Sarah, who has traveled the world as a journalist, returns to India where her childhood took place and an unspeakable family tragedy. She joins in conservation efforts to help preserve the endangered Bengal Tigers. Meanwhile her older sister Quinn, is at home in Kentucky, struggling with the deep scars their childhood has left. On Sarah’s first day, there is a tiger sighting which is unusual the first time according to her coworkers. Something about the tigers draws Sarah and and she can’t imagine ever leaving.. Back home Quinn is dealing with her sons life threatening illness and a crumbling marriage. When Sarah asks Quinn to join her in India, she realizes maybe the only way to move forward is to go back to the place where if began. 
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This book touches on very real world issues. Endangered species, poverty in third world countries, etc. The connection between human and nature in this book is so powerful and beautiful. Katy Yocom used her real experiences from conservation parks in India to create a masterpiece! Sarah's connection to the villagers and tigers is absolutely breathtaking. The myths about Sarah and her Tiger added such a unique touch to the story that also felt so magical. The descriptions about the tigers paint beautiful pictures. Not only the tigers, but the connections of humans and cultural differences. Something that I found such a great surprise is that there is also a romance aspect to this novel as well! Ugh, I could go on and on about this book. Publishes July 16th so go preorder a copy!!
I am so thankful to have been approved for an advanced copy from Ashland Creek Press.This review is completely my own opinion!

A really great novel, with such a sensuous writing style, and a vivid and alive sense of place.  Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to read it!

Let there be no doubt - I adored this book! With its main themes of animal conservation and sisterhood it was always going to draw me in, but for a debut novel I was surprised at just how accomplished it was. Tremendously moving, and very well-written.

Jaded with her life as a globe-trotting journalist, covering wars and natural disasters, Sarah DeVaughan leaves her mother and sister behind in Kentucky and takes a new job in the land of her birth, working for a tiger conservation NGO near Ranthambore NP in Rajasthan, India. On the day of her arrival, a tiger accident (a euphemism for a human fatality caused by a tiger encounter) in a nearby village is a rare coincidence, but it seems to set the uneasy tone for Sarah's tenure in her new role. It's not long before Sarah has her own close encounter with Akbar, the park's resident male.

"As she read the field guide by the red beam of her penlight, something shifted in the atmosphere to her right. Without moving, she slid her eyes in that direction. And there he was: a tiger, standing alongside the jeep. She could have reached out and touched him. In the gray half light, his body blended into the forest like a ghost. He turned his head and looked right into her eyes. Then he stepped past her into the headlights, and Sanjay whispered, “Tigertigertiger!” and the four of them rose to their feet. In the light, he was no ghost but a big, glossy male, long and lean, close enough that Sarah could see the individual hairs in his fiery orange coat. His breath turned to smoke as it hit the air. Without taking her eyes off the animal, Sarah raised her camera."

As her work with her new, small team continues, it comes to notice that the incidence of tiger sightings increases when Sarah is on board, and then one day, while supporting a foreign documentary film crew, Sarah makes an ill-advised but successful cub rescue that is caught on film and the legend of Tiger Woman is born. (While this might sound a bit silly, it's kept quite low-key in terms of the story-telling, but it is actually an important element later on.)

Meanwhile back in Kentucky, Sarah's older sister Quinn is troubled by her son's severe asthma symptoms and by her husband's apparently casual attitude towards it. Little Nick is a twin, and a continual reminder of the younger brother she lost as a child - Sarah's twin. Both sisters have carried enormous guilt over their brother's death for most of their lives, and this is something that has prevented them from being closer to each other, and to their surviving mother. A particularly severe asthma attack is the catalyst for Quinn reaching out to both her sister and her mother to try to find some peace with her own part in Marcus' death.

"It hit Quinn then that Mother had lost all three of her children. They had each found their own way to disappear from her, and from one another. Marcus had had no say in the matter, but Sarah and Quinn—they chose."

On a visit to India, the two sisters begin to open up and reconnect.

"They fell silent, considering the little gravestone with the bright bouquet. Sweet Marcus. The empty space in the middle of all their lives."

Quinn goes to spend time with Sarah at Ranthambore, and starts to understand the pull of Sarah's new vocation.

"...there was Machli, lying at the lakeside, regal in repose. Shaggy and thin as she was, she was still glorious. She blinked lazily and elevated her chin as if contemplating her own magnificence. How satisfying, she seemed to say, to be so splendid."

