Kimi Cunningham Grant is back with another suspenseful read. I was hooked immediately from the premise of the book because I love wilderness settings mixed with a little mystery, and this one had a ton of mystery. While I am not an influencer by any means, the influencer characters seemed to come to life in the story - people doing seemingly crazy things for fame and cash. No spoilers here, but if you're a fan of Alex Michelades' latest, you'll enjoy this one.

I loved this story for the mystery, the jump in timeline from past to present and back, the complex characters, and the subtle twists woven in. But what I absolutely loved the most was the author's writing style. She paints a picture of the wilderness they have to travel through and brings the characters to life in your mind. And since the mystery is only told in bits and pieces, you can never tell who to trust. This is my first book by this author but I plan to read more!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I only just read These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant earlier this year, while These Silent Woods came highly recommended from a lot of bookish friends, I personally liked The Nature of Disappearing a bit better.

The Nature of Disappearing is a bit more intense and faster-paced than These Silent Woods imo, however my biggest issue with the book was that FMC worked as a outdoor guide and the friends involved in the incident are outdoors influencers but there are so many amateur mistakes and unreasonable decisions made throughout the book that I didn't really find the story believable?

Emlyn spends her time as a hunting and fishing guide in the woods of Idaho. She prefers to keep her past behind her, but she’s also incredibly closed off because of how she’s been treated by those she’s loved and trusted. I loved reading this book, and if you’re outdoorsy, I think you’ll also appreciate the role that the woods plays in this mystery. This is for sure a slow burn, but it’s not incredibly long, so in all you get to the tense parts of it pretty quickly. If you’ve read this authors’ prior work These Silent Woods, I think you’ll also really enjoy this one.

I liked this book. The story kept my interest the entire time (my mind never wandered). The characters were well written and I cared about what happened to them in the wilderness.

I came into The Nature of Disappearing without having read These Silent Woods, which seems to make me an outlier. But, as such I didn't have any preconceived ideas about Grant as a writer. I found this to be a (sometimes epically) slow burn. Her imagery is detailed and very complete, I felt like I was out there with Emlyn and Tyler. However, I struggled overall with the general plot of this book. It felt really reminiscent of the Gabby Petito tragedy, but stopped short. I guess that's a good thing, there's plenty of stories out there with the missing-white-woman-turns-up-dead; so this was a nice change of pace in that regard. I did struggle to connect with Emlyn because she seemed like such a downer who glommed onto people who gave her attention even at her own peril. I don't know, it just fell somewhat flat for me.

I had really enjoyed These Silent Woods so I’ll admit that I went into this with high expectations. I do think the synopsis nails it when it says a novel of suspense. There is a very slow burn mystery and combined with the lush descriptions of the wilderness, it made for an intriguing read at first. I really enjoyed some of Grant’s nature writing and all the parts about surviving in the wild were fascinating. The novel builds up to explain the enigmatic behaviors of the missing friend, and despite all that build up, I found myself having to suspend some disbelief as the mystery unfolded. There were definitely some twists I didn’t see coming that added some last minute intrigue. Overall I enjoyed the survival/nature parts of this one more than the mystery but still thought it made for an entertaining read.

Overall an okay read. The author is a talented writer. I enjoyed the descriptions of the animals and nature, I felt like I was out in the woods camping. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype. I prefer fast paced, twisty thrillers and this one was very slow for the first 3/4 of the book. I wish it had a faster pace and more excitement.

This book was part coming of age, part ode to the power of friendship over many years, and also a reminder of the power of nature and addiction. I enjoyed the dual timeline, and even though it started a little slow, I could feel the tension building up by the second half of the book.

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 wasn’t as interested in this premise as Grant’s last book and felt it was a little too derivative of the Gabby Petito case but I still stand by my opinion that Grant is an amazing writer and I will still read anything she writes in the future.

I didn't really like this one. Maybe I just don't like these wilderness-type books...but either way, this did not feel like a thriller to me! The story was really slow and dragged on! The flashbacks were really boring and didn't interest me at all.

It also seemed like the author was trying to take a spin on Gabby Petito's story, which I didn't like how something from the news (and was a sad story) was put into this Novel.

I've had These Silent Woods on my want to read list for a while, but not sure if I do want to read it after this one!

After a long and drawn on novel, the final twist fell flat and was unsatisfying.

