Cover Image: The Day I Disappeared

The Day I Disappeared

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Member Reviews

PUB DAY REVIEW!

Thank you to @NetGalley for this e-ARC of The Day I Disappeared by Brandi Reeds in exchange for an honest review.

Dark. Mysterious. Compelling.

Told through the perspectives of two unreliable narrators, this slow building thriller will have you suspecting everyone and trying to guess the ending all throughout the book. I did end up figuring out part of the twist early on but Reeds made me continuously second guess myself until the very end.

I love that Reeds not only explored the mystery behind Holly’s kidnapping but also familial and romantic relationships, and the way tragedy can shape those relationships.

I really enjoyed Reeds’ writing style. It kept me interested in the story despite the slow start and it ended up being a quick read.

This was my first book by Reeds and I will definitely be reading more by her!

Read this one if you’re a true crime fan or a murderino.

CW: PTSD, children abduction/trauma, violence, addiction

4 out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Holly was four years old when she was kidnapped from the park. Ninety four days later, Holly was returned to the park she had been taken from. She has little memory of what had happened to her while in captivity. Holly's mother had been a suspect in her disappearance.

As a young woman, Holly does not have a good relationship with her mother. When the police ask for Holly's assistance with several kidnappings that were similar to hers, she can't remember enough to help them. But these children were not being returned to their parents and Holly's mother is under suspicion again.

The story builds up slowly but it's definitely worth the wait. It will keep you guessing throughout. This is a well written story that in places, it's hard to read. The characters and plotline are believable, full of intrigue, mystery and suspense. The story is told from Holly"s perspective with snippets from her mother. This is a gripping read that's filled with twists. I will be looking out for this author in future.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and the author Brandi Reeds for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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The premise of this book, a returned abductee with little or no memory of her abduction, and unreliable story tellers had me gripped early on. In every chapter new information became evident, sometimes conflicting with what had been knew previously, sometimes adding detail, to what had been hinted at.
There are more than four layers to this story, told through : the abductee, the eyewitness, the parents, the neighbours, and other characters. It was a compelling read, and it’s twisty-turns kept me up reading all night.
Gripping, psychological thriller.
Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

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WOW! This is one of my favourite reads of 2020. Absolutely fantastic with a plot that sucks you in like quicksand. I read this one in hours and then wanted more. The first time I have read this author but not the last.

This has everything I love, crime, psychological elements, complex gritty and damaged characters, twists, reveals that blew me away, red-herrings and a book that stirred many emotions. That's quite a lot in one book. I really highly recommend this book.

The search for the abductor of little girls with a similar MO is the focus of the novel. Our main character can hold the key to remembering her own trauma to help save another young girl but the blanks are many. She is a fantastic character, so realistic, very damaged reflective of her life journey. The hunt is on for the sick person that is focusing on these young girls. Not just any young girl. They must fit the picture perfectly.

I suspected almost everyone in the book at one stage and loved the final reveal. The end chapters had me on the edge of my seat (well, bed) as the conclusion swept me up. In addition to the crime elements, Brandi has flushed out characters that are brilliant to get to know. Reletionship complexities, past secrets and many lies intertwine through the whole novel.

I cannot rave enough. This one is a must-have for your reading list. A stand-out book for me this year.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. My review is my own opinion and totally unbiased.

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I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this one. It was quick paced and interesting. I read it in a day. Loved the family dynamics and the twists and turns along the way.

I also loved some of the minor details. The author did a good job of representing PTSD and safe use of a hand gun.

Definitely recommend!

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Holly was kidnapped when she was four and held for 90+ days before she was mysteriously returned to the same park from where she had disappeared. She doesn’t remember anything about being missing and a man has been jailed for the crime for years. Now there is another girl missing with the same modus operandi, so a detective wants to talk to Holly, is the wrong man in jail?

Her love life is a mess, her Dad refuses to appoint her foreman, and her best friend Kitten is marrying someone that she doesn’t like. However, she wants to help the detective find the girl who has been missing almost as long as Holly.

