{"id":2046,"date":"2020-08-10T12:26:59","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T16:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2020-07-07T12:52:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T16:52:04","slug":"book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2046","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Cross Posted from the Circulation Desk.*<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Rules for Vanishing<\/em>\u00a0by Kate Alice Marshall<\/p>\n

Viking Books for Young Readers, 2019<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 978-1984837011<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The legend of Lucy Gallows says that 12 year old Lucy Callow ran into the woods after an argument with her mother, and when her brother went after her, he saw her step onto a road, and as she walked away, both she and the road vanished, never to be found.<\/p>\n

Sara Donoghue\u2019s sister Becca was obsessed with the legend of Lucy Gallows, going so far as to fill a notebook with thoughts, drawings, photographs, and clues that could lead her to the vanished road and find Lucy.\u00a0 A year ago, on April 18, Becca disappeared, and Sara is certain her sister found her way to the road. Now everyone in her school has received a text message to find a partner and a key to find the road by midnight. Anthony, Trina, Kyle, Mel and Nick were Becca and Sara\u2019s closest friends, and despite doubts, all of them show up to see if the road appears. The road has seven gates, and you need a partner to hold on to as you take the thirteen necessary (and disorienting) steps through each gate.\u00a0 Becca\u2019s notebook contains rules for traveling on the road:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t leave the road.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s dark, don\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n

There are other roads. Don\u2019t follow them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The road does appear, but since three of the friends have shown up with partners for the game, there is an odd number, meaning someone won\u2019t have a partner. And in the dark, it\u2019s easy to get separated and accidentally step off the road. The teens are not on a friendly stroll here; they are on a terrible road with frightening and sometimes deadly obstacles, and once they\u2019re through the gate, they can\u2019t turn back. But they also can\u2019t help breaking the rules. If the reader isn\u2019t filled with dread at the beginning of their journey, it won\u2019t take long for that to happen.<\/p>\n

Marshall constructs her story in a complicated way. First, we get Sara\u2019s relatively straightforward narrative, told entirely from her point of view.\u00a0 Then we move to a point past the events on the road,\u00a0 with transcripts from interviews with Sara, and others who were on the journey, by Andrew Ashford, a discredited researcher of the paranormal.\u00a0 There\u2019s also documentation of what happened before the teens stepped onto the road (through text messages between Sara\u2019s friends) and while they were on it (cell phone recordings and videos, and photographs) suggesting that maybe Sara\u2019s story is not as straightforward or reliable as it seems to be. Marshall balances these nicely to create a cohesive, if sometimes hallucinatory, story.\u00a0 \u00a0The creativity of the story and the work that goes in to structuring a book like this are impressive. I wasn\u2019t a big fan of most of the characters, but the world-building is outstanding (although I am curious as to why the author chose to ground her story in a legend from Brittany when the book is set in Massachusetts), and the suspense is terrific.<\/p>\n

I wonder if this is meant to stand alone (it certainly can) or if it\u2019s meant to be part of a longer series about Andrew Ashford\u2019s investigations of the paranormal, which I would find intriguing. Either way, for those who like the puzzle of pulling a story together, it\u2019s a compelling and worthwhile read. Recommended.<\/p>\n

Contains: Violence, gore,\u00a0 murder<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>\u00a0 Rules for Vanishing<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Cross Posted from the Circulation Desk.* Rules for Vanishing\u00a0by Kate Alice Marshall Viking Books for Young Readers, 2019 ISBN-13: 978-1984837011 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition     The legend of Lucy Gallows says that 12 year old Lucy Callow ran into the woods after an argument with her mother, and when her brother went after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,64,119,171,20],"tags":[329],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-fantasy","category-horror","category-paranormalsupernatural","category-ya-books","tag-bram-stoker-awards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-x0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}