Great nature writing, but I did not enjoy the plot or the main character. I could not feel any tension or pull for me to keep reading or care about what happened to the character. I loved “These Silent Woods”.

this just wasnt as good as her last book. The last one I couldn't put down, and this one I was tempted to set aside the plot just didn't grab me.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

Emlyn and her best friend, Janessa have been estranged for quite some time. Emlyn is leading a quiet life as a tracker and is trying to put her life back together after a tramautic event. When Emlyn finds out from her exboyfriend that Janessa is missing, she at first doesn't want to look into it, thinking that Janessa is probably just off grid but then she thinks about all of the times Janessa has saved her and stood up for her and she knows that she must team up with Tyler, even though being near him only makes her think of what she lost and she starts to wonder if they could ever be together again. As they search for Janessa things take a dangerous turn and Emlyn finds herself wondering if she will make it out of the wilderness alive.

Thsi was a decent storyline but I found it hard to connect with the characters sometimes. Her last book was wy better but I would definitely check out more books by this author.

📖 BOOK REVIEW

📱 THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING by Kimi Cunningham Grant
4 stars

Genre: thriller
Did I cry: no
Published in 2024
My Goodreads review: “extremely conflicting thoughts over this book. Will we ever stop villainizing addiction in literature jw”

💭: after being completely obsessed with THESE SILENT WOODS for multiple years, this book was so highly anticipated and in turn, i had pretty high expectations for it. It had that same eerie fall atmospheric vibe to it, with a big nod to the rural, western US deep forest/wilderness setting. The writing was suspenseful and consumable, keeping me engaged and wanting answers. I also did enjoy the dual timeline and i always appreciate how both timelines progress and eventually merge into present day, leading to a big plot reveal.

I also was finding a lot of parallels to the sweeping and infamous true crime story of Gabby Petitio from a few years ago which was fun to draw upon my knowledge from that whole case.

My biggest and most glaring qualm with this book was how substance use & addiction were depicted & specifically the language surrounding it. I don’t mind a story that has it as a plot point, but if it’s not handled with care and delicacy then it adds to the harmful stigma and shame surrounding it that people in this field and also people in recovery work so hard to reduce. I cannot emphasize enough how important this subject is to me and as you can tell, im quite passionate about it.

Because of addiction, the author actually uses this direct quote to describe one of the characters (I’m altering names/pronouns to keep it vague & spoiler-free) — “she sees [redacted] as [redacted] must’ve seen him/her, all along. As he/she truly is. Not captivating, as he/she’s always been to him/her, but broken, selfish, desperate. Tragic.” Ummmm I’m sorry nothing about this is okay and i simply cannot recommend this book because of it. It is so disheartening and disappointing to read this.

I loved The Silent Woods by this author and was anxiously awaiting this one. I will say this one was a bit slow for me and not as exciting as her other book. The plot point was the slow part; however, the authors visual depiction of the atmosphere is what kept me reading this one. It was beautiful!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and the author for the ARC of this book.

I loved this book. I did think it was going to be mainly a thriller, but there were a lot of contemporary fiction elements as long as a lot of friends/family drama, which I liked because it felt like it added more depth to the story, along with a pinch of romance.

I felt like Cunningham Grant did a great job of keeping the reader on their toes throughout. This is a story I struggled to even describe. The twists that came I did not expect at all. It’s also always a plus as a female reader to see how strong the bond of friendship truly are. What would any of us do if our best friend disappeared and everyone assumed she was, hiking off the grid, but we just knew in our gut that something wasn’t right?

There were some scenes I can picture so clearly in my head. One of my favorite things about this author is her use of imagery and ability to conjure a completely eerie, scary scene without anything major happening.

I can’t say enough good things about the story. It’s a quick read because it is so hard to put down. I became so invested in Emlyn and Tyler’s track to find Janessa and loved all of these characters.

Sometimes the thrill of thriller isn’t a serial killer or an abuser in the night, but actually someone thought you knew better than anyone else.

As for my ratings :
Excitement level: 5
Ease of reading level: 5
Overall rating : 5

I really enjoyed the author's previous book, These Silent Woods, so I knew that I was going to be giving her newest book a try. Unfortunately, The Nature of Disappearing didn't wow me like These Silent Woods.

I will say that Kimi Cunningham Grant is a master at atmosphere and wilderness settings. You can visualize the scenes so well from how she writes them. However, the characters and the plot just didn't grab me like I had hoped and mixing that with a bit of a slow burn, I found myself drifting a lot. There is underlying tension that easily comes through with the characters, but they were all so unlikable that I didn't find myself as invested in the tension as I usually would have been.

I will still try her next book to see if she ends up being a must read author, but for now I'm still unsure.

3.5/5 stars

I'm sad to say this one did not work for me. I loved These Silent Woods but for me this was a departure. It lacked emotional depth and I couldn't bring myself to really care for any of the characters. I didn't feel as though the reveals were that interesting, and while the wilderness writing was solid, the story itself was lackluster. Still, I'll read anything this author writes.