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I don't always tell my husband what l'm reading, but when I tried to describe The Art of Vanishing last night as I was finishing it up, I got the giggles. There's A LOT going on here.

Claire is a newly hired night janitor at an art museum. She has the uncanny ability of jumping into paintings. She begins a fling with Jean, the son of Matisse, who resides in a painting with his siblings and mother. When Claire joins him, they enjoy dates to the scenes of the museum's other paintings.

Also, in Claire's non-museum life, she has a young daughter and baby daddy drama she's keeping from her new love.
Then there's the pandemic. During lockdown a mysterious journal is discovered, and it's believed to be the work of a woman connected to a painting in this museum. It's put on display next to Jean's family and helps bring attendance back up as the museum reopens. To top it off, there's an art heist!

I read a middle grade novel with my kids earlier this summer, and I couldn't help but think as I was reading this one that it could *almost* be an amazing magical realism mystery for the same age group - minus the one really random and surprisingly descriptive sex scene, of course.

This book was just trying to do so much, I'm not sure what it actually did. I struggled to sit down and power through it for the first 50%, but it did pick up for me in the second half.

Thanks to @netgalley and @ballantinebooks for the review copy!

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A really cool concept; what would you do it you could jump into a painting? The MMC was a bit disjointed for me; he's stuck in his present but knew a lot about ours, and I think that pulled me out of the story a bit. I liked how COVID played in to the story.

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I’ve been following Morgan Pager (nycbookgirl) for a long time so I was excited to read her debut novel. This book is a delightful story of love and magic and even a bit of a mystery.
Claire is a new nighttime janitor in an art museum and she becomes interested in Jean, a young man in one of the paintings. She feels a pull towards the painting and realizes she can literally go right into the painting where she meets and begins a relationship with Jean. Many obstacles (I mean besides the fact that he lives in a painting) pop up in the way of their budding relationship, Claire’s nosy supervisor, the Covid pandemic and a mysterious robbery in the museum.
Jean and Claire’s relationship was very sweet and I especially enjoyed seeing things from Jean’s perspective and exploring the world within the paintings. I found the ending a bit abrupt but it did involve some interesting revelations. If you are looking for something a little different this summer, The Art of Vanishing is worth checking out.
Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced copy of this book.

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Good: interesting story, enjoyed her writing, needed to find out what was going to happen. What didn't work: not a fan of magical realism because you have to suspend belief on a few things, ending seemed rushed. I will read more from Morgan Pager, though! Good debut!

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Okay so i enjoyed it but im kinda disappointed… imo I felt like the covid of it all really wasn’t necessary to the story and the time could have been spent further building Jean and Claire’s relationship or extended the journal storyline, because that felt rushed. i was also annoyed that Luna’s character was introduced so late. Also what was the point of Jeremy.. like he didn’t need to be there at all. Idk i loved the idea of this one but all of that just kinda annoyed me!

Fun idea just not the best execution :/

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This novel is told in two perspectives. The first is 21 year old Claire who just started as a custodian working the night shift at a museum. She loves looking at the art and can't believe she's able to work there.

The other perspective is from a young man named Jean. His is truly unique, as he is part of a painting of Matisse's family. After closing, the people in the paintings can finally move. Jean immediately notices Claire and feels like Claire actually sees him. One day, he decides to move toward her and accidentally pulls her into his world.

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This read was amazing! I absolutely love Jean and Claire! This was such a good cute read. It is such an intriguing story between the two.

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morgan’s writing is beautifully, almost hauntingly lyrical, but it leaves something to be desired. i felt like i was looking in from the outside rather than being embedded directly into the story. nevertheless, it was interesting!

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I have been a big fan of Morgan Pager on social media for a long time, so when she announced this book I knew it would be one of my most anticipated of 2025. I loved this book so much! It had so much nostalgia for some of my favorite books as a kid, and it was such a unique story.

I loved both Claire and Jean -- they were such different characters and both so endearing. I loved how they could find commonality despite being from such different time periods and backgrounds.

This book covers the beginning of the pandemic and brought me right back to that time period -- not an easy thing to read!

