I would like to thank Random House Publishing, Spiegel & Grau, NetGalley, and Janelle Brown for the ARC of "Watch Me Disappear" by Janelle Brown for my honest review.

The genres of "Watch Me Disappear" are Fiction(Adult) and Mystery and Thriller.  Jonathan Flanagan and his adolescent daughter, Olive are mourning the loss of Billie Flanagan, who has simply disappeared. Billie, Jonathan's wife, and Olive's mother had gone on a solo hike a year before. The only thing found on the hiking trail is Billie's boot. Jonathan is able to declare his wife as legally dead at the end of the year.

Olive starts have strange visions of her mother, encouraging Olive to continue searching for her. Jonathan is drinking to cope, and Olive is searching to find herself, and feels lost.

The author describes the characters as complicated, complex, confused and flawed. Some of the characters seem quirky and strange.

Jonathan goes through boxes and Billie's computer and finds pictures and references that seem to indicate deep SECRETS. There are clues to Billie's earlier life, that Jonathan didn't know about. As Jonathan investigates his wife's disappearance, there is confusing information that makes him wonder if Billie is alive or not.

What motivation would make a loving mother and wife want to disappear?  What person or persons would want to harm or hurt Billie? How can secrets affect the relationships with loved ones? Who is telling the truth? These are questions that Janelle Brown has me reflecting on.

There are twists and turns in this novel. I especially enjoyed the Epilogue! I would highly recommend this intriguing novel for those who love a good mystery. Happy Reading!!

It took me a while, but about 100 pages in, I became intrigued by the storyline. Unfortunately throughout the story, I didn't feel connected to the characters and felt like WMD was missing something. I loved the details put into the story and Brown did a great job describing the characters and their personalities, but it was just odd- the hallucinations, Harmony's involvement, Olive questioning who she is. Overall, it seemed like a lot of good ideas, not executed thoroughly, thrown into one story.

How well do we really know the ones we love? How close do we really let others get when it comes to our true thoughts, feelings, and desires? When Berkeley wife and mother Billie Flannagan goes missing after a hike in Desolation Wilderness, she is feared lost and/or gravely injured. A year of tireless searching and long-shot hope -- with nothing but a lone lost boot to show for it -- Jonathan is ready to accept his wife is dead. Their daughter Olive, however, is having a harder time coming to terms with this conclusion -- especially when she starts to have visions with her mother encouraging, at times even taunting, Olive to find her. As Jonathan and Olive dig deeper into Billie's life, they realize that Billie might not have died in the wilderness -- she might have been running away, and not just from them but also from her own dark secrets -- leaving Jonathan and Olive to question if they really knew the most important woman in their lives.

Review: In a similar vein to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, author Janelle Brown weaves a mystery of a woman gone missing with family drama to create a devourable story. Billie is not a completely unlikable character, and readers can't help but feel for her husband Jonathan and their daughter Olive in the subsequent aftermath. Jonathan is not only trying to come to terms with his wife's disappearance but also how to raise his teenage daughter as a single parent as he picks up the pieces of his own life post-Billie. Olive, having a hard enough time navigating through her own grief, is still susceptible to the norms of teen life -- friendships, confusing feelings, prep school politics, and too many adults thinking they know how to solve all of her problems. As Jonathan and Olive investigate Billie's disappearance, they discover not only who their loved one really was but also how to heal their relationship with one another. At times riveting, heartbreaking, frustrating, and reassuring, Watch Me Disappear serves up love, loss, and the unnerving notion that we can never truly know those we care about most.

A hiker goes missing, a boot found. She is a mother and a wife. The daughter has "visits" from her mom, convincing her that her mother is still alive. The husband learns things about his wife that he didn't know. Is she still alive, life insurance policy? Hmmm...I tried really hard to like this book. There was nothing wrong with the book and yet it seemed that my mind would not grasp the story and hang on. I kept drifting away from the story and didn't look forward to picking it back up and reading more. There is something about it that makes me want to give it another go in the future. I just feel like this was not the right time for me to enjoy this book.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I had a love\hate relationship with this book. Billie is presumed dead. Her husband Jonathan and daughter Olive are trying to put their lives back together. There is a lingering question of is she or isn't she dead? As the story unravels, we learn quite a bit about Billie and her secrets. This is a compelling and interesting take on a thriller. The problem I had was connecting to the characters. I just found some of this outrageous. I do have to say it got better as I read the book. Overall good.

