Review: The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Release date: July 1, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 256
Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Source: Publisher
Links: Goodreads

Overall: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.
The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.
I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.
All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig.I am looking for the things that are buried.
From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind.

Review:

I didn't read much about The Vanishing Season before I picked it up, so I had no idea what to expect. It was a beautifully written and mysterious read that I was able to finish in one sitting. While it did leave something to be desired, I enjoyed the uniqueness of the story, the characters, and the writing style.

Maggie and her parents move into an old house in Door County just as winter is arriving and girls are beginning to disappear. Maggie was not your typical teenager. She was quiet, well-behaved, and respectful. She had never had a boyfriend and spent most of her time saving up for college and being home-schooled. A lot changes when she meets the free-spirited Pauline who lives next door. Maggie and Pauline become fast friends, but little do they know how much can change over one frozen winter.

Pauline and Maggie both frustrated me in different ways. Maggie needed to grow a backbone and Pauline needed to stop thinking she deserved everything without working for it. I still felt for them when everything became very dark in Door County and they had to face some serious situations.The mystery angle with all of the missing girls was very creepy and I was always anxious for our two main characters. The ghostly narrator was another unique and mysterious aspect of the book. We also don't find out their identity until the very end. I do wish we got more closure on the criminal aspect-we never really get a full answer of who was responsible. The paranormal side was less in your face, but the ghostly presence definitely played an important role.

The Vanishing Season was very beautifully written; Jodi Lynn Anderson has a way with words that can make almost any story worth reading. There wasn't necessarily a plot to The Vanishing Season, but it is a quick read that drew me in. This book will certainly not be for everyone, but I did like it as a whole, mostly because it was so different from everything else I've been reading lately.