The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant 🏕️🏕️🏕️.5

I would like to thank NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

“[S]ome things you say cannot be taken back. [F]riendships can shatter over a single argument. [N]o relationship is immune to ending.”
— Kimi Cunningham Grant, The Nature of Disappearing

I thought I'd love this book more than I did, but for me it was just ok. I've read tons of nature, survival thrillers and this one fell a bit short. Like the friendships were kind of surface level and not as believable. And there weren't much for breadcrumbs that led to the twist. The twist was also a bit underwhelming, overall I think this was a good book but I've read books that did it better.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

I absolutely LOVED These Silent Woods, so this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. Sadly, I didn’t feel the same tension and suspense with The Nature of Disappearing that I felt with her other book. Perhaps the father/daughter connection is what kept me going with These Silent Woods and I couldn’t feel the female friendship connection with this one as much? Kimi Cunningham Grant is such a master at writing an atmospheric wilderness setting though, so that kept me going!

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner for the advanced copy of The Nature of Disappearing in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved Kimi Cunningham Grant’s debut novel, These Silent Woods, so I was thrilled to get my hands on her sophomore novel and let me just say…it did not disappoint! She has such a unique voice that just captivates me from start to finish with her novels and I find I cannot stop thinking about her books once I finish them.

From the moment I started this one, I just knew it was going to be one of those books I would not be able to put down, and I didn’t. I read this one in one sitting! I was totally captivated not only by the story but also by the characters. I was so invested in what was happening with them. I loved the way the multiple timelines allow us to slowly get to know the characters, revealing crucial information at just the right time.

I loved how atmospheric and suspenseful this story was. The slow-burn pace works so well here, as each chapter brims with just the right amount of tension and suspense. At times, I got Gabby Petito vibes from the story, though I loved that the story went in a totally different direction.

This story is very much character-driven and I loved that. But what I loved even more is how strong the sense of place is. The woods, or wilderness, is once again a main character in this book, much like they were in These Silents Woods. It’s unforgiving and adds a sense of darkness to the story but also signifies loneliness with is vastness.

While I am late in sharing this review, I do promise it is a book I continue to recommend. It’s writing is so beautiful and vivid and I am excited to see what comes next from this author – I will absolutely be picking it up to read!

This was a really atmospheric mystery read. The wilderness location and descriptions of the setting added for a very immersive read.

I really enjoyed the mystery and plot.

This was a really atmospheric mystery read. The wilderness location and descriptions of the setting added for a very immersive read. Emlyn works as a fishing and hunting guide in Idaho in an attempt to move on from her past. When a former boyfriend shows up to tell her that their mutual friend is missing, Emlyn has to confront her past and work through everything she knows about her friend to track her down in the wilderness. Emlyn was such an interesting character. I liked that the book was dual timeline because I feel like I really got to understand Emlyn as her story unfolds. The mystery unfolds throughout the book at a slow pace, but I think that works well with the descriptions of the woods and the surroundings. Overall, I think this was a suspenseful read. The writing is where this book shines and I really liked the style. I would recommend it to mystery fans!

The Nature of Disappearing brings you an atmospheric story set in Idaho. Emlyn is hiding out as a fishing and hunting guide after a bad breakup trying to create a life for herself when a friend goes missing. She teams up with her ex to try and find out what happened to her friend.

I loved These Silent Woods so I was excited to read another book by Grant. Unfortunately I had just read a book set in Idaho and I feel like the socail media influencer gone missing storyline has just been overplayed for me. That being said Grant does have a way of sucking you into the setting of the story and her characters are interesting. I'll definitely read something else by her.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC of The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant

Kimi Cunningham Grant did it again by creating a stunning and atmospheric setting in her newest novel, The Nature of Disappearing. Like her previous book, The Silent Woods, I was immediately captivated by the author’s descriptions of the great outdoors and the people who know how thrive within that vast and challenging landscape.

In this novel we explore the friendship of two young women in their college years and into early adulthood. Emlyn and Janessa, do not seem to be a likely pair, but Janessa is determined to befriend and protect Emlyn early on in their budding friendship. A decade or so after the young women first meet, the tables are turned, when Janessa, a popular influencer, disappears from the grid.

This slow-burn thriller/mystery is told by Emlyn, in alternating time lines between the past and present day. In this way, Cunningham Grant fleshes out and brings nuance to her characters.

Although I enjoyed seeing the growth in Emlyn’s character, bouncing from timeline to timeline did take me out of the story somewhat. I often felt like this book did not know if it was a character driven literary suspense or a straight-up thriller. For me it did not fall neatly into either category. The twist was somewhat disappointing and a bit of a let-down.

Overall, this was a story I was compelled to keep reading, but one in which I found the ending to be lackluster. My favorite part of the book was the nature writing and watching the friendship between Emlyn and Janessa unfold. The Nature of Disappearing will be a good read for those who enjoy a slow burn mystery/thriller set in the great outdoors, and for lovers of coming-of-age novels and female friendship stories.