This book is so unique, I loved having characters whose image I've seen before but never spent much time thinking about. I loved all the discussion of arts and the setting of the art museum, I could picture it all so vividly.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes a little magical realism in their books, as well as lots of wonderful discussion about art. I am so excited for Morgan Pager and cannot wait to read what she writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

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I had such such high hopes for this one, but it was unfortunately only okay for me. I found the tone to be much more New Adult than I expected (I feel like even slightly older characters would’ve been much more compelling to me!) and the tone switch around the halfway point felt more jarring to me than anything. The premise is still so compelling, but unfortunately I just don’t think this one is for me.

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Having follow Morgan @nycbookgirl for years, I've been keenly looking forward to her debut novel! The premise of a couple from different worlds falling in love, in the setting of a museum, sounded so perfectly written for me.

Sadly, I soured on this book. The writing needed so much more editing than it received - redundant phrasing, confusing subject/verb construction, and so much "said" rather than "shown" made for an amateurish impression. The two main characters simply made no sense, individually or together. What about Jean was so compelling?? Why did Claire keep her daughter a secret for so long? Why did this have to be set during COVID?

I am bummed that this wasn't a home run for me, but appreciate the opportunity to review it and offer my honest opinion.

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2.5⭐

LIKED:
- The premise of this is great. Not only the concept of being able to enter paintings, but also just the setting of the museum, and the FMC being on the janitorial staff.
- The lore and world building of how the different paintings interact was fun. I could have done with even more to be honest.
- I don’t know if I like or really don’t like that Jean was a character from the life of a real world painter. But…I get it. And it makes sense that it’s like that with the conversation of real life people versus their painterly counterparts, which was an interesting idea.
- The title is pretty good. I don’t think…vanishing is really the best word to cap off “The Art of -” but I get what the author was going for.
- Oh this cover is stunning. Just gorgeous.

LAMENTED:
- This book is not a romance. Not if you’re looking for the #1 tenant of romances. It’s okay if it’s not trying to be a romance, but it is marketed as such and that is frustrating.
- The stark change in tone and plot at around the 50% mark was jarring to say the least. And honestly, I wasn’t a fan of it. It made it feel like two books crammed together as well as shock for shock’s sake, like information has been withheld from us just so the author could go “betcha didn’t see that coming!!”
- The climax of the book seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere and then the resolution wasn’t clear? I don’t know, maybe I just didn’t understand it, but it was odd and it felt like drama for drama’s sake.
- The journal was also just not terribly interesting, and felt like a dead giveaway as to its writer due to us not being introduced to the journal until nearly two-thirds of the way through the book and not really letting the mystery sit with the reader. I didn’t dislike the concept of the journal and finding its writer, but I just don’t think it was well executed.
- Unfortunately, this book was also quite boring to me. I was not rooting for the romance (I found it really awkward to be honest) and I found the Jean to be tedious and underwhelming. Claire was most interesting to me, but Jean really needed more goals outside of pining for her for me to care about him.

LONGED FOR:
- More payoff for an interesting concept.
- A story and character arcs that didn’t feel quite as disjointed.
- Jean to be more interesting and less two-dimensional, pun very much intended.
- Also, this book depicts early COVID-19 and lockdown era which I am just honestly uninterested in reading after living it.

Will I read the next one? : I don’t think so.

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Tysm @ballantinebooks and @prhaudio for the early reading and listening copies of this very interesting read!

I started this one and immediately was hooked! I really don’t think I will be able to go to a museum and ever look at the artwork the same again! This was such an interesting premise for a story and one that I will definitely be thinking about for some time. A love story between a museum employee and a man in a masterpiece?!

Jean and Claire’s vibe was so whimsical and I really was so invested in what happens to them. There are also some deeper themes explored like family dynamics, the impact of COVID, and how we feel about ourselves.

I also really enjoyed the audio version of this one! It is narrated by Jarman Day and Jennifer Araya and the way they bring the dual POV to life is very addicting!

If you are a museum lover that also enjoys magical realism, grab this one!

4 stars

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**Thank you to @randomhouse for this free digital review copy!**

The magic behind this storyline was so dang fun and cute, if magic can be cute?? Loved this unique take on a romance that felt somewhat impossible at times, but that just made it all the better. This was such an inspirational take on living through difficult circumstances and a twist on a pandemic novel that I truly wasn’t expecting! I thought that Claire was a wonderful protagonist, resilient, strong, kind, and an incredible mom who always provided for her kiddo, even when it wasn’t easy. Jean was also a delight and such an interesting character, frozen in time yet still growing in his mind. I loved reading this story and I think anyone with a love for art and romance will too.