Then, just as relationships begin to mend, a shocking twist seemingly prevents the happy-ever-after we might have hoped for.

So far, this is my favourite book of 2019. It's one I will certainly read again in the future.

The setting and the stories about the tigers are so magnificent in this book, you could read it for that alone. I absolutely fell in love with India and had my heart wrenched out by the constant struggles of its people, the conservationists, and the tigers. To be that dependent and affected by mother nature and poverty really made me stop and reflect on my own life (and all of the things I am grateful for!) I really enjoyed Sarah's story and her connection with these big, beautiful tigers (and their plight). 

But it was sister Quinn that I find myself gravitating toward. While her story was more mundane back in quiet Louisville, I found myself relating to her lifestyle more. While Sarah is off in India on a grand adventure, rescuing baby tigers and setting up a women's initiative to help the local women earn money, Quinn was at home worrying about her children and her fragile marriage. This story line was not as exciting or rich in scenic detail, but I loved it because I could relate to it. I understood it. I've maybe even lived a moment or two of it. 

It's taken me a few days to digest the ending of this novel and I'm sure readers will have a lot to say about it. But that's what I love about reading-- the dialogue that comes about after two people have finished a story and want to discuss what they loved about it and what they wished had happened differently. I liked that the overall tone was honest and realistic. The family members are warned. They might get the answers they are looking for, but it won't  make them any happier. I think that's a good life lesson.

Sarah DeVaughan's twin brother Marcus died of cholera in India at the age of 7, and the entire family never got over it.  In present-day Louisville, Kentucky Sarah is 32-yrs old and her sister Quinn is 35. Quinn's constant fear that her own 7 yr-old twin son will die is causing problems in her marriage.  And crazy risk-taker Sarah sets off for a job saving tigers in India. 

Writer Katy Yocom writes beautifully, at times like a linguist at others like a travel writer, she really brings the DeVaughan family to life as well as the characters Sarah works with in Sawai. In the Afterward her research in India is described in depth, but I wondered what is her experience with twins. Both sets of twins in differing generations exhibit traits so authentic it broke my heart: "You know what?" Quinn said (to Sarah, after her twin Marcus dies), "I'll be your twin now." Sarah slapped her across the face. 

I liked the theme of feminism running throughout "The world would be a better place if more women were selfish"  albeit intermittently interrupted with Mother-isms like "Hogamus higamus men are polygamous. Higamus hogamus, women monogamous." While I read in the Afterward that the revolt at the reservoir was based on an actual event, as I read that part in the book I was very confused, didn't understand why William was calling in water trucks, or why there seemed to be no authoritative oversight, why Sanjay all of a sudden acted like such a daredevil, and then even the mother's mystery at the end I found unsatisfying, but I'll chalk that up to my just wanting this story to continue, it was that absorbing.

I was drawn to this book because of the Author's ties to my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.But the real star of the story is India and specifically a conservation park. Colors, smells, textures all come to life through exquisite storytelling. Tigers and their natural habitat are showcased and the Author demonstrates knowledge of such through her research and trip to India. A love story and a reconnection of sisters is a springboard for the conservation and well executed. An author to watch.

Quinn and Sarah DeVaughn – sisters, torn apart by the death of their brother in childhood, separated by space and a wall built by grief and guilt, return to their childhood to find themselves and each other. Sarah, a journalist, has a love for adventure and seems to seek out danger quits her job and returns to India, the home of her childhood. Quinn, cocooned in the safe space she has created for herself in Kentucky, fears that India will be the cause of Sarah’s undoing. ‘Three Ways to Disappear’ tells the story of two sisters both determined to finally face up to their past to and risk the lives they have built to find themselves again. 

Katy Yocom has written a novel which is dramatic, urgent, complex and unexpected. The narrative is told from the perspective of Quinn and Sarah allowing for the reader to gain an insight into misunderstandings and latent feelings which have paralysed their relationship since childhood. The powerful sense of place Yocom has weaved throughout this novel ground the narrative and its characters. Both sisters, and their memories, are bound to place in a way that brings the setting to the forefront of the novel.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this novel, but it was a wonderful, addictive, and surprising read. The emphasis on restoration and preservation, of family bonds, the environment, and communities makes this novel special, bringing together complex issues in a beautifully told story. The shocking ending reverberated in my brain for days after I had finished reading. Three ways to disappear is one that I’ll be coming back to again and again. 

