Book: The Vanishing
Author: Wendy Webb
Pages: 304
I Read This In: 4 hours- in one sitting.
Plot Summary: Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired…and who the world believes is dead.
When she arrives at the Sinclairs' enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her "too-good-to-be-true" position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.
What I Liked: The book starts off really well- there is a woman who is completely alone and isolated after her Madoff-esque husband offs himself once his Ponzi scheme is exposed. Said woman is approached by a stranger with an unconventional job offer- to play companion to a renowned author, who everyone thinks is dead. Intriguing, right? Even I thought so!
I liked the way the story was set up- there was that tantalizing hint of a paranormal mystery- and the first half of the book moves really fast! Julia getting used to the dark, brooding Havenwood mansion, the creepy and slightly eerie history of the said mansion and the mysterious things that happen to Julia while she is there.
What I Didn't Like: For a book that started with a lot of promise (as mentioned above), it devolved pretty fast into something really ridiculous and utterly lame! I started reading this book around 11 pm and I was so taken by the "mystery" that I kept reading till 3 am and as the hours went by, the book got more and more ridiculous!
The big, fat mystery was such a cop-out and it was difficult to connect with and felt like a massive let-down.
I don't think I will be reading anything else ever by Wendy Webb- her formula seems to be- start well, get people hooked, have a mystery which is part crime/part horror and then screw it all up fabulously! UGH! This is just lazy writing! You have taken all this effort, as an author, to build up a story and then you just go and do the laziest, stupidest thing to close out the narrative?!
Would You Like It?: Nope, you won't!
Rating: 2/5
Comments