Vanishing Girls

Starred review from January 12, 2015
Sisters Dara and Nick had grown up as “the Two Musketeers, the Dynamic Duo, Light and Dark, two sides of the same cookie,” but after a serious car accident, the two sisters are irrevocably distanced. As older, more reliable sister Nick tries to find her way back into Dara’s graces, their strained relationship, the boy who came between them, and the sudden disappearance of a nine-year-old girl bring secrets of a local underworld too close to home. The novel alternates between the sisters’ perspectives, both before and after the accident, while news reports, diaries, and blog posts and comments from the community create a narrative full of shades of grey. Oliver (Panic) is in top form in this psychological family drama that investigates the complicated nature of sisterhood. Perfect for readers who devoured We Were Liars, it’s the sort of novel that readers will race to finish, then return to the beginning to marvel at how it was constructed—and at everything they missed. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.

January 1, 2015
Two sisters' lives are irrevocably changed by a shared accident.Nick and her younger sister, Dara, are two sides of an impossibly complicated familial coin-different in almost every way yet bound together by blood and circumstance. When Nick walks away from a terrible accident that leaves her sister permanently scarred, the resulting wounds, both physical and emotional, leave both girls reeling, struggling to redefine who they are as individuals and in relation to each other. The "Before" and "After" are told from both Dara's and Nick's points of view through a series of flashbacks, present-day accounts, and diary and blog entries. Unfortunately, what could have been a powerful exploration of two young women picking up the pieces after a sudden and costly accident becomes lost in a novel that simply tries to do too much. Most notably, Oliver attempts to weave together Nick and Dara's story with a tangential plotline about the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl. It takes far too long for the threads connecting the two to become apparent, and for the better part of the novel, the subplot feels like a distraction. Far too much time is spent on a tepid love triangle when it would have been put to better use developing some of the more intriguing aspects of the story. This is an uneven read that suffers from grandiose ambitions. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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November 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Different as night and day, sisters Nick and Dara are practically joined at the hip. Nick is perpetually the cool and calm older one who calls the shots. Dara is always tagging along, longing to be in the spotlight. That was before the accident that left Dara injured and Nick shaken to the core. Now, the siblings barely speak to each other; they live together but never cross paths. Nick gets a job at a local amusement park and begins to interact with people again, mostly with her longtime best friend, but also with her sister's ex-boyfriend, Parker. As the summer continues, a young local girl goes missing and Nick finds herself getting more involved with the ensuing drama than she ever expected. The situation comes to a boiling point at Dara's birthday dinner when she disappears too, and it's up to Nick to piece the story together and discover what has happened to her sister. Like in her "Delirium" series and Before I Fall (2010, both HarperCollins), Oliver's characterizations and background stories are well-developed and compulsively readable. The relationship between Nick and Dara drives the plot and is very realistic. The twist the author incorporates at the end is dramatic without being absurd and was completely unexpected. Recommend to teens looking for a well-written work with a juicy ending. They will not be disappointed.-Morgan Brickey, Marion County Public Library System, FL

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 When Nick leaves her dad's place to move in with her mother and sister, Dara, she's very wary, since Dara hasn't spoken to her since their terrible car accident, which left Dara permanently scarred. In between working at the local amusement park and navigating her confusing feelings for her childhood friend Parker, Nick hopes to patch things over with Dara so they can rekindle the relationship they had before the accident. Meanwhile, everyone in Nick's Virginia beach town is captivated by the disappearance of seven-year-old Madeline Snow, and when Nick thinks Dara is missing in a related incident, she starts poking around in dangerous places only to find out shocking things about her sister. Best-selling Oliver weaves a taut mystery interspersed with blog posts about Madeline's disappearance, and the story is made all the more compelling by Nick and Dara's close but troubling relationship, marked by both love and intense jealousy. Although the plot occasionally seems muddled, and some readers might be frustrated by Nick's diffidence, the bombshell conclusion gratifyingly makes up for it all. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Oliver's Delirium trilogy was a big hit. Expect her many fans to turn out for this novel, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)