Read courtesy of NetGalley.

Three Ways to Disappear 🐅 - Katy Yocom
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Writing: 7.5/10
Plot: 8/10
Need to read: 5/10
Overall: 7/10
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Wow it feels good to finally finish a book after all this time. ⭐️ Three Ways to Disappear is about two sisters, Quinn and Sarah, and the story of their lives unraveling and intertwining while they’re halfway across the globe from one another. 🌳🐅 This novel is a refreshingly realistic depiction of family life and the fine line between love and resentment. 🎒 Between moving, starting four classes, and starting a new job this book took me a while to get through but the plot was one that stuck out in my mind so I knew exactly where I was every time I picked it up. 🌖 Honestly the writing wasn’t very beautiful or standout, but I had to rate it highly because I think the writing really let the plot shine in this book. It flowed really well and the way the story was structured felt very natural.

Three Ways To Disappear is a beautiful novel which revolves around family, truth and honesty and focuses on being an outsider. Sarah DeVaughan has left her job as a journalist to take on a job at a tiger conservation in a small Indian village where she once lived with her family. 
It is an amazing book which transports you to India and throws you into this world where Sarah works on the conservation to help endangered Bengal tigers. It also focuses on Sarah's relationship with her sister Quinn and the people around them.
It is a fantastically compelling story with beautiful writing and amazing intricate plots weaving into each other. I really liked this book.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It was really well written and kept me reading, curious about what the characters would do next.

The story goes back and forth between 2 sisters, Sarah, an international journalist who settles down in India to work at a tiger sanctuary, and Quinn, a mother of twins who has lives in Kentucky. They grew up as children in India until Sarah's twin died and their mother moved them back to the US.

The relationship between the sisters and then their mother was great and I love how much it evolved, especially as they came to terms with the unfortunate death of their brother so many years ago.  I enjoyed the explorations of different ways that people disappear from one anther and how they use this to cope with or hide from their pain.

Then there were the tigers, the masters of camouflage. They were integral characters to the book as well and I loved the descriptions of them and their interesting personalities. In fact, so many of the scenes in India were wonderful and richly described. Along with the tigers were the small villages affected by the tiger sanctuary -- there are so many layers to things and this book reminds us of this. Yes, it is good to save the tigers, but in so doing, there can be adverse effects for others nearby if the situation isn't dealt with properly. This book highlighted how we are all interconnected, even down to purses being made by women in a village in India and how that changes things for the person selling them in the US.


Overall, I really enjoyed this book and watching the characters develop, learn, and grow. I loved the descriptions, and even the politics. These are certainly issues we need to be dealing with on a global level, but shows how small, individual steps can make a difference and how women supporting women and change a community.



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.

In Three Ways to Disappear, Katy Yocom accomplishes what few fiction writers can do well: marry engaging narrative with a call for environmental activism. Her passion on the subject of tiger preservation is evident, yet deftly woven into the story of a family fragmented by their inability to share their respective truths with each other. 

Without diving deep into didacticism, Yocom paints a realistic view of the plight of man and beast, admittedly siding with beast as she lays out a story of one village’s path out of poverty. She describes the villagers as those stuck in tradition which no longer serves the community, and those using the global economy for a path out of poverty. Her village characters are portrayed without romanticism or generalization. These people are real, with their histories of  domestic abuse, educational deprivation, and bleak subsistence. 

Yocom portrays life in India with the most visceral written rendering of life in another country this reader has ever experienced. One is transported to the sights, sounds and smells of the teeming life of Mumbai and Yocom's descriptions of what the main character, Sarah, sees and experiences throughout her time in India, make for some of the most meaty and engrossing portions of the book. 

With such a strong first foray into fiction, one can only hope that Katy Yocom continues to produce more novels as moving, thoughtful, and engrossing as Three Ways to Disappear.

The cover grabbed me and just as quickly  so did the story! It is set in both the US and India and I really appreciated both the family drama and how well balanced it was with the conservationist angle. It is a powerful read that touches on so many topics, familial, environmental, multicultural and political without a moment of boredom. It was interesting to see how each sister responded to the loss of their brother and how their lives took totally different paths. I would like the thank Net Galley, the author and publisher.

WOW.  Absolutely one of my favorite books so far this year.  Katy Yocom's writing has that uncanny ability to immerse you into the setting of the story, so that you lose track of time and place while you read.  When you stop reading, you might be a little out of sorts as you return to reality.  I'm not exaggerating - it's that good!  

