NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The disappearance of a beautiful, charismatic mother leaves her family to piece together her secrets in this propulsive novel for fans of Big Little Lies—from the bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and the upcoming Pretty Things.“Watch Me Disappear is just as riveting as Gone Girl.”—San Francisco Chronicle Who you want people to be makes you blind … Girl.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Who you want people to be makes you blind to who they really are.
It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan—a Berkeley mom with an enviable life—went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends.
But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive’s emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan?
Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth—about Billie, but also about themselves, learning, in the process, about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown’s insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Praise for Watch Me Disappear
“Watch Me Disappear is a surprising and compelling read. Like the best novels, it takes the reader somewhere she wouldn’t otherwise allow herself to go. . . . It’s strongest in the places that matter most: in the believability of its characters and the irresistibility of its plot.”—Chicago Tribune
“Janelle Brown’s third family drama delivers an incisive and emotional view of how grief and recovery from loss can seep into each aspect of a person’s life. . . . Brown imbues realism in each character, whose complicated emotions fuel the suspenseful story.”—Associated Press
“When a Berkeley mother vanishes and is declared dead, her daughter is convinced she’s alive in Janelle Brown’s thriller, calling to mind Big Little Lies and Gone Girl.”—Variety
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Clever and compelling, this ricocheting tale reveals that, even in the closest families, how little we know of the ones we love, and how our own secrets are often the hardest to bear, can cost us dearly in the end.
Just loved this book! I’m a big thriller reader, natch, but so many these days start off with a bang and end with a “Huh?” This one totally delivered!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about a husband and daughter whose wife/mother has been missing for a year and is about to be declared dead. As signs emerge that the woman may still be alive, the husband and daughter follow clues to discover that Mom has a past they knew nothing about. The story is fascinating, and you can’t guess the resolution until it is revealed at the very end.
Great characters, great story! Loved this book.
Left me guessing until the very last page!
I enjoyed the theme of personal identity and the question of if it is possible to truly know the essence and truth of another person.
I really appreciated this book
I enjoyed WATCH ME DISAPPEAR. It is about a woman with a past who dies or disappears and the mystery surrounding her past and her disappearance. At the same time it is about a father and daughter finding themselves after the lose their wife and mother. First, they are in grief. Then they began to think she might still be alive and start following clues their loved one has left them.
Sometimes when you ask hard questions or try to solve difficult puzzles, you get way more than you ever bargained for.
A beautiful, riveting story, Watch Me Disappear is a propulsive novel showing the danger of secrets, and how the cost, especially for those we love the most, can be deadly. A richly told character-driven novel that is atmospheric, irresistible, and gorgeously layered, it was fascinating watching the threads that held these three characters together unravel and fall apart. I highly recommend.
I’m definitely late to the game with Janelle Brown’s Watch Me Disappear, and shamefully late to my complete adoration of Brown’s other works entirely. Her latest Pretty Things was my favorite book of 2020, so I couldn’t help but start on the backlist. Watch Me Disappear is a can’t miss, even if it’s been out since 2017 and I’m painfully behind a million other people having read this book first. Add it to your list if you haven’t already.
Our female lead, Billie, is presumed dead after taking a hike alone in a deserted area. It’s been a year and her husband Jonathon and daughter Olive are still dealing with the consequences of her death and their relationships with each other, while being forced to examine their relationships with Billie too.
The central story is our investigation into what really happened to Billie and it’s an unexpected, wild ride.
I hated Billie on every page of this book. Selfish, shallow, wandering and absent. I still hate Billie to this day, weeks later. Which says a lot for a character who is only seen in flashbacks by our existing characters. I appreciated our 16-year-old Olive. As the father of two teen daughter’s myself, Olive was incredibly believable and not a caricature, as many surly teens are often depicted. Kudos to Brown on this one. Jonathon’s actions were rife with missteps, and I was definitely not rooting for this guy at any point in the story. But I wanted answers and Brown kept holding out on me.
Brown keeps the central question of what really happened to Billie front and center and only gives us the satisfaction of resolution in the final words of the book. Do yourself a favor and don’t skip to the last page to get your answer. It’s worth the wait.
As an author, I have a hard time reading a novel when I’m writing one myself. This book blazed by even at 400+ pages and I could still write my own stuff. I have a dangerous habit of guessing the ending or spotting red herrings in everything I read. I can’t help it. It’s a habit, but boy, was I wrong this time. I was fooled many times over. And dang, it feels good to be wrong.
I enjoyed the layout and pace of this book right from the start. Billie’s mysterious disappearance hooked me and then as Olive had her visions and Jonathan began to unearth hidden secrets, I was held completely rapt by the story and my curiosity about potential outcomes. I loved reading and peeling back the layers to discover more bits and pieces of Billie’s possible whereabouts. I loved the twists and turns as Jonathan and Olive increased their search. I never quite knew what to expect with this story and I loved that mystery. The characters’ actions at times left me frustrated, which was a testament to Brown’s writing that she was able to elicit such emotions from me throughout this book. I really enjoyed it from start to finish. The ending was incredible and the perfect way to close things out while keeping the feel authentic for me. I can’t wait to read more of Brown’s works.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Billie Flanagan disappears while on a solo mountain hike, leaving behind only a hiking boot. Her husband, Jonathan, and their teen-age daughter, Olive, are left to pick up the pieces of their lives after Billie’s disappearance. The story is written in third person perspective, alternating between Jonathan and Olive, and begins about a year after Billie’s disappearance. Interspersed throughout the book are chapters of the book Jonathan is writing about their lives together and the loss of the love of his life. But the search for the truth about Billie leads them in different directions, and there are twists and turns as the secrets they unearth only bring forth more questions. Who was the woman they lived with for all those years? How well can we really know someone? Is what we see in each other just a reflection of what we most want to see? Do we sometimes feel so ordinary that we buy, unquestioningly, someone else’s extraordinariness?
The character development in this book is complex, well-written and completely engages the reader. For their sake, you really want to know what happened to Billie. You want Jonathan and Olive to have answers to help them straighten out their lives. There is enough mystery and twists thrown in that you remain engaged to the end. Along the way, you know nothing more than the characters do at that moment.
One word in this book pretty much sums up the whole of the story: weltschmerz. It’s introduced fairly early in the book, and was a new word for me. The definition is world weariness felt from a perceived mismatch between the ideal image of how the world should be with how it really is. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but that is the plot of the book and you will be captivated to the end. This isn’t a heart-pounding thriller, but it is a psychological character study that will draw you in completely. I’m going to seek out Brown’s other books and I recommend this one highly.
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It was entertaining. Kinda strange. Enjoyed it for a “in betweener” book.
Great read. Better ending !!! Unpredictable.
Interesting characters. Good Read.
I really enjoyed this book. The end is unexpected!
I could not put this book down. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I was wrong again. It kept me on edge and I couldn’t sleep until I finished it. It made me wonder how many other people really disappear but are still out there. Consuming!
It certainly provided food for thought regarding women’s life choices. I found it thought provoking. A well written tale weaving together a father and daughter’s feelings and reactions to the death of the wife and mother.
Read the whole book, from cover to cover, hoping to grab onto some character that I could like. Father came out on top, since he was the most realistic. The mother, she disappears, is the most unbelievable. The author imbued the mother with attributes that are far from enviable and contradict any good qualities that the writer attempts to slap on her. It finally ends, with something that you imagine because poor character has been firmly confirmed.
I recently reread this book because it was so good. He always writes beautiful prose and has exciting plots. This is a fine novel.