Book Summary and Reviews of The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin

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Mary B. (St Paul, MN)

The Vanishing Place
From the first paragraph on the story builds layer upon layer. The setting is in New Zealand in a small community. Nearby, the bush becomes a central character. A mystery unfolds when a young girl appears in the community torn and tattered. Who is she and where did she come from?

A local official contacts a young woman living in Ireland, who had fled the area some 20 years ago never wanting to come back. When she does return, her story unfolds as well as the young girls. The chapter time periods go from 1988 to 2025 not in that order. Each chapter tells a bit of the story and one thinks there will be an answer, but then its on to another time frame. This makes it difficult to stop reading!!

As mentioned earlier the bush is a central character. The author is vivid in her descriptive narrative of what it is like and what happens there. Her characters and their feelings are very real.

There are twists and turns in the story, as well as some dark material all central to story.
Very engrossing story. It is a mystery/thriller but also a strong story of human endurance and emotional connections. I look forward to more books by this author.

Margaret S. (Lincoln, NE)

A great read
This book is about a family that lives deep in a forest in a hut is totally absorbing. The characters are richly developed and there are mysteries (note plural) within mysteries—beginning with a young girl, bloody and bedraggled, wandering into to town. This results in the one person who escaped from the family returning to the small town. She gets caught up in solving the girl's identity plus other murders and family secrets. The final chapters surprised me as the family history is resolved. A great read. I didn't want to put it down.

Deborah G. (Black Mountain, NC)

New Zealand Intrigue
Zoë Rankin's The Vanishing Place is a location where fear, isolation, and complex family secrets reign. Who is the young girl caught frantically devouring strawberries at a grocery store in Koraha, New Zealand in 2025? What is her relationship to Effie, who currently lives in Island of Skye, Scotland? We piece this together from flashes of Effie's experiences in New Zealand in the early 2000s and her 2025 return to help police locate her childhood home in the bush in hopes of determining the girl's identity. Switching back and forth between snatches of the past and present is an effective way to build suspense, but the author's introduction of a third timespan about three-quarters of the way through the book adds confusion with many new twists and turns. In the end, it is the depth of the young girl's and Effie's characters and their relationship that make this novel worth reading.

Borderlass (Belmont, MA)

A Gripping Debut
Beginning at its first page, the writing captures the reader with its pervasive atmosphere of suspense and foreboding. For a debut, this is simply amazing in both its subtlety and starkness. As someone who has been well "off the beaten path" a time or two, the wilderness scenes and psychological twists and turns are convincing. This gripping tale takes its reader to many dark places while offering much affirmation of love and examinations of loyalty in its many guises, placing this thriller on a higher plain.

Rebecca G. (Havertown, PA)

Amazing
Wow, what a book. The story begins with Effie watching as her mother dies from childbirth. As her father becomes more and more distant Effie is left trying to raise her baby brother along with her other siblings. Fast forward to Effie living a life as an adult far away from New Zealand and her difficult childhood. But another child wanders out of the bush in New Zealand and Effie is called back to try and discover how this child might tie into her past and to finally discover what became of her father and siblings. The ending is powerful and unexpected. I truly went through the gamut of emotions with this book.

Debra F. (Cudjoe Key, FL)

The Vanishing
Set in New Zealand, which I know nothing about. It was a wonderful thriller! Secrets, the consequences of those secrets. One Girl Lost. One Girl Found, it says in the description and the story that unfolds is compelling.

I'm a sucker for dual timelines & loved the way the story unfolded. There were surprises & just when I thought I had it all figured out...I was wrong. Happily.

Thank you BookBrowse for an arc of this book. Highly recommended!

...24 more reader reviews