I really connected with the two sisters who make up the main characters, but especially Sarah.  This book explores themes of family and alienation, as well as idealism, culture shock, and the political implications of colonialism.  Another book that features strong women without making a huge fanfare about it.  I love it.

Thank you Ashland Creek Press, Katy Yocom, and NetGalley for allowing me to access this beautiful book.  As always, all opinions are my own.

As an avid tiger advocate, I was drawn to the beautiful cover of this novel. I went into it hoping to fall in love with the story and I totally did. 

Told in alternating views of two sisters, Sarah and Quinn, this book tells the tale of both their shared childhood and their present adult lives. Their lives could not be more different, with Quinn being a devoted wife and mother, while Sarah traveled the world as a journalist before moving to India to work on tiger conservation and advocacy.  Alternating viewpoints like this can be tricky and Ms. Yocom did it beautifully. I was disappointed to see each chapter end, but not so much so that I felt the need to skip ahead to see how that plot line played out. 

This novel is so beautifully written and I fell in love with these sisters and their families - both their biological families and their extended families. It was amazing to read about the Indian culture and the descriptions were vividly portrayed so that I felt like I was living it myself. There were times that this story even moved me to tears.

I have numerous highlighted quotes that touched my heart, as well as book references that I feel so compelled to check out. I plan to also purchase the hard cover of this book and hope to catch the author on a publicity tour. I hope that she has follow up books, because I fully plan to read whatever she writes!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is bursting with beauty - from the descriptions of locations to the building of characters.

Three Ways to Disappear was an absorbing, page-turning good yarn with a surprising and uplifting ending. 
This excellent novel of many meaty layers kept me captivated until I finished it and then some. It's one of those stories that stays with you, that carries forward after you've finished the book. 

The vivid, sharply focused characters moved through the rich, fascinating settings, taking me with them, bashing into unexpected turns and bouncing back into strength and hope. 

Three cheers for the Tiger Lady, Katy Yocum!  Looking forward to her next!

Katy Yocom’s Three Ways to Disappear is the kind of book I crave, for two reasons. The novel portrays the intricacies of relationships within families, along with the, emotional conflicts within individuals, through characters I immediately believe in and care about. In addition, the story taught me something new and specific about the world that has enlarged my informed compassion. The novel accomplishes both jobs in an engaging, page-turning style that earns its place on this reader’s “must-read-again” shelf.

“In the year after Marcus died, their mother stopped loving people, one after another.” From this entrance into sisters Quinn’s and Sarah’s worlds, the reader follows each young woman on her long-delayed return from her American adulthood to her childhood in India, where the loss of a brother fractured a family, leaving each member unable to share his or her guilt, blame, and love. 

When Quinn sees the hazy ultrasound image of her son and daughter nestling inside her, she knows “that distance and years were nothing, that no matter what their mother said, their histories traveled with them stitched into their DNA.” Quinn’s continued worry that she will fail to protect her twins, just as she failed to protect Sarah and her twin, Marcus, threatens her own family.  It is only when bold risk-taker Sarah, estranged from the cold mother Quinn feels beholden to, returns to India that the sisters are compelled to confront the past, regardless of its capacity to mend or destroy.
 
Elusive Sarah digresses from her journalism career spent chasing and reporting on disasters to take on another risk: rescuing tigers at an Indian tiger sanctuary. The devoted conservationists she joins doubt her sincerity when she says she is there to seek clarity.  The immediate, near mystical connection between Sarah and the wondrous endangered beast, however, conveys an unexpected, profound answer. Both metaphorical and realistic, the tigers’ story provides a powerful medium for a resolution to the sisters’ family trauma that speaks truths about mankind, both painful and hopeful. 

Yocum’s writing is lyrical, without calling attention to itself—although this reader-writer had cause to pause and linger over many a passage. The tightly crafted plot interweaves past and present seamlessly, letting readers know the characters in the novel’s families—social and genetic, human and animal—more intimately than they may their own.
 
But what this reader learned is not limited to the expanded understanding of the depth of human experience that great literature provides. The novel provides truths about the potential extinction of one of the many species that are victims of what man hath wrought. Just days after reading Three Ways to Disappear, a Washington Post article detailing one man’s quest to expose continued tiger farming in Asia appeared. Without Yocom’s inciteful story, this so-little-time, so-much-to-read reviewer likely would have set the article aside.. Instead, I read and absorbed. Like Sarah’s Bengal tigers and Blake’s “tyger tyger, burning bright,” the plight of the glorious creature is seared in my memory and heart.