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This book is longing, deep longing for a different world that you've somehow never been apart of but feel that belonging deep in your bones. This book smells like grass after rain, fresh lilies in the spring and washing sunscreen off in the shower. This book is for anyone that stepped foot into a museum and was drawn to loving something, even though they didn't know what they were looking at. Who they were supposed to see. They simply felt something so deep within themselves that had no choice but to look, straight ahead, into the future unflinching.

This book reminded me of the first summer I spent at Huntington Garden in Los Angeles. Inside the farmhouse where most people don't know there are paintings. I felt something tying me down there, to that very spot, as I gazed longing at the oil paints on the wall. In a place I once felt so foreign, suddenly was familiar. I spent the spring in Lisbon, walking through castles where people lived years before me. Painting each other into oblivion and hanging their faces on the wall. A memorial of sorts.

I loved this book and how it allowed me to have those feelings again, the feelings I only feel when I'm in a museum. Or lost in a play. Experiencing something so deep and human I don't realize I'm longing for a different world. Pager does such a wonderful job of not only making you love these characters, but having you wish so deeply you could reach out, touch them and join their magical world. A novel that reminded of the magic of all the things I loved so dearly as a child. A wonderful debut, thank you for taking me along on your journey.

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On the surface this book is so totally up my alley. Love me some magical realism and I love the romance of an art museum. But, the more I got into this book the more frustrated I became. The "real world" characters' motivations were hazy and while this intentionally it just came across annoying. The FMC was just plan annoying and MMC didn't really bring anything to the table either. I've seen this compared to Ashley Poston books and can certainly understand that comparison, but I would argue the main difference is that Poston's books typically have a plot that carries through from start to finish.
My biggest issue here was that I felt like I read 3 thirds of 3 different books. First, we get the romance. Then, we get a COVID-19 lockdown story (didn't appreciate that surprise at all). And finally, we sort of get a heist story. It felt convoluted and overall I finished the story disappointed. That said, I think Pager has good idea and with some editorial help could give us something great in the future.

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The Art of Vanishing was an utterly unique and magical story that completely swept me away—I found myself so lost in it, in the best possible way. The narrative was unlike anything I’ve read before, full of quiet wonder and unexpected turns that kept me entranced from beginning to end. I especially loved Jean’s character—his way of observing the world was so thoughtful and beautifully written, it made even the smallest moments feel meaningful. The whole book had a dreamlike quality that lingered long after I turned the final page. I truly loved it.

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The Art of Vanishing is a standalone romantic fantasy (and debut novel) by Morgan Pager. Released 1st July 2025 by Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is such an appealing premise: the subjects in the paintings at museums have an internal life of their own... and the real-world MC can enter and exit the paintings and interact with the people depicted, moving between frames. There's a sort of "Night at the Museum" vibe sans humor.

Much of the characterizations and setting descriptions are more sketched in than detailed. The plot is definitely not linear and it varies between magical realism/fantasy, romance, and a heist mystery (last 30%) of the book, and jumps between genres so unexpectedly and abruptly that it's whiplash inducing.

The ending is not unexpected (it couldn't -be- otherwise, given the big-reveal twist), but it is somewhat dissatisfying.

Three stars. It's well written (especially for a debut novel), and worth a look for fans of hybrid genre romantasy/mystery.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Thank you to Random House Ballantine and Netgalley for the eArc.

3.5 rounded down. This story reminded me heavily of Jodi Picoult's "Between the Lines." I was intrigued throughout the story, but didn't feel a deep connection to any of the characters. The slow unraveling of the main character's story was interesting, but arguably too slow - some of the reveals felt like they came far too late for the weight they should have held.

The concept is wholly unique and the writing is strong. I would read from this author again.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed the beginning of The Art of Vanishing. It has strong Night at the Museum vibes: Claire, a night-shift custodian at a museum, discovers she can step into paintings. She meets Jean, a man trapped in a Matisse, and together they explore the vivid worlds of other masterpieces. It’s a wonderfully imaginative premise with romantic and magical-realism elements that immediately hooked me. But while the setup was fantastic, the story felt like it ended way too soon. The pacing speeds up toward the end, and the conclusion is abrupt, leaving some of the emotional stakes unresolved. Overall, it’s an entertaining, creative read that just didn’t quite deliver the satisfying ending I was hoping for.

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