3.5 Stars

I was looking forward to this book but was ultimately disappointed. These Silent Woods was one of my favorite books ever so my expectations were set high. I feel like not a lot actually happened in The Nature of Disappearing. It was slow leading up to a disappointing ending that ended rather quickly. The beginning of the book started out promising but quickly lost my interest.

I loved this author's previous book, These Silent Woods, and was so excited to preorder a copy of The Nature of Disappearing. And then, as I often do, I let it sit on my shelves for 6 months until I finally picked it up. I think I'm realizing that I really love nature/wilderness stories, especially with a little suspense, and this hit that mark for me. Emlyn is a wilderness guide attempting to move on with her life after a traumatic breakup. However, when her best friend from the past goes missing, she's compelled to team up with her ex to help find her friend. I love Kimi Cunningham Grant's writing and this one kept me turning the pages. My only critique is that the ending seemed a little rushed. But overall, I enjoyed this one and am looking forward to whatever this author comes out with next. 4.5 stars.

Kimi Cunningham Grant has a knack for pulling you into environments in a way that heightens the emotional stake. She delves into the messiness of human connection—not just with others, but with ourselves.

A Journey into the Wild

So, Tyler – yeah, he is that guy, who waltzes back into Emlyn's life like nothing ever happened in their past. And with news, Emlyn’s old friend Janessa is missing. Great. Just when Emlyn thought she could finally forget about the past, him, and the hurt he caused... But Janessa's a friend, and Emlyn has to help. Still, it's not like she trusts Tyler. So, off they go, trekking through exhausting terrain and dredging up all those feelings she'd rather leave buried.

Emlyn: A Reluctant Heroine

Emlyn–She’s not your typical bold, take-on-the-world protagonist. She doesn’t see she’s resilient or strong, and honestly, that’s why I loved her. She is a mix of strength and self-doubt. The story spends a lot of time just getting to know her—peeling back the layers of her past and revealing the experiences that have shaped her.

Slow Burn, Satisfying Payoff

The book takes its time. You’re wading through introspection and backstory for a while before the action kicks in. But once it does. The stakes get real, the tension builds, and next thing you know, you’re clutching your book (or Kindle, because let’s face it, e-readers are life) as everything depends on what happens next.

Knock out two tasks at once

Now, here’s the thing. This title sat on my NetGalley shelf forever. Why? Honestly, the reviews weren’t exactly glowing, so I kept putting it off. But when I finally decided to give it a go, I grabbed the audiobook it became my go-to for multitasking. Doing all those things I’d rather skip and be reading instead. I was entertained and productive.

It may not have been love at first listen, but by the end, I was hooked. Slow start aside, it’s one of those stories that creep up on you and stick around. Worth a shot!

“𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫. 𝐈𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 - 𝐢𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧.”

The Nature of Disappearing is a poignant and atmospheric mystery from a new-to-me author.

Kimi Cunningham Grant’s tale of friendship between Emlyn and Janessa, set in the backdrop of the Idaho wilderness is brimming with tension, not in a thriller-type way necessarily, but more in a taunt exploration of female friendship, past love, and addiction. Told in present day, with flashbacks that highlight Emlyn’s life I appreciated the past just as much as the present; the flashbacks help with understanding Emlyn, Janessa, Tyler, and how their relationships with each other have woven together but also fractured. The wilderness and nature itself feel like a character that add to the atmosphere and sense of threat, with Grant’s poetry-like descriptions a highlight of this exploration of relationship patterns. The love story between Emlyn and Tyler did seem to cast a bit of a shadow over the actual disappearance of Janessa at times, which might’ve thrown the pacing off a bit for me at times. I listened to parts of the story on audiobook, and Emily Pike Stewart did a great job narrating with a tone that kept me invested in a different way than when physically reading.

The Nature of Disappearing is a slow-burn gorgeously written story that has me wanting to check out Grant’s debut. Thank you to Minotaur Books for the ARC!

The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant is a haunting and beautifully crafted novel that blends suspense, mystery, and emotional depth. The story follows Emlyn, a woman who has meticulously built a quiet, solitary life in Idaho after surviving a traumatic event three years ago—the betrayal of her ex, Tyler, who left her for dead after a car accident. Now working as a fishing and hunting guide, Emlyn has distanced herself from her past and its painful memories. However, when Tyler reappears with news that their former friend, Janessa, is missing, Emlyn is reluctantly drawn back into the world she has tried to escape.

Janessa, once a social media star documenting her #vanlife adventures, has disappeared without a trace, and Emlyn agrees to help Tyler track her down. As they journey into the wilderness, Emlyn is forced to confront her past, and the unresolved chemistry between her and Tyler reignites. But as they uncover more unsettling truths about Janessa’s disappearance, Emlyn realizes that the danger they are chasing may be far greater than either of them anticipated.

Grant’s writing is both evocative and suspenseful, capturing the stark beauty of the Idaho wilderness while delving deeply into the emotional landscape of its characters. The novel is a slow-burn thriller, with mounting tension as Emlyn unravels the secrets of her past and the mystery surrounding Janessa’s disappearance. At its heart, The Nature of Disappearing is about the complexities of trauma, healing, and the difficult process of letting go and moving forward. It's a gripping, poignant exploration of how the past shapes who we are—and how sometimes, we must face it to find our way forward.

