New York Times bestselling author, Holly Jackson, has done it again with her new stand-alone book, The Reappearance of Rachel Price. This psychological mystery thriller is full of plot twists and turns. Like many other books by Jackson, this young adult story makes it so that putting the book down is almost impossible. With many great reviews just shortly after the book was released, many people, like myself, went in with high expectations.
The book starts with the disappearance of Rachel Price, a young wife and mother, and the family making a documentary about 16 years after she vanishes to help with money struggles. It helps set up the dynamic of how Bel and her father have attained a “normal” life after Rachel’s disappearance. Now, because of the title, it’s no surprise that we see Rachel return, and the whole family becomes on edge as their “normal” life is no longer there.
From the beginning, Bel finds it hard to believe that Rachel is telling the truth about her disappearance and makes it her mission to discover the real truth behind her vanishing. With constant lies and inconsistencies, Bel believes that it wasn’t just an accident, but planned all along. She teams up with documentary film crew member, Ash, to help her uncover the truth. However, since the beginning, Bel has only trusted her father, and if he says something isn’t right or that it’s all in Bel’s mind, she’ll believe him.
With many unexpected twists and turns, Jackson successfully reels her readers in to portray an amazing story. However, the book didn’t fully live up to its name. Like many other people, I went in with high expectations because of Jackson’s well-known series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder but was a little disappointed by the overall read. The beginning hooks right away but gets quite repetitive in the middle as it slows down until it starts to get better at the end. The story is also kind of predictable if one were to sit down and think about it. What would be the most shocking to readers, and how can the author surprise them the most?
A few events happened in the book though that were not realistic at all. The conclusion is the main one, but the whole thing was not convincing and didn’t leave me as satisfied as I’d hoped. With the way it was predictable and how some scenes played out, it’s just hard to believe. It’s not new news though that Jackson’s books require suspension of belief because sometimes people just need to turn their brains off and have a little fun, but this story just seemed a little too impractical.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad book, and I did enjoy the read. It just didn’t living up to the hype. Based on Jackson’s other books, she definitely could’ve delivered something far better. The novel does keep readers invested, is a quick read, and is a great story, but I think this book would be good for people new to the thriller/mystery genre.