The other point of view in the story is from Holly’s mother Cecily. The twist is that she’s in a coma after a mysterious accident. We learn what has been happening in Cecily’s life prior to the accident and wonder if she will wake up. The chapters fly by as Holly seems to be remembering a few details now.

The author did a great job with lots of red herrings and I suspected just about everyone in Holly’s life. I loved the premise of this one and I enjoyed the writing too, not a perfect read, but a good one.

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A great read with a few twists thrown in. Overall this is a good read but I thought that it was predictable in places and rambled on a bit.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

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Holly was kidnapped and held for three months when she was four years old. Now, 20 years later, she's telling her story, or what she remembers of it, to help other children. Her mother, Cecily, who was suspected at the time, also has some input- she's currently in a coma from a drunk driving accident but was it? Lots of questions are raised early on here, chief among them who really took Holly and the answers, while not surprising, spool out at a satisfying pace, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARc. Well done characters and good storytelling make this a good read.

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A four year old girl is kidnapped. 3 months later she is returned to the same park, with no memories. I do love a good kidnapping story but this book really dragged for me and I found it to be quite predictable. Perhaps thinking it was a thriller was a mistake on my part - nothing thrilling about it.

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I would give this book a 3.5 stars if possible. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was my first Brandy Reeds book and I'm not sure how I feel about reading another. I was disappointed in the way the writing flowed and at times I was confused but I got through the book and the ending was somewhat better. I'm sure there are others who will thoroughly enjoy this book. 📚

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I received this book in exchange for an honest review. You can purchase your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081NKYK85/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
This book is not for the faint of heart, this is one heart wrenching book! We begin this book many years ago with a boy checking on his little sister before he went fishing. He strayed too far and his parents were on their way back from church, so he rushed back to find his sister gone. The next chapter is about Holly who was gone for three months, missing at 4 years old. Holly was kidnapped right in front of her friend Kitten. Can you imagine remembering that you lost your best friend while jumping rope- how awful! This book goes back and forth with new kidnappings and trying to solve them and how they relate to Holly’s kidnapping. Holly remembers nothing from these three months. Then there is a suspicious disappearance of someone who was driving Holly’s car. Twenty years from Holly’s disappearance, another girl goes missing in a very similar situation. This book was quite exhilarating! I enjoyed this book to its fullest!

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To be honest, I did not like the book very much. It is slow, very predictable and has flat characters. They are all uninteresting and unlikable. There are other books out there with similar stories but better crafted. I had huge problems with the writing style. It is unprecise and aloof. Some things just did not run smooth. I could not connect to Holly or her mother Cecily and I did not buy Holly’s friendship to self-centered Kitten or her feelings for Matt. It is a weird story with a lot of fractions in the storytelling.

I hate to give bad reviews to books I received from the publisher but this is my honest review. I would not recommend it.

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Gripping, and a bit subversive in places, you may have to suspend disbelief in places to enjoy this fully, but it's still a good, engrossing, but maybe not challenging read.
I caught the twist about 50 pages in, but I liked how it was handled. Most of the characters were good, one or two, I couldn't really empathize with, but it didn't stop me from finishing the book in two days.

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Brandi Reeds has done an excellent job of creating characters that are compelling and very fully realized. Her plotting and sub plotting make the book flow and I was riveted to the pages as I just had to find out what was going to happen next. She does have some very clever twists and is an author who knows how to entertain a reader.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good thriller, police procedural, drama or just plain fun reading. The writing was solid, the ending was surprising and the story was very gripping. Looking forward to reading more from this author and that is the best compliment I can give.

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When Holly was 4 years old she was kidnapped, then 3 months later, she was returned to the same park she was taken from. Now 20 years later a few snippets of memory are coming back.

This book follows Holly’s quest to find out what happened to her all those years ago and to discover how much her mum knew about the circumstances surrounding Holly’s disappearance.

It kept me guessing almost to the end so I enjoyed the story. However some of the characters seemed a bit 2 dimensional.

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This book was insane. It was so intense. And just the thriller I was wanting to read. It’s a big page turner. The author did an amazing job at making us suspect many characters.

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Four year old Holly Gerbhardt is kidnapped. Three months later she reappears with no memory of what happened. Twenty years later, another girl goes missing in similar circumstances and detective Jason Guidry recruits Holly to help him solve it. All she has to do is try to remember.