Emlyn works in remote Idaho as a fishing and hunting guide. When her best friend goes missing, she’s forced to team up with her ex-boyfriend—the same man who left her freezing and near death on the roadside three years ago—to track her down.

The narrative is told in both past and present timelines. This usually isn't an issue for me, but in this case, the transition between timelines was not always smooth and did not always go in an order that made sense to me. There were times when the same things were discussed both in past and present which made that information feel repetitive.

I enjoyed the story overall. This would have been a solid 4 star read for me until the last 25%. It's probably more of a personal preference, but I didn't care for the direction the story took towards the end. Given the slow build up, the ending felt a little rushed.

This is my second book by this author. Once again, she has mastered the art of vividly painting the landscape with her words. She does a great job immersing the reader in her remote settings. I wouldn't classify this as a thriller, but more of a slower paced domestic suspense. 3.5 stars.

I read this book while I was laying in bed with Covid it was the perfect escape. The author did an incredible job making me feel like I was in the mountains with the main character.
Emlyn refuses to think about the past she shared with her ex boyfriend Tyler and her former best friend Janessa. We are immediately shown they share a strained past. Emlyn is now a fishing and hunting guide in Idaho and she lives in an airstream.
When Janessa goes missing in the wilderness, while working as an influencer who travels in a van. Tyler reappears asking for Emlyns help. Emlyn knows she has the skills to help Tyler with finding out what happened to Janessa . Tyler and Emlyn share a romantic past, that plays into this plot and you can see the dysfunction that they had, and what led her to be a guide in the wilderness. Wracked with guilt that a call with Janessa dropped last week and she never found out what Janessa needed from her. She reluctantly teams up with Tyler. As the two trace Janessa’s path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can’t deny there’s still chemistry between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods―and that Janessa isn’t the only one in danger.

Emlyn has a past that is nothing to write home about. She doesn’t often speak with Janessa, her best friend, and her ex-boyfriend left her on the side of the road for dead. Thankfully she now has a quiet life that allows her to spend her days in nature, leading fishing and hunting groups that wish to take in the beauty that is the Idaho wilderness. All is as it should be, until Tyler, her ex-boyfriend shows up looking for help to find Janessa who has gone missing. Janessa has turned into a bit of a social media star, living in a van and within the wilderness away from all the chaos that cities bring, but she seems to have gone silent online and can’t be located. Believing that she might be the only one who can find her, Emlyn reluctantly agrees, but Janessa might not be the only one in danger.

I really wanted to like this one, but it was a struggle. The descriptive language used painted a beautiful picture of the wilderness and all that comes with it. It seemed to me that the author has a lot of knowledge about the area (or areas like it) and the type of life lived by the characters. I also liked the idea of the dual timeline, bringing the past and the present together well. That being said the plot was such a slow burn that nothing thrilling happened until the novel was almost over, making it more of a drama and less of a thriller. I also struggled with the characters. While I did not go through exactly what Emlyn did, I did face an event that led me to almost die at the hands of another and I would never put myself in a situation where I was alone with my attacker, let alone even take a phone call. This made it hard to connect with her in any meaningful way as a character. I really just wanted more.

Unfortunately I feel the same way about the audiobook as I do about the book. To me the narrator seemed almost robotic, both in terms of the way it sounded as a whole and in the lack of emotion and inflection. I really didn’t feel like anything was added by listening to the audiobook, but it did not affect my overall opinion about the narrative.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for gifting to me electronic and audio copies of The Nature of Disappearing, given in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.

It's always hard to not set your expectations high when you start a new book by an author you've previously loved. I do think that sets a precedence that's hard to shake, so you expect the new book to be fantastic like the previous and possibly expect it to be more when you wouldn't necessarily think that otherwise. So, needless to say, I expected a lot from this book and was quite a bit let down. However - I tried to set that aside and I realized I did enjoy this book quite a book, I just didn't LOVE it like the last.

This book is very atmospheric, as expected, but it had more of a love story twisted through it as well. Both between the characters and a love story with nature and becoming one with it to explore and keep safe while doing so. It was beautifully written and definitely an excellent read, but I felt it dragged quite a bit in places. I think for this one, audio is the way to go because you can let yourself get lost in it without having to specifically read every word.

I enjoyed this one a lot! I don’t always love when a story is told in two different timelines, but the way she separated them by chapters made it easy to follow. The story flowed well and made this a quick read.

Emlyn ends up on a dangerous search through the wilderness with her ex when her estranged best friend goes missing on a trip with her boyfriend. Once they find her, they realize she wasn’t lost at all but it was part of a scheme to expose her boyfriend for drug smuggling. I caught onto the “who” pretty early, but the “why” was a surprise. I liked that the ex ended up being bad afterall because for a while, I was worried Emlyn would go back to him instead of the new (much better) guy.

**ARC review. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read it early.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

I wasnt able to read and review this one before the publish date but now that I have I gave it 5 stars.