How to Disappear by Ann Redisch Stampler Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads
Synopsis:
This electric cross-country thriller follows the game of cat and mouse between a girl on the run from a murder she witnessed—or committed?—and the boy who’s sent to kill her.
Nicolette Holland is the girl everyone likes. Up for adventure. Loyal to a fault. And she’s pretty sure she can get away with anything...until a young woman is brutally murdered in the woods near Nicolette’s house. Which is why she has to disappear.
Jack Manx has always been the stand-up guy with the killer last name. But straight A’s and athletic trophies can’t make people forget that his father was a hit man and his brother is doing time for armed assault. Just when Jack is about to graduate from his Las Vegas high school and head east for college, his brother pulls him into the family business with inescapable instructions: find this ruthless Nicolette Holland and get rid of her. Or else Jack and everyone he loves will pay the price.
As Nicolette and Jack race to outsmart each other, tensions—and attractions—run high. Told in alternating voices, this tightly plotted mystery and tense love story challenges our assumptions about right and wrong, guilt and innocence, truth and lies.
DNF
Ahhhh that dreaded DNF….I honestly can’t think of the last book I didn’t finish. Even on the worst of books I try not to quit in the middle-But sometimes you just can’t help it. I mean…think about it. What’s worse? Cutting your losses when you seem to not connect in any way or forcing yourself to read through every. Single. Page?
I had the highest of expectations for this story when I received the ARC and a blog tour invite-this premise, as mentioned below in some of my comments, is actually a very hard story to tackle. So, of course, when one is presented in front of you that seems like it COULD be absolutely amazing, you take the chance. Well…after this one I think I’ll just trust my instincts.
This really isn’t the worst ARC I’ve ever gotten by any stretch of the imagination, but it was boring enough that I finally just lost any interest in trying-I have like…..NO time to read or review anymore, so when I have the time, I refuse to waste it on a story that seems like it was barely looked over or edited. Chapters that were sometimes a half page long (or so it seemed) made it impossible to connect with any one character, and then when you did get an extra page or two for the chapter, the writing was so stilted that you almost felt as if you were a dog, tilting your head this way and that with a confused, furrowed brow.
At one point I was all the way through a page (before I was even skimming) and was like…what even happened? I already had forgotten. I can’t say this book wouldn’t be better had I been in the mood and perhaps forced myself to really try to connect with what was being said, but in this stage of my reading life, knowing what I love and like to read, should I really have to force myself to get through chapters that are already short to begin with?
As for the rest of my problems, why even bother? I can’t even tell you what percent I got to, but I know it wasn’t worthy of a normally18 paragraph Chelsea review. So, instead, I will just list my dislikes and let you decide if these, too, are your turn offs:
-Short, choppy writing
-No flow…whatsoever
-Tiny chapters
-Vapid female lead
-Lack of a build-up
-Lack of a good background
-stupid convos
-INSTA-LOVE
-Fuck knows what else I missed skimming
Even now I can’t diss the main male lead who was partly to blame. I have issues guys…I really do.
But maybe the real issue here is that I didn’t give this author or this story long enough-I feel bad, honestly, but when you just don’t connect with a book, you just don’t connect. It already has some wonderful ratings, so perhaps it’s just me. Maybe give it a chance and see what you think….I just couldn’t be bothered.