This story is told predominantly from Holly's point of view, but it is interspersed with chapters from Holly's mother Cecily's point of view. Holly, now an adult, doesn't really know her place in the world. She doesn't quite fit in. She's tried to move on from her past but it's not that easy and she's still scarred. Her life is blighted with complicated relationships. She never had the greatest of relationships with her mother. But now Cecily is in hospital in a coma after a car accident. She's haunted by the abduction as well, and her point of view takes the form of her memories of the past as she fights for her life in the present. The pieces of the past slowly come together, some from Cecily's recollections, some from Holly, as she slowly starts to remember the things she forgot.

I expected this book to be a typical detective crime thriller, but it's more people than procedural. It's definitely more about the family secrets, relationships, and a hidden past that perhaps shouldn't be uncovered. There's a definite focus on relationships and feelings, and the detective doesn't actually feature that much in the narrative. It's very slow burn, with a long build up and then most of the action taking place in the last 3/4 of the book. Each memory throws up more questions, and I found the slow drip of memories and information really intriguing. I was kept guessing the whole way through. The plot itself is kind of wild, and trying to put together the pieces made this a fun read.

The one character I really didn't like much was Kitten. She's Holly's best friend, who witnessed her abduction as a child. She seems kind of disconnected from Holly, even at one point saying 'if I've moved past it, so can you', showing she really doesn't understand what Holly's been through. Kitten is preparing for her wedding, and I found her a bit of a bridezilla at times. Although that might be just because I don't really understand the appeal of marriage and big, perfect weddings.

Overall this book is a good read, with plenty of mysteriousness that made me want to keep reading.

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Loved it!! As soon as I started reading it, I couldn't wait to find out who was behind Holly's kidnapping. I was definitely suspicious of EVERYONE. I kept thinking it had to be one of the men in Holly's life. I loved the story, characters and writing style. Kitten was the most annoying. I hated how she thought Holly being kidnapped and gone for three months was the same as her witnessing the kidnapping. Kitten was a BRIDEZILLA. How many parties does one need before the wedding???I also found it hard to give too much sympathy to Cecily. She pushed Holly and her husband away. She would rather drink and paint than spend any time with her family. She would rather talk to Paul and tell him everything than her own husband. I hated that Trevor blamed her for Holly being abducted. I definitely wasn't expecting the ending. I was sort of shocked about who was involved with all the kidnappings and the reason behind it. Loved how Holly would refer to Sterling's demon dog as Dog, because she refused to say the dog's real name.

Definitely recommend the book. It was a great mystery/thriller. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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I really liked it! Great storyline!

That was nine girls who are missing and, who had blond hair along blue eyes was pretty similar in so many ways..At least, some of them got justice for nine missing girls...

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy....

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Stars: ⭐⭐⭐

PUBLICATION DAY: August 25, 2020

What happened the day I disappeared??

PLOT SUMMARY:
Holly was kidnapped as a child...she was returned to her family 94 days later, unharmed. But the time spent away is a black hole for Holly, now an adult, she still has no memories of those days and who might have taken her. A man is in jail for the crime, but when a series of young girls going missing under alarmingly similar circumstances to Holly’s own keeps occurring, they wonder if they have the right guy. Can Holly work this out before it’s too late?

PROS and CONS:
Holly can’t remember who kidnapped her...and none of the police are able to form any connections between her kidnapping and ten other missing girls in the area...it was a bit far fetched - different jurisdictions or not, you would think someone might have noticed a pattern going on.

There are plenty of suspects to consider, so the ending isn’t obvious. I wasn’t crazy about the plot device where Holly would speak out loud to her coma induced mother, even when she was nowhere near her, and whom she never seemed to like at all until she wasn’t available. But it was a good way to include the mother’s point of view in the story.

There are plenty of twists and turns, perhaps a few too many. And it was probably just me, but I found the timeline to be a bit confusing.

YES or NO:
It’s a MAYBE from me - it’s an interesting case of missing girls, but perhaps the execution could use a bit more refinement.

3 Stars

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