Short and Haunted: The Vanishing Season

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Series: Standalone
Published: July 1st 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Lenght: 256 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon
 

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig.I am looking for the things that are buried.

From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind.

As a reader, I have this overwhelming need to connect deeply with the characters I’m reading about. Even when I’m dealing with anti-heroes, there’s always something (usually humor, regardless of how non-PC it might be) that keeps us firmly linked. No matter how hard I tried, forming that or any other kind of connection with Anderson’s three characters proved to be impossible for me, and so did finishing this book.

It was all intentional, of course. The overall coldness and detachment wasn’t an accident at all. If anything, it was proof that Anderson is a very skilled writer, one capable of creating the exact atmosphere she desires. Based on the few reviews I’ve read, the distance between the reader and the characters is not without its purpose – it’s simply a deal breaker for me personally.

I gathered from those same few reviews that the story doesn’t end on a positive note. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m a closet romantic at heart. I like my stories to have hopeful endings, perhaps to make up for the fact that I don’t really believe in HEA in real life. Being denied both the emotional connection and a reason to smile in the end seemed like as good a reason as any to give up on this book and find something else to read.

I’m not telling you not to read this book. I’ve seen plenty of enthusiastic reviews so I’m pretty sure some of you will absolutely love it. Perhaps just read a sample first to see if this type of prose works for you.

DNF

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.