“Watch Me Disappear” by Janelle Brown is an interesting spin on a mystery story. It is not about the death of wife and mother Billy Flanagan who disappeared almost one year previously while backpacking along the Pacific Crest Trail in Desolation Wilderness. It is about the consequences of that event, a family in crisis. It is about her husband Jonathan and daughter Olive who are left behind, haunted by “missing and presumed dead,” a phrase with no conclusion.
Jonathan quits his job and is writing a book, a memoir inspired by his life with Billy. As the one-year anniversary of Billy’s disappearance approaches, Jonathan prepares to have her declared legally dead. One day at school, Olivia sees her mother as if in a dream, chiding her “Why aren’t you looking?” She is consumed with doubt and guilt. “What if Mom is still alive, somewhere, and she has reached out to let me know?”
Questions surface. Jonathan’s search for answers exposes his wife’s secret and highly problematic history. Who was this woman he married? Who was this mother of his child? What is truth and what is fiction? Eventually the past comes crashing into the present like a dead tree limb, spewing splinters everywhere, and leaving a cavernous gap in the tree trunk of their lives. Secrets are revealed that none of the players anticipated. And even when the quest seems to be over, is it really? The details come out in the end, in the very last word.
Random House Publishing Group, NetGalley, and Janelle Brown gave me a copy of “Watch Me Disappear” for an impartial review. The pace was slow but steady. The personality of each character developed as the book progressed, and there were dynamic and interesting relationships between the characters. I usually don't read books of this kind, but the description was intriguing, and I really enjoyed reading it. The last sentence is one of the best ever.

Billie Flanagan is the mother of teenager Olive and the wife of Jonathan. She’s a bit on the rebellious side and despite warnings of hiking alone, she sets off for Desolation Wilderness and doesn’t return nor has her body been found. A year after her mother’s disappearance, Olive begins to have visions of her mother asking that Olive find her which convinces Olive that her mother is still alive. Jonathan is trying to have Billie officially declared dead so he can access insurance money that the family desperately needs but he’s having doubts as to what happened to Billie as he has found secrets that she has kept from him.

I had trouble getting into this one. Some of the characters’ decisions just didn’t gel with the characters’ nature as the author described them. Some of it was hard to believe, especially the ending. The parts concerning Olive mostly seemed written in a YA style. The author does do a good job of describing the characters’ grief and their struggles following Billie’s disappearance. And it certainly did keep me guessing right up to the end. While I did find some enjoyment in reading t, the book didn’t impress me enough that I want to read the author’s other books so I can’t give it more than 3 stars.

An average book that I enjoyed.

"Watch Me Disappear" is one of those stay up way too late reading "just one more chapter" until you finish! Great characters and intriguing storyline, just a great book! Thank you to Netgallery for making it available for me!

I don’t know about you, but when I read a suspense novel, I still want to care about the characters, not just what moves the plot forward. In Janelle Brown’s new novel, Watch Me Disappear, out July 11, the plot really moves forward as a result of the characters’ personalities. Part ghost story, part suspense novel, it’s the best of both worlds.

Olive Flanagan’s mom, Billie, has been missing, presumed dead, for a year. She never returned from a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness, and no body was found. A single hiking boot and a destroyed cell phone are all that’s left of Billie Flanagan. Until Olive starts to have visions of her mom, and she and her dad, Jonathan, start to wonder what really happened to Billie. As father and daughter go on a mission to track down Billie’s body, dead or alive, they discover more than they ever knew (and maybe more than they wanted to know) about Billie and themselves.

This story felt very much like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, but creepier, and with none of the fun quirkiness that Maria Semple does so well. If you enjoyed that novel and you like suspense, I think you would enjoy this book. It almost feels like a literary novel disguised as a thriller. The plot moves fairly quickly, but not so quickly that you don’t get an insight into what the characters are really like. After the first few chapters, when Jonathan starts to go through Billie’s old things and begins to realize she may not have been who everyone thought she was, I was completely hooked and wanted to find out all about her and exactly what happened.

