Janelle Brown

"A beautiful Berkeley mom with a radical past vanishes while hiking, leaving her family to piece together her secrets, in this keenly observed novel for readers of Emma Straub and Maria Semple--from the bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything"--

A Novel

Watch Me Disappear

Marissa Lobato

Wonderfully written, kept me on my toes and wasn’t entirely what I was expecting. A great first read to get my back into reading (my 2022 news years resolution!)

Annalee Harris

Riddled with faux-philosophical musings and blatant homophobia, this novel isn't just a chore to read; it's almost a punishment. It felt harsh giving it a single star rating, so (perhaps against my better judgement), I granted it a very generous two star rating.

The novel follows heartbroken Olive, a young girl who sees vision of her presumed-dead mother, Billie. Her father, working on a memoir of Billie's life, is worried about Olive (but not as worried as he is about making sure he keeps getting advance money from his unfinished novel or having a steamy affair with Billie's best friend).

The problem with this novel isn't the confused plot, the unsympathetic characters, or muddled storytelling; Janelle Brown is simply out of touch. From using eco-terrorism as a supposedly intriguing plot point to queerbaiting (and having the audacity to claim being homosexual is the same as being transgender? No thanks), the author displays a shameful amount of ignorance in such a short book. Brown leaves too many questions unanswered, wraps up frayed edges quickly and messily, and leaves us with a poorly woven, uninteresting novel.

Jolie

How well do we actually know the ones we love? If they had secrets that came out after their death, would they totally change the way that we looked at that person or would we just shrug and say “That was just like so and so“. Watch Me Disappear explores those questions in-depth.


Watch Me Disappear is a very well written book about finding out secrets about your loved ones and how those secrets can change how you see your loved one. While the book got off to a very slow start, it more than made up for the first slowness throughout the book. When you learned one thing about Billie and thought it was over with another secret comes to light. Then with all the issues with Olive and Jonathan were having after Billie’s death, the book was very flushed out.

Jonathan, I felt awful for. He was destroyed when Billie went missing on a solo hike. It took him months to even begin to deal with her death. He was struggling to connect with Olive, who had withdrawn after her mother disappeared, and he was struggling to make ends meet. So when his lawyer explained that to legally declare Billie dead, they needed to post an ad in the paper, he wasn’t very happy about it. It was during that time that he found her laptop. It was what he found when he started looking into the laptop that threw him for a loop and made him ask himself this question “Did he even know who Billie was?” The more he found out about her, the more he asked himself that question. He also began to question if she really did die out in the wilderness. Instead, he began to think that maybe, just maybe, she faked her death.

Olive, I also felt awful for. Not only did she miss her mother desperately, but she was starting to see visions of her. The first vision that she saw Billie in was at school and caused Olive to walk into the wall. Olive, desperate to find her mother, starts to search alternative methods to explain the visions that she was having. Olive was so sweet and I wanted to cry when she was searching and she was also finding out that her mother was someone who she didn’t know. I wanted to reach through the book and give her a hug.

I was not expecting the ending. Sure, I was expecting the 1 year later scene, with Olive and Jonathan happy and successful. But what I wasn’t expecting and it kinda blew my mind. You need to read the book to find out what I am talking about.

How many stars will I give Watch Me Disappear: 4

Why: A solid mystery that had a great plot and good characters. Even the flawed ones you couldn’t help but like.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language and sex

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The disappearance of a beautiful, charismatic mother leaves her family to piece together her secrets in this propulsive novel for fans of Big Little Lies—from the bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and the upcoming Pretty Things. “Watch Me Disappear is just as riveting as Gone Girl.”—San Francisco Chronicle Who you want people to be makes you blind to who they really are. It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan—a Berkeley mom with an enviable life—went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends. But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive’s emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan? Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth—about Billie, but also about themselves, learning, in the process, about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown’s insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page. Praise for Watch Me Disappear “Watch Me Disappear is a surprising and compelling read. Like the best novels, it takes the reader somewhere she wouldn’t otherwise allow herself to go. . . . It’s strongest in the places that matter most: in the believability of its characters and the irresistibility of its plot.”—Chicago Tribune “Janelle Brown’s third family drama delivers an incisive and emotional view of how grief and recovery from loss can seep into each aspect of a person’s life. . . . Brown imbues realism in each character, whose complicated emotions fuel the suspenseful story.”—Associated Press “When a Berkeley mother vanishes and is declared dead, her daughter is convinced she’s alive in Janelle Brown’s thriller, calling to mind Big Little Lies and Gone Girl.”—Variety

Hannah Alexander 

Megan Masingill

Kristin Boren

Desire JoRay

Alison Rebovich

Rebecca Shaffer

Caitlyn

Carlee Collins

Beth Semlies 

Ally Gagliardo

Dani Gale

Jennifer Filer

Vicki Grever

Suz Corso

Meredith kirby

How well do you really know the person you love the most? *THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* Billie is charismatic. She is beautiful. And she has the perfect life. So when she disappears without a trace, the police think she must be dead. But what if the truth is even worse? A year after Billie disappears, her daughter Olive and husband Jonathan are determined to find out what happened to her. Together they begin to examine Billie's past - for answers, for closure, and with the underlying hope they will bring her home alive. But their search unearths her darkest secrets and only raises more questions: Who was Billie Flanagan? And how well do we really know the people we love the most? Gripping and heartbreaking in equal measure, WATCH ME DISAPPEAR is perfect for fans of BIG LITTLE LIES, THE MARRIAGE PACT and THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR. _______________________________________________ Readers love WATCH ME DISAPPEAR 'Clever and compelling' Lisa Gardner 'Tantalizing and twisty . . . a spider's web of a novel . . . You won't be able to put it down' Megan Abbott 'Just as riveting as Gone Girl' San Francisco Chronicle 'A riveting, seductive read about the secret, protected places within even the most intimate relationships . . . I loved it' Sara Gruen 'A twisty, involving mystery' People 'Brown imbues realism in each character, whose complicated emotions fuel the suspenseful story' Associated Press 'Brown's novel is more than just a page-turning suspense story. It's a gripping family drama that focuses on the choices we make and the ties that bind us to the ones we love' Publishers Weekly 'This brilliantly layered novel is full of twists and turns, tender and biting and vibrant' Booklist

Watch Me Disappear A Novel

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