. I find the thought that someone can live with someone and not really know them fascinating. It brought up lots to think about what a marriage is. The mystery of whether or not Olive was actually seeing her mother kept me interested as well. This was my first Janelle Brown book, but it won’t be my last.

I had received an advanced copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I ultimately ended up listening to it, however.