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There are currently 30 member reviews
for The Vanishing Place
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Linda S. (Castle Pines, CO)
Be Prepared!
The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin took me on a journey through The Bush in Australia which held many secrets including one family who pretty much lives off the grid. The reader gets much insight into the characters and I learned to care about each of them.
There are many twists and turns which held my interest and I was anxious to see how all would get resolved. I appreciate how well a book is written and this author does an excellent job! Thank you to the publisher and BookBrowse for allowing me to read The Vanishing Place and giving this review.
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Carol R. (North Mankato, MN)
I Was Hooked
I was hooked as I realized the setting was the wild, remote bush country of New Zealand. The story unfolds with many twists and turns, alternating time periods and perspectives. I read a lot of books and I have found myself thinking about this one long after I read it. It took skill as a writer to bring the remote setting to life. I found myself wondering if the author had experienced living off the grid. Very captivating, unique story and setting! I highly recommend for book clubs. I think it would make a great movie!
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Ct Reader
Fear and isolation in the bush
My heart broke for the children and the misunderstandings and misperceptions that shaped their lives and affected their relationships. The dual timelines created suspense that kept building throughout the novel with a surprise identity towards the end. You can leave but never fully escape the past.
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Catheryne Z. (Plano, TX)
Off the Grid Suspense
The Vanishing Place is about Effie, who grows up in the New Zealand bush with her 3 siblings. The story has a dual time line between current times and when she was a child. Later, a third timeline is introduced. A young girl shows up in town from the bush who looks like Effie as a child. She is called in to help figure out who the girl is and her story. I enjoyed the book especially the plot twists in the last part of the book.
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Elizabeth D. (Apple Valley, MN)
Action in the Bush
Thank you to BookBrowse and Berkley for an advanced copy of this book. I requested this book because the description intrigued me and I don't read many books set in New Zealand. I like dual timeline books, as well as books from the viewpoint of multiple characters.
I finished this book quickly, as I wanted to get back to it when I wasn't reading. I liked the characters in the book, especially the friendship between the main character and her friend in Scotland - it added a bit of levity to an otherwise rather heavy book. I didn't always think the main character's decisions were wise, but that didn't impact her likability, in my opinion. The book features a number of children as characters, which I always find a bit tricky - either they seem too precocious or too young, but I felt they acted and spoke age-appropriately. There was an element of the ending that I thought was not needed, but don't want to say anymore about that to avoid spoilers.
I really liked the setting of the book. I felt a real sense of isolation and almost claustrophobia, even in the middle of a natural space. I liked how the main character and her sister felt differently about the landscape. It would have been lovely to have a map, especially given the large distances the characters had to traverse on foot. I tried to plot out the various locations mentioned on an actual map, but wasn't sure I was in the right area.
The only thing I didn't enjoy about the book was that I very often felt confused, and not necessarily in a good way. There's always a certain amount of confusion in a thriller as you try to understand what is going on, but here I just felt a bit more lost than usual. I've thought about this a lot since I finished the book a few weeks ago, whether I could put my finger on why I felt that way or what I was missing, but I can't really say. It wasn't enough to spoil my enjoyment and I do think the book had good twists.
I would gladly read another book by this author.
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Becky D. (Gloucester, VA)
Lots of back and forth
First and foremost this novel is a mystery within a mystery: who is the young girl who shows up in a town and looks exactly like a woman who left this town 20 years before?
Once this woman returns to town she delves into who this child is, all the while reliving her own history and how it may interconnect with the young stranger.
The novel does move back and forth between past and present while highlighting individual characters and their relationship to each other. I felt at times like I needed a timeline and a list of all of the different characters and their connection to each other.
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Lauren C. (Los Angeles, CA)
Entertaining Mystery from the New Zealand Outback
This mystery opens up with the mysterious appearance of a child in the present day and cuts back and forth to a family growing up in the wilderness areas of New Zealand. This gave it a different twist to other mysteries. I enjoyed the characters and the overall plot twists. I think the story could have been tightened up a bit in the middle when it spent a bit too much time with the back and forth and I would have liked it to get back to the present day mystery a bit faster. But once it did I was fully engaged. Overall I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a good missing person/murder-type mystery in a different setting.
