The Cold Vanish was such an engrossing and eye-opening read. I was expecting something else from the book, though I don’t know what - perhaps something more like reading an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, something more sensationalized, but I am so glad the book was different than my expectations for it. Billman crafts a compassionate but fact based narrative, focusing heavily on missing person Jacob Gray but interspersing the chapters with other missing people from public lands and national parks. It was at turns hopeful and heartbreaking, but overall terrific. I was also very impressed with Billman for not just writing the story but actually doing the work of searching for missing people himself. I had never thought too closely about missing people and search and rescue protocols, thankfully I suppose, so it was fascinating as well as frustrating to read about where these procedures fall short and leave the families of missing people behind. My heart goes out to these families and I’m immeasurably grateful for the people that help, and even those like the author for writing about this issue.

This was a very interesting book and I was very intrigued by the topic. It presented a lot of info and stats that were surprising and gave a lot to think about. The writing was mostly good but there were some transitions between cases/timelines that were a bit rough and confusing.

I'm a bit cold toward this one (pun intended). The writing was not particularly great. The formatting of the story left things to be desired. The author bounces between cases and topics quickly and doesn't give any warning. I was looking forward to this because I live in the PNW and the wild has always been a part of me. Towards the end it got weirdly religious. I know that the author is portraying the thought process of the family but it came out of left field. Anyway here are some good parts. The author is great at one-liners and a lot of them were funny enough for me to snicker. You can tell that Billman actually cares about the family set in the middle of this story and I can appreciate that. Other than that there isn't much more to say. It's nothing memorable.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book takes a look at people who vanish in the wilderness. I did find it interesting, but at the same time it was a bit unsatisfying. My expectation was a more in-depth analysis of people who vanish without a trace. According to FBI data, a staggering number of people go missing every year. In 2019, 609,275 people vanished. Even with lockdowns in 2020, more than 543,018 people went missing (as compared to 352,000 succumbing to COVID). It just blows my mind!

The author focuses on those who vanish while camping, biking, hiking, climbing. While he gives a few glimpses into some strange cases, his focus is on Jacob Gray's disappearance in Olympic National Park. The author meets Jacob’s father, Randy, and becomes part of the search for Jacob. Randy is determined that his son is alive, and searches relentlessly for him. Randy liquidates his holdings, purchasing an RV so he can follow any leads. The leads brought to him by bloodhounds, psychics, Sasquatch whisperers, alien abductions, Twilight Zone portals and coincidences lead Randy to Vancouver. Unfortunately, Jacob’s body is later found in Olympic National Park.

The book was interesting, but I would have preferred a lot more stories rather than one in-depth focus. It’s such a fascinating subject that I wanted to hear more about other cases, which are just a few paragraphs interspersed throughout the book.

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Interesting book on the actual processes and hoops you have to jump through to find a missing person at a national forest. I would have liked the author to get more into the supernatural aspect of some of the disappearances, but the book goes into great detail about years long searches for missing loved ones.

Okay this was a fun and thoughtful book. It was super interesting and was a chilly read. Definitely give this one a go.

The missing number grows each year, and many families never receive the answers they are looking for. For some, the search goes on for years before they finally find an answer - and for some, the search and wait never yields results.

In "The Cold Vanish" Jon Billman follows one particular case, that of Jacob Gray, although others are discussed along the way. For many, not being prepared can mean the difference between life and death. For those that are extreme outdoorsmen, getting lost can be just as dangerous. Billman follows the case of Jacob Gray, befriending the father and going through the difficult years of searching for Jacob.

While other cases are discussed, many of them are not done so in-depth, leaving the reader to wonder and begin to dig for other information, and who else might be missing in the Wilderness areas of North America.

I enjoyed this book, and found the information to be easy to follow - although I suggest a notebook to note down any areas that you might want to dive further into. I didn't appreciate his portrayal of David Paulides, it seemed catty and unwarranted - especially for someone who has done quite a bit of work into the missing in the national parks. Other than that - the book was fantastic! I would recommend this one to anyone who is interested in those who go missing, and the efforts that are undertaken to find and bring them home.

Well written and researched book. It was fascinating and sad. I will definitely be on lookout for more by this author.

The number of missing persons that have vanished from exploring the wilderness is astonishing. It really highlights how vast and wild parts of our country still are. 

