*Sighs* Where do I even begin. My journey with this book has actually spanned an embarrassing amount of months despite its rather slim page count. I purchased the book heavily discounted but was quickly taken with it’s beautifully designed cover. Add in the the blurb on the back cover I thought it was well made match. The Vanishing Season highlights the developing friendships, and something mores between three young adults, as well as the mysterious disappearance of girls across Door County in Wisconsin. And unfortunately, one of our three protagonists doesn’t escape our tale alive. The premise reeks of suspense, danger, intrigue, and tensions boiling over with the subtle of promise of romance. And the novel had the potential to deliver all of those aspects, at least if that had been the intentions of the author. The author instead flips the script, choosing to highlight the relationships and romances between our recently uprooted main character, Maggie, and the secondary characters, her new neighbors, Pauline and Liam.
It is established from the first few chapters that Maggie is a welcome outsider. She finds herself quickly becoming close friends with Pauline and a buffer for Liam and his unrequited feelings for Pauline. With that setup it’s easy to see the “love triangle” coming, as Maggie catches herself noticing Liam more than she would like to and Pauline choosing to ignore Liam’s feelings for her. But the entire scenario, and subsequent handling of a poorly defined plot dredges up my intense dislike for love triangles. It is my opinion that a love triangle, or at least a believable and interesting one, is equally distributed between the two love rivals. The character at the center of the triangle should not be leaning particularly heavy toward either character. An effective love triangle makes me believe the character at the center could end up with either love interest. The Vanishing Season’s main plot is the budding romance between the characters and it defines itself as a scalene shape (Yes, I googled that to confirm I was referring to the correct type of triangle). It leaves the plot feeling unsupported. Tie it in with a poorly resolved mystery, I found the ending to be deeply unsatisfying.
Rating
Character: 0/2 - Found the characters to be unlikable which is unfortunate in a character driven novel
Setting: 2/2 - I thought the author did a beautiful job setting up the atmosphere and Maggie’s new surrounds
Plot: 0/2 - This novel was definitely a character driven work, despite the allusion and build up to a mystery
Pacing: 1/2 - I did find the novel very engaging but there were some parts I felt it dragged
Reaction: 1/2 - I’m giving this book a point simple because I was so pissed at the end I actually called a friend angry crying so there’s that.
Total points - 4/10
Overall ranking: ⭐️⭐️
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