All this from a debut novel. I look forward to more engaging and enlightening words from Katy Yocom.

A family tragedy affects every member, and each reacts in a different way. The characters in  Katy Yocom’s debut novel live in diverse settings from Ranthambore in northern India, where the children of the DeVaughan family grew up, to Louisville, Kentucky. The story is unveiled  from dual points of view between a surviving twin, Sarah, who chooses to return to India to work with “Tiger Survival,” and her older sister, Quinn, also a mother of twins who has never lost the fear of the differences in culture between India and America. The author carefully builds forward as she also traces backward to their particular family tragedy in childhood: the accidental drowning of Sarah’s twin, Marcus. Of particular delight in this novel is the vivid detail of life in India, including the teeming population, the disappearing wild tiger, and the extremes of weather between drought when “the ground is dust and stone,” and the monsoon, where the colors of trees, flowers, and clothing are as vivid as the many bright hues in God’s palette. Yocom’s research and love of the tiger and of setting are apparent on every page. An authentically written environmental treatise combined with an endearing love story that will seer your memory long after the reading. Not to be missed.

Three Ways To Disappear is a haunting novel bringing to life the world of India and the tragedy of the DeVaughan family. With a riveting plotline and fully fledged characters this novel will linger in your mind and heart!

Sarah DeVaughan always knew Louisville wasn't her home, her older sister Quinn describing her as "a citizen of the world", her journalism career taking her to far flung corners of the earth. War zones, human interest stories, feeling the need to make these people known, yet having difficulty accepting that not everyone wanted to know what happened after. A woman invested in her career, turning it into a lifestyle. A surviving twin.
Sarah was nothing like Quinn. Quinn, who had settled down, who never truly dealt with her feelings about India, who still blamed herself for Marcus and saw her children as a path to redemption, a chance to make different choices. Quinn, who can't understand why Sarah would choose to go back to the place that destroyed them, that took everything from them, the place that stole their brother and their father.
These two women could not have been more different, and yet, Three Ways to Disappear follows their journey as they find themselves again.
Quitting her job was one of the hardest things Sarah had ever done, but she knew that India was calling her home. She wanted to make a difference, do more than just report on crisis without following it through to the end. So she finds herself in Sawai Madhopur, part of Tiger Survival at Ranthambore tiger reserve. From day one, the other employees are convinced she carries tiger magic in her, with tiger spottings at an unprecedented rate when she is with the rangers, and within a short time at the park, she becomes gains international notoriety after saving a tiger cub from drowning, at great personal risk (while, of course, being caught on film by a British film crew). Sarah begins to come under a lot of scrutiny, both from the local village of Vanyal, and from her supervisor, Geeta. Determined to find a way to affect change for the women in India, Sarah schemes with Quinn, and together they start a cooperative of women creating handbags and scarves to sell in the United States. Sarah sees potential in these women, and an opportunity to give them independence in a male-dominant society.
Back in America Quinn struggles to come to terms with her sister's return to India, the continued pain over the loss of Marcus, and her tenuous marriage, being held together by threads. Feeling defeated, she visits Sarah in India, where her eyes are opened to the opportunities to change these women's lives for the better. Or rather, to help them change their lives. Quinn latches onto this project, and while she still has her problems at home, she begins to find some peace. 
Three Ways to Disappear is a beautiful story of love, and loss, and pain, and healing. It is inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time, and Katy Yocom has done an incredibly beautiful job in every way in creating this story. The thorough research makes Sarah and Quinn's story, and that of their families, friends, coworkers, and the women they are trying to help, that much more sad to read. This wasn't just a book, Three Ways to Disappear is a call to action. We cannot keep turning a blind eye to things we think don't affect us. Tigers are not the only animals on the endangered species list, and we are not doing enough to make this public knowledge. Not only does Yocom shed light on this issue, but she is realistic about possible solutions. We, as humans, cannot keep destroying the planet in the careless way we have gone about this. We cannot remain naive to the issues around us. These problems are so much bigger than just one person. 
Three Ways to Disappear is a page-turner that I was not able to put down, and once I was finished, I just stared at the cover, processing what had happened. I will most definitely be recommending Three Ways to Disappear.