Using the story of the disappearance of Jacob Gray to anchor the exploration of this phenomenon of vanishing, Billman reflects on how the disappearance of someone oftentimes becomes less about the missing and more about the people that miss them. I really appreciated Billman's friendship with Jacob's father Randy as it grew and flourished under their shared quest to find Jacob. Billman writes of not only his fondness for Randy, but how Randy shaped the search for Jacob and Billman's research into the missing.

An interesting facet of this look into the world of the missing and the searching is how the greatest allies to the families who are searching are oftentimes the people that the rest of society has so easily dismissed. These are the eccentrics who are psychics or into searching for Bigfoot and UFOs among other things. These people are consistent safe havens of hope for those who are searching. Everybody just wants to find a place to belong, and these communities are providing that for other searchers. They don't have to be looking for the same thing, but just on a similar trajectory.

It's hard to say that I really enjoyed this book because of how sad the stories are inside, but this book was fantastic. I'm very interested in missing person cases, I've heard a couple of the cases but Jon added more things in that I never knew. I also enjoyed Jon's writing style, a lot of missing person cases are very impersonal and read just like a news report. Jon really sucked me into each story and I got so connected to the cases that I found myself shedding tears for the people involved. Jacob's story really got to me, I find myself still thinking about his case from time to time. If you are interested in missing person cases or want to learn more about them I would highly recommend this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was fascinating! Not only was it well written and deftly researched, but you could sense the author's respect for these people and their stories in every page. Heartbreaking and mysterious, haunting and captivating, these collected true tales of people disappearing in the vast spaces of North America is a must read for anyone interested in true crime or disasters in nature.

I would have 'enjoyed' this more if they told the story of one missing person at a time instead of splicing one with all the rest. I hope Randy still hangs with the people that ran the big foot thing.

This was an absolutely fascinating look at the many people who have vanished into our National Parks. It is well researched and very well-written, including true crime details plus an in-depth look at the search and rescue process in the national parks and forests.

This was quite a journey. I felt like I was on the search for Jacob too. I feel like I know these brave men and women who risked their own safety searching for someone they did not know personally. I feel exhausted like I just spent a year hiking the Olympic Peninsula or Sol Duc Falls.

This was was beautifully written. The care brought to Jacob’s story and the stories of all the other missing was nothing short of amazing. One of the best non-fiction of this type I’ve ever read. I would highly suggest this book for lovers of “true crime” but really for any reader with a heart. 5 stars across the board.

I appreciated the way this book tells a story. It's true crime and mystery and biography and autobiography and history all in one.

Wow. I was disturbed by the number of people who go missing around National Parks. The book also relates numerous times how indifferent people in charge are when it comes to searching. The author does reference multiple people describing a Big Foot like encounter. At the first reference I would have closed the book, but this is a Netgalley and I agreed to read and review. The claims are across the United States. The author documents how circumstances without some outside aid would not be possible. After reading, and becoming invested in a Dad searching for his son, I do concede that there is something in the Parks. Groups or even individuals in the parks, not necessarily Big Foot, but organized. The facts are frightening.

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I found this incredibly emotional to read but highly informative.
I had no idea how many people go missing daily, and especially in national parks.
I found the whole process of searching for a person, the resources used and available, and the red tape envolved an real eye opener.
It was incredibly sad to hear the outcome of many of the cases highlighted.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

You can tell the author did his research before writing this book. The cases of these missing people are incredibly fascinating. This book mainly focuses on the case of Jacob Gray who went missing in Olympic National Park.

Jon Billman writes most often for Outside magazine and this book grew out of stories who wrote about those who go missing in the wilds of North American. For the most part, this book follows Randy Grey, the father of the Jacob Grey, who went missing in the Olympic National Forest. But it also shares stories of others who have gone missing, both those found and those not. At one point I thought Billman went too far afield in including those who live in the wild by breaking into cabins and stealing, and also those who believe the missing have all been kidnapped by Bigfoot. But looking back, they, too, are a part of what it means to go missing in America. A good story, well told.

I found this book hard to get into, and struggled to continue reading. I ultimately did not finish it. Missing persons stories have fascinated me forever, as they do many true crime enthusiasts, but this book misses the mark on delivering new or unknown cases. I'm not sure how I feel about the half-ish part of the book I read. It's rather disjointed in the storytelling, making it hard to follow, and there are some aspects (such as Bigfoot) that I wasn't exactly expecting. A DNF for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to review.