Book Review for ‘Vanishing Girls’ by Lauren Oliver

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before – before Dara kissed Parker, before Nick lost him as her best friend, and before the accident that left Dara’s beautiful face scarred.

Now, the two sisters, who used to be so close, aren’t speaking. In an instant, Nick lost everything and is determined to use the summer to get it all back.

But Dara has other plans. When she vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl has vanished, too—nine-year-old Elizabeth Snow—and as Nick pursues her sister, she becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances may be linked.

In this edgy and compelling novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

The story opens with a flashback from happier times between Nick and Dara. Right off the bat, the reader is made aware of how different both girls are. Nick, the eldest, is more responsible than her more adventurous younger sister Dara. Nick goes to a party she knows that Dara is at in an attempt to get her home. Nick walks that fine line between wanting to be Dara’s best friend and shielding her from people and situations that she knows will get her little sister into trouble. It isn’t until the fourth chapter when we meet post-accident Nick and Dara, and things aren’t well between the two. The entire time that Nick is home, she and Dara never run into each other, which is a little odd. Even before the accident Dara blamed Nick for a lot of her problems and the tension between the girls only becomes thicker after the accident which leaves her face scarred.

A couple of days after moving back home, Nick begins working at FanLand, a rundown amusement park, where she runs into Parker. With what happened between him and Dara in the back of her mind, Nick hesitates getting close to Parker again, but it doesn’t take long before hidden truths and feelings are brought to the surface.

While all of this is going on Madeline Snow, a nine-year-old girl goes missing and sends the entire town into a frenzy. I was afraid that this storyline would take away from the primary story, but it doesn’t. Is her disappearance somehow connected to Dara’s? You’ll have to read and find out!

Aside from Panic, this novel is vastly different from Oliver’s previous work. When I first started reading it I began to assume what the conclusion of the story would be solely base on the fact that it centers around the relationship between sisters and not go much deeper- oh, how wrong I was. How dare I underestimate Lauren Oliver, right? She has an impeccable ability for storytelling (duh, that’s why she’s a New York Times best-selling author) and she doesn’t disappoint with Vanishing Girls, a dramatic mystery about the bond between sisters. There’s also a huge twist at the end that you won’t see coming.

The only criticism I have is that sometimes it was a little hard to keep track of whether or not what was going on happened before the accident or after. I constantly had to go back and look at the chapter title for reference. On a positive note, I liked how even though Dara was the rebel and Nick the “good girl”, I didn’t find either to be done in a cliché way. Both characters are complex, which makes them all the more interesting and kept me reading.

Vanishing Girls comes out on March 10^th (next Tuesday), so I suggest you all go out and get a copy for yourself.

Rating: 7/10