Damn! When that's the last drawn out word uttered as you close a book, you know it's good. Janelle Brown pieces together the lives of this family with precision and expertise. Each character is flawed, human and reachable in their own right, and together make a family that's believable and unique. The plot twists and turns as you plunge and emerge once again, until the bitter end where you find yourself whispering "daayymmnn!"

This was an interesting missing person mystery. The cast of characters I did not find very likeable. At times the pace of the book was rather slow. However, it is a book I would recommend to those who are looking for an easy read mystery.

I can't say I heartily enjoyed this book, but it was entertaining. I'm not even quite sure what to say because it was a love/hate relationship. There are moments where I couldn't put it down and moments where I considered putting it down and never picking it back up. I understood that the author wanted to make a mystery, but it was to the point where the characters weren't consistent with themselves. I like the way it ended in a wrapped up package for the most part. Overall I liked it, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends.

'Watch Me Disappear' had me riveted from page one. I found it to be a quick page-turner with complex characters and unexpected twists. While I thought I knew exactly where the book was headed, the ending surprised me twice. This is satisfying as both a family drama and a mystery, and will probably have a wide appeal. Well worth staying up late into the night to finish.

I received this book as a ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I love when you pick a book based on the description and it doesn't disappoint you. Better yet, it makes you stay up late reading because you want to find out what happens. This book delivered on all fronts.

Quick synopsis: Mom goes on a solo hike and doesn't return. Presumed dead. Dad and teenage daughter are struggling to cope and discover all things may not be as they seemed. Twists and turns ensue.

The author really captured the way a sudden death dramatically changes your life and how hard it can be to find your "new normal" especially when you begin thinking the person you lost isn't who/what you thought they were. The dad/daughter relationship and it's challenges felt very real to me and I wanted them to be OK in the end. Their reasons for searching may have been different, but they ultimately wanted the same thing. While I was able to figure out some of the plot twists, it kept me turning pages until the end.

I had a really hard time getting into this book and a hard time getting a feel for where it was going. At times it felt very supernatural (but it ultimately wasn't). At times it felt like a mystery (but it ultimately wasn't.)

In the end, it felt like more a study of family and the secrets we keep. That's a great premise for a book. But because I kept feeling like this was going to be a DIFFERENT book, by the time I figured out what it was really about I was kind of not into it anymore.

I liked that Billie was not an outright villain. She was just a self-absorbed liar and drama queen with daddy issues who was a pretty shitty mom. There are a lot of moms out there like that, so a book about why she's that way, how she got that way, and what it did to her family would have been more interesting to me than the "Where did she go" angle. Because the later teased that this be a bigger story than it ultimately ended up being.

So, not a bad book by any means. Some good writing. Interesting characters. My issues were more editorial in nature.

*SPOILERS* I had high hopes when I started reading this.... From the title alone the story had me expecting the tale of Billie's disappearance. I enjoyed the story, the layers of Billie unraveling. The emotions of both her husband and daughter were full of angst and yet and along I was checking the chapters to see how much longer until I would see where she would end up. Perhaps a title change would have changed my likely prediction of the ending - but then again, that was the intended idea, right?

Yes, yes, a fabulous book. I get the twists and turns of most books early on, as I did here. However, it was utterly irrelevant because the beauty was not so much in the presence of turns as in the way they were constructed and maneuvered, the how of their becoming in the path..

This is a Great book! A must read. Looking forward to more from this author, .I have told all my friend to read this book, move it to the top of your list

This was a lovely story, with strong and engaging characters. I particularly liked the father and the teen daughter - they came across as believable and their relationship seemed realistic. I did not care for the character of the mother, though the author held true to it through to the fairly expected end.

A solid story with ​an interesting twist. Main characters are well developed and aside from a few typos, the writing is solid. A study in the level of honesty in relationships. Well worth the read. This impartial review is provided in exchange for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

WATCH ME DISAPPEAR - Janelle Brown
Spiegel & Grau, a Random House imprint
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8946-5
ISBN ebook: 978-0-8129-8947-2
July 2017
Literary Fiction

California – The Present

In the prologue the reader meets Jonathan Flanagan, his beautiful and captivating wife Billie, and their daughter Olive at a Pacific Coast beach. Shortly they visit the nearby Monarch butterfly preserve. It is October and the migrating butterflies are settling in the preserve. This takes place shortly before Billie goes on a solo hike in the Desolation Forest and never returns. One year later just before the anniversary of Billie’s presumed death, Jonathon and Olive are still grieving and bewildered. The search for Billie found one of her hiking boots and her broken phone, but no body. Jonathan did what Billie encouraged him to do, which was leave his job at Decode Magazine, how he has successfully supported his family. He is now writing Where the Mountain Meets the Sky: My Life with Billie Flanagan, as a tribute to Billie. His agent has sold the book, but Jonathan is still writing it. His prediction of what might happen if he left his job has come true, and his finances are very tight. He can’t afford his daughter’s tuition, not until Billie is declared dead and he receives her life insurance payout, for which the determining court date is approaching.

Olive is walking the hall of the private girl’s school she attends when she feels slight off-kilter and sees her mother at the beach. Billie asks Olive why she isn’t looking for her. Olive takes this as a psychic message informing her that her mother is still alive. Can she make her father believe her? While Jonathon knows Billie had a bad childhood as her preacher father had molested a young girl, and then she runaway and got into some serious trouble involving ecoterrorism for which her former boyfriend went to prison, but she turned her life around. Jonathan and Billie met on public transportation, fell in love, and remain married for sixteen years. Billie took care of Olive while Jonathan became a workaholic. Now he works to re-establish his relationship with his daughter.

