The Vanishing Year Review and Blog Tour

Distiller: Hikari Loftus
3.5/5 Stars

The Vanishing Year
by Kate Moretti
304 pages
Atria Books (September 27, 2016)

If you know me, you know that I do like a good thriller, but I also don’t like ruining my life with things too scary. So in that respect, I’m calling “The Vanishing Year” a great beginners thriller OR a thriller for people who like a mystery to puzzle out that isn’t too terrifying.

The Vanishing Year follows Zoe, a woman on the run from a pretty terrible past. She’s changed her name, and changed her life, married an extremely wealthy man, and she’s just barely getting to the point where she can walk down the street without looking over her shoulder.

But Zoe is feeling unsatisfied and untethered. She’s traveled the world with her husband, has people to cook and clean for her, but after the death of her adoptive mother, she’s longed for a deeper familial connection. But as she begins the search for her birth mother, dangerous and strange things start to happen and Zoe is fearful that her past is coming back to take revenge. And if her past comes back to find her, the carefully crafted and secret life she is living will all be exposed.

I definitely enjoyed this read. I was interested in Zoe’s past and the way she had gone from the lowest of the lows, to her rich and glamorous life. But after awhile, after all the information had sunk in, I felt like I was just waiting for something to happen. When it finally does happen, everything goes down pretty quickly, and ended up being much weirder than I expected.

Like weird in a way I wasn’t sure was a great twist on what you were already beginning to suspect, or just weird in a way like “wait, seriously?” ha.

Either way, there were some parts of this story that stood out to me more than the plot itself. It was interesting to read Moretti’s way of talking about marriage and love, with some very interesting observations.

All in all, this is a great quick read, especially for someone looking for mystery with a bit of thrill that isn’t very scary, no detailed sex scenes, and some thought-provoking story lines about family, love, and marriage.