Jodi Lynn Anderson

From New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes The Vanishing Season, at once haunting and lovely, with a gut-wrenching final twist that will keep readers on their toes. It's perfect for fans of Gayle Forman, Lauren Myracle, and Laurie Halse Anderson. Girls started vanishing in the fall. For Maggie Larsen, the town of Gill Creek is only a stopgap before college and freedom. Until she meets Pauline and Liam. What starts as an uneventful year suddenly changes. Someone is killing teenage girls, and the town reels from the tragedy. As Maggie's and Pauline's worlds collide and change around them, they will both experience love and loss. And by the end of the book, only one of them will survive.

The Vanishing Season

3.5 out of 5

Good read, but the blurb they use is hella misleading. I definitely expected more mystery and thrill, something to sate my thirst for the spooky and heart-stopping. 

In truth, The Vanishing Season is the atmospheric, coming-of-age story of Maggie Larson as she finds herself caught in a small town, as well as a love triangle. The mystery and intrigue I was hoping for edges along the periphery of the novel, while the (beautifully-written) character dynamics take center-stage. And there's nothing wrong with that, just not what I thought I was getting myself into. 

Honestly, I spent the first 3/4's of this book wondering if these were actually two separate genre stories slapdashed together in order to market to a wider audience. And then I read the last 1/4, went back to read the blurb, and became ThatOneMeme as I threw my hands up in the air with an exasperated "I guess..?!?"

From New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a haunting and lovely small-town romance, perfect for fans of Gayle Forman, Lauren Myracle, and Laurie Halse Anderson. When Maggie’s parents move them from bustling Chicago to small, rundown Door County, Wisconsin, she thinks she’ll spend a year reading classics and killing time until college. That plan changes as soon as she meets Pauline and Liam. Soon the three are inseparable, stretching out the love between two childhood best friends to fit over all of them and all their grand dreams. But what starts as an uneventful year suddenly changes. Someone is killing teenage girls, and the town reels from each new tragedy. And as the dynamics between Maggie, Pauline, and Liam shift and collide in irreversible ways, they all will experience love and loss hand-in-hand—but only two of them will survive the winter.

shellybn

This is a wonderful, wonderful story, well worth reading!

b.andherbooks

I was mostly interested in reading The Vanishing Season because of its setting (Door County, WI), but ultimately this book really couldn't decide what it wanted to be. There was a ghost, a serial killer, and dead girls, but they all played such a minor and almost non-consequential role to real meat of this tale, the relationship between Liam, Maggie, and Pauline. I think this book should have focused on being a contemporary romance and it really would have sung.

Pauline is the girl you want to hate. She's beyond beautiful, wild, and NICE. She wants to be your friend, genuinely, even when she realizes you want the boy who has been in love with her for her entire life, because she isn't sure she even wants him. Maggie recognizes Pauline's sincere honesty and niceness, even as she's jealous and makes a go with Liam when Pauline has to leave town. And when Pauline returns, can Maggie and Liam make it?

Again, great romance, terrible mystery (and unnecessary mystery).

The Vanishing Season

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