My one caveat is that I think, personally, I would have enjoyed the novel even more if it had been more about who Billie and her family are. Olive wasn’t explored as much as she could have been, and she’s such an interesting character that I wanted to know her better.

This is such a perfect summer read, for the beach, the pool, or just your couch on a hot day! If you invest the time to read Watch Me Disappear, I guarantee you will not be disappointed with the story. (Or the ending. It was definitely a jaw-dropper for me.)

A year after Billie disappeared Jonathon and his daughter Olive are still reeling from her loss and trying to find a way for them to move forward with their lives. Billie had gone hiking by herself and never returned and after more than a week of searching the authorities called off the search finding evidence that suggested Billie may have died in those woods.

Now Olive is having visions of her mother and thinks that she just might be still alive out there and waiting for her family to find her. Jonathon is trying to get a death certificate issued so they can move on with their lives but at Olive’s insistence finds himself also questioning his wife’s fate. The two begin to investigate and uncover the secrets Billie had hidden.

Watch Me Disappear is another book that I struggled with deciding how I really wanted to rate this one. After much deliberating I decided to just stay down the middle with my rating as there were some things in here that I just kept thinking about that sort of bothered me with this mystery. However, even with my doubts I still got engaged and would definitely pick up another read by this author so in no way did I find this one bad at all either.

The first thing I found odd about this mystery/thriller read was that quite honestly for me as a reader it lacked the thrilling part for the most part. Taking place a year after Billie’s disappearance perhaps left out that beat the clock discovery for me. At that point I thought to myself if she is alive then there’s like a 99% chance she’s left on purpose so perhaps you guys should just move on and leave the secrets buried…. although as a fan of mystery/thriller I was still curious as to what happened, just not as intensely.

But also, I found Olive’s “visions” to be a strange addition to this type of book. Thinking to myself while reading these parts and how that gets played out later that this type of thing really didn’t fit this book in my mind. Somehow that whole part of the read made the story progress but it just had an odd feel to it being included, although that is just my personal opinion and it may not bother others. So these things left me scratching my head a bit but thinking I’d try this author again because I saw a lot of potential to the writing.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I loved every second of this twisty, turning, could-not-put-it-down tale! There were so many gasp worthy moments that fans of the Husband's Secret would probably delight in. I would love for there to be a book two entirely from Billie's perspective.

This book was really good! It has lots of layers - the characters are complex, Billie especially - she was a completely different person before she met Jonathan and she only allows him to have a glimpse of who she was and who she is even well into their marriage. The story flowed well. There was never a dull moment. We'd be trying to figure out what happened to Billie and then we'd be hit with secrets of hers that I did not see coming. I couldn't stand not knowing if she was dead or alive. I thought I had the ending figured out but I was wrong. I loved it!

My favorite kind of story, someone disappears and we have this niggling suspicion there's more to the story. Wife and mother, Billie Flanagan disappeared almost a year before while out hiking in Desolation Wilderness. Her husband Jonathan has turned to drinking and writing his memoir to cope as he attempts to make it all legal by filing in the court of law stating Billie is dead, even though nothing but her hiking boot was ever found. Billie and Jonathan's daughter Olive, has struggled with her mother's disappearance too, but when she starts having strange visions where her mom seems to be talking to her, she begins to doubt her mom is even possibly dead. The author does an excellent job of slowly giving the reader insight into Billie's life, prior to Jonathan and during her marriage to Jonathan and during her years raising Olive. It really makes you think, "Are people what they seem to be on the surface?". Great build up to an excellent and satisfying ending.

I have just recently discovered women’s fiction. An author friend encouraged me to try the genre, explaining the concept and potential drama of stories about women struggling with life choices and crooked paths. The first book I read in this genre knocked my socks off. This book had a lot to live up to, and didn’t quite get there.