Obviously this story is about how Olive and Jonathan deal with Billie’s death, and it is told in present tense, which makes the reading somewhat different in feeling, and the story switches from Olive’s to Jonathan’s viewpoints. Excerpts of Jonathan’s memoir of Billie are also interspersed within the text.

Olive becomes convinced her mother is alive, and needs Olive to find her. This will lead Olive on a strange journey with an unexpected ending. Jonathan also takes a journey into discovering just who Billie really was after he becomes aware of incongruities in her past. This leads him down a trail of doubt and anger. As Jonathan and Olive both try to discover the truth about the mysterious Billie, the story surveys if anyone really knows someone else, even a loved one, and if anyone can accept the truth about that person’s true character. The story explores the vicissitudes in all human relationships from family to friends to strangers. Certainly readers will make judgements about different characters based on their behavior in the story. WATCH ME DISAPPEAR may start slow, but speeds up into a compelling mystery leading to an amazing finish.

Robin Lee

I was happy to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of Watch Me Disappear. This was my first novel by Janelle Brown. The book had an interesting premise, and I found the way the author handled the scenario interesting. I liked how the book evolved as new information became available to the father and daughter; it became suspenseful as one’s assumptions drastically changed. It was nice to follow the story from both the father and daughter’s perspectives. I was surprised by the ending. I enjoyed reading the book, but I would have eliminated some of the sub-plots related to the daughter. I found they distracted from the main plot without enhancing the book. I look forward to reading more books by Janelle Brown and recommend this one.

This book was not my typical read. I thought the description sounded interesting so I thought I would give it a try. I'm so glad I did!! I read a lot. I'm talking a couple of books a week. This book is at the top of favorite books​. The story weaves so many different scenarios. Just when you think you have figured it out...Nope! Try again. The story weaves past and present to tell a story of a mother's disappearance. The husband, daughter and friends all have their own story to tell. I simply could not put this book down! I thought I had it figured out and then I read the last line. Boy was I off base!

A woman goes on a solo hike through California mountains and disappears. A year later her husband and teenage daughter begin to investigate her background, good and bad, and learn who she is and was. The investigation goes through many twists and turns ultimately leading to a very logical conclusion. Good weekend reading. Thanks to Net Galley and Spiegel & Grau for an ARC for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the title and the description offered by the publisher but have found it difficult to stay engaged in reading the book long enough to see where it really goes.

Billie Flanagan decided to go hiking alone and it has been almost a year since she has disappeared. Her body was never found. The only thing which remained was her hiking book. There appears to have been no foul play - she just disappeared leaving her husband and daughter to mourn her loss.

Almost a year after his wife's disappearance, Jonathon is struggling financially and has decided to write about his wife's disappearance and life without her. He is in the process of having his wife declared legally dead. He begins to drink a little more than he should and also begins to worry about his daughter Olive. Olive has been "seeing" her Mother. Olive begins to believe that her Mother is not dead but just "missing". Does Olive have psychic abilities? Is her grief causing her to see things that are not real. Is it wishful thinking that her Mother is still alive?

How much do your really know your spouse? After her disappearance Jonathon begins to find things and learn things about his wife. Things she had kept from him, things he never knew, things he did not want to know. As Olive and Jonathon go on a journey to learn the truth about Billie's disappearance, they learn about themselves, others and of course about Billie herself.

I went into this book with high hopes. The description sounded very promising. I started this book a couple of times and would put it down to read other books. It just didn't grab me as I had hoped it would. That is not to say that this is a bad book. I liked it - I just didn't love it. I wasn't too shocked by the ending. It did not shock me. I actually expected it.

The writing is solid in this book. The author did a good job describing this dysfunctional family. Jonathon busy at work doesn't notice the money coming out of the bank account, in fact, he really doesn't pay much attention at all. Their daughter attends a pricey private school that Jonathon struggles to afford after Billie's disappearance. Their "perfect" family isn't so perfect after all.

I really wanted to like this book more. As I already stated....I liked it - I didn't love it.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau in exchange for an honest review.

Every once in a while book comes along that you debate with yourself whether you should read it or not. Well this is one of them. I have never read this author but I am sure to put her on my top 10.

I really enjoyed this story! All with a great storyline the characters are interesting and complex. A woman goes missing and is presumed dead, but no body has been found. This story involves her husband, daughter and friends as they try to continue life without her. There are things that are found on her computer which surprise her husband. On the other hand her daughter starts to 'see' her in little hallucinations, making the daughter, start to believe that she psychic. There are many changes the family goes through. I was liked the direction that story went even at the end when the truth was told. The author told a story that was smooth.

Billie Flanagan was an eccentric and captivating woman, who frequently went against the grain, so to speak, so when she went for a solo hike in the mountains her husband Jonathan and daughter Olive thought little of it. Until she didn't come back. After search and rescue find one of her boots and a cracked cell phone, the search is called off and Jonathan and Olive are left to piece together their lives without her. However, Olive begins having visions of Billie in which she urges her daughter to please find her. Jonathan is not convinced, but as he begins to consider moving on and accepting a life as a single father, secrets and clues start to surface that can't be ignored.

A taut psychological thriller that will have readers turning the pages till the explosive end. Perfect for suspense and thriller lovers!

After my mother died, I would have a recurring dream that she was still alive and only gone off to take a break. It was a bit disconcerting reading this story about a young girl trying to prove her mother was not dead after her disappearance. The evolution of this story and the reactions of the characters is well crafted. Everyone has secrets and everyone decides what is the most important secret and what to do about it.