Make Me Disappear: A Twisty and Gripping Psychological Thriller

I was given an ARC of the book and I really enjoyed reading it. It was such a fun read and had me guessing til the end. The twists towards the end did seem a little far-fetched, but I feel like this is a hallmark of the genre, since I felt the same way with “The Woman in the Window”, and “One of us is lying”. A fun light read for a day trip!

I have a multitude of internet friends who continuously urge me to get on this site called Netgalley. Netgalley is a website that is for avid readers to read upcoming releases and review them. So essentially, it’s what I already do except all in one place. I didn’t really see the value, but every now and then I hop on over there and check out what’s available to everybody. I don’t have access to the most popular books because I just don’t use Netgalley often enough, but this one book that looked appealing was a book anybody to get, so I got it. At the beginning of this book, we meet Noelle, a nurse, who is dating a narcissistic doctor named Daniel. Daniel has his life planned out, seemingly day to day, and he has decided Noelle is going to be the woman by his side. Noelle is less than thrilled and is trying to figure out how to remove herself from Daniel with her dignity, and her life, intact. Evading the cameras in her apartment, and the tracker on her phone, and the spying Daniel does on her computer, she plans to get herself kidnapped and simply disappear (much like one of Daniel’s previous girlfriends, except she was murdered). Noelle’s plans go horribly awry, and she discovers she has not one, but two adversaries. This book had twists and the literary equivalent of jump-scares all over the place. It was a fast-paced read and a thoroughly satisfying thriller. There was drama and intrigue, betrayal, and some of the most well-written misogynistic narcissism I have ever read. Daniel’s sections of the book are creepy as hell. Seriously, it felt like Payne might have some intimate knowledge of that type of person. You doing alright Jessica? Need a hug? Blink twice if you feel unsafe. I didn’t love the book’s format. I find myself increasingly frustrated with the back-and-forth between points of view writing. It was good every now and then, but lately it feels like EVERYBODY is writing this type of format and I’m just bored with it. I also get bored with the “air of mystery” that ends each chapter. Yes, we are aware this is a suspenseful thriller, we don’t need tension builders every three pages. I found it to be annoying, redundant, and over the top. It was a decent book but fell short of that fifth star because of the format. I do, however, highly recommend reading this one if you dig suspense.

Noelle escaped an abusive relationship, just to end up in another. In the beginning, Dr. Daniel Ashcroft appeared to be the perfect boyfriend. After only a few months, Noelle, a nurse, began to see his creepy and abusive controlling ways. Desperate to not relive that life again, she happens upon a listing advertising pretend kidnapping services, and plans her kidnapping in order to escape. But things quickly go wrong when she is kidnapped and things aren’t quite what she signed up for. There are so many thrilling and unexpected twists and turns, and ends in a twist I never saw coming! This book gave me You by Caroline Kepnes vibes. The writing was good and kept you reading, but some things were’t very believable. I felt like the characters and plot were a little underdeveloped, I couldn’t care one way or another what happened to them, though I still found myself turning the pages to see what happened next. It started out strong, but became repetitive and ended up dragging. For a debut, I’d say it was definitely worth the read and I would recommend it and definitely read more by author Jessica Payne! Thank you for this ARC that was generously provided by the publisher Bookouture and author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for the arc! Read my review first on my book blog RTC! tHIS LOOKS FUCKING AWESOME