Beautifully written, with great style, the story was a little too transparent. Told from the points of view of the husband, Jonathan, and the daughter, Olive, it explores the events leading up to the disappearance and supposed death of wife and mother, Sybilla.

Sybilla, known as Billy, is a piece of work. I can say with sincerity that I didn’t like her from the beginning. Her gentle taunts to her daughter, told in memories, implying that Olive was too ordinary, annoyed me to no end. Olive was a perfectly nice, well-adjusted young woman who was made to feel less than what her mother expected. I will cut Billy some slack because of her childhood, but not much. Most of what she revealed to her family and friends were half-truths or total lies.

Olive and Jonathan, on the other hand, were sweet, trusting and loving, never doubting Billy for a moment, until after her disappearance. Jonathan was completely in love with his wife, and Olive adored her mother. Lies are never a good idea, and they came back…HARD…to bite Billy in the butt.

I’m fascinated by the way a talented author couples words and phrases together to weave a compelling group of characters. The writing in this story is superb, with characters we begin to understand. The writing should be worth five enthusiastic stars, but, being a self-proclaimed story-slut, I couldn’t do it. The story was predictable. No surprises. If an engaging story is what you’re looking for, you might want to skip this one. If you’re satisfied reading beautiful prose, then you should pick up a copy and…

Enjoy!

2shay

I found this novel to be an easy reading look into the past of a wife & mother, simply gone missing. Peeling back the layers, a determined father is "assisted" by his equally inquisitive daughter...

I'm a sucker for great character development, and Janelle Brown gives us that in spades. Billie, the perfect wife and mother goes missing on a solo hiking trip and is presumed dead. Olive, the devastated daughter and Jonathan, the bereft husband lurch forward in their lives that feel empty without the center that held them together. As the anniversary of Billie's death approaches, Olive begins to believe that her mother is still alive, perhaps kidnapped and needing help. Jonathan also thinks she may be alive, but for more nefarious reasons. As they delve into Billie's past, they realize that she wasn't quite the woman that they'd idolized. Some secrets are best left buried, but others transform their lives for the better.

I liked the unfolding of Billie's past and oh my, what a satisfying ending.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this absorbing read.

WATCH ME DISAPPEAR contains some of the components present in GONE GIRL. This time the disappeared is one Billie Flanagan, a Berkeley mom living what appears to be the perfect life, who went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Is she dead or has her “soccer mom” life been just another lie hidden among a plethora of lies and is her sudden death part of some bigger plan? Her body was never found and the only proof of her death is a shattered cellphone and one hiking boot.

Now, one year after Billie’s disappearance the husband and daughter she left behind are coping with her death in their individual ways. Her husband is writing a tender memoir about their life together bolstered by a bit of booze and daughter Olive has begun having visions intimating that her mother is still alive. She has withdrawn from her father and her friends at school dwells on the visions and what they are telling her. Slowly, father and daughter begin to learn who Billie really was and how little they really knew about this woman they loved.

Part mystery and part relationship tale, this thought provoking tale will have you staying up into the wee hours to learn the truth about Billie and the family she left behind.

This book was interesting but left me angry. I can't say why without giving it away. I kind of wish there will be a sequel so we can learn even more about what happens to the characters.

This is a wonderful story about relationships, family dynamics and the cost of deception. Jonathan is in his early 40's, he works feverishly at his job at Decode, a successful tech company. Billie, his beautiful, free spirit wife, who used to be a kind of a hippie/eco terrorist, seems to have settled into a comfortable life, staying at home and looking after her young teenage daughter Olive. The happy family is shattered one day when Billie does not return from a solo hiking trip, and is eventually presumed dead. A year later, Jonathan is struggling for money, as he realizes he hates his job, and has quit in order to write a memoir of his love story and life with Billie. Disturbing information keeps coming to light as Jonathan slowly realizes that his wife was not at all the woman he thought her to be. On top of this, Olive start to have 'visions' of her mom, and is convinced that she is not really dead. The search for the true story of Billie's life takes father and daughter on a journey with an unexpected ending. I really loved the writing style, and the way the story moved between each character's point of view and timeline. It does keep the reader interested until the last page! Thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review