Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance surprised me! I was fully expecting this to be a sad and sorrowful audiobook. I guess, in a way, it was, but I guess it didn't quite hit me how I thought it would.

It was a story of loss, comfort, sisterhood and family, all told directly from Sally's perspective after her sister Kathy's death. It explored how grief, even though it is experienced collectively by Sally's family, is still a very individual thing. I wasn't nearly as emotional as I thought I would be reading, but it definitely had tears in my eyes at a few points.

This book takes place over 15 years and I appreciated how that exemplified how healing and the grieving process never really ends, it just changes slowly. While it may have felt a little long winded to me at times, I liked how fully fleshed out each character was even though it was all told through Sally's voice.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ALC.

This is a conversation of grief told by a younger sister mourning the devastating loss of her older sister, her hero and best friend. There is so much more to the story - how parents handle loss, the sister’s popular boyfriend, friendship, and forgiveness. Despite the tragedies that unfold, there are incredible moments of comedy that shine through in the storytelling. A wonderful emotional roller coaster with tears of both loss and laughter. The narrator of the audiobook is simply perfect.

The synopsis was intriguing; the book not so much. The book is too long. The story is not credible. I'm not giving any spoilers. There needed to be a brief explanation psychologically for all the character's behaviors.

There is a girl code. Sisters and friends don't date each others leftovers. More and more writers have forgotten this code. It makes for a trashy imagination.

I finished this only because it was a NetGalley I had requested to read.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio.

Heartbreakingly, heat-achingly beautiful. Grief has a way sometimes of keeping the ones left behind frozen in time when they could or should be moving on, embracing joy without guilt. The story is told from the unique, neurodivergent perspective of Sally, the younger sister. She offers a concrete, logical perspective while trying to navigate deeply emotional situations and feelings over the loss of her older sister.

This was not the story I was expecting, but it was not a disappointment.

Sally and her older sister Kathy are very close. They are 3 years apart but they share a bedroom, stories, and every thing else in between. Every night before bed Kathy tells Sally all about her crush Billy Barnes. Both girls become quickly obsessed with Billy.

The story is told by Sally to her sister Kathy about all the different things that have happened throughout Sally's life.

Eventually Kathy grows up and doesn't want Sally around as much. Kathy is now dating Billy and Sally wants more than ever to be a part of both Kathy and BIlly's lives. One day Sally demands that Billy and Kathy give her a ride to school tragedy ensues after a terrible accident.

Kathy is now gone and Sally continues to share her story with her even after her death. She shares how different everyone is without her and the story continues until Sally is in her late 20s.

I was hoping for a little bit more suspense and/or thriller vibes from this book. It was a well written, melancholy story, but I don't know that the title accurately represents the book.

This book ended up not being a good fit for me but not through any fault of its own. I'm working through some family issues that didn't fit well with the plot and characters. The writing was good and the story was interesting. The narrator was great. The book had a melancholy feel to it though.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I mistakenly thought this book was going to be a thriller/mystery based on the title. Instead, it’s a family drama centered around grief and coping with an unexpected tragedy.

The first 1/3 of the book was okay, but I wasn’t blown away. The book reads like one long letter by one sister, Sally, to her older sister, Kathy. I listened to this one (thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy), and it was challenging to follow since there weren’t traditional chapters or breaks in the story. While there were glimmers of thoughtful prose and reflective commentary on family and grief, toward the end I found myself zoning out and ready for the whole thing to wrap-up. I went back and forth with liking Sally as the main character. At times, she was wise beyond her years. In other instances, her immaturity was cringy and exhausting.

Overall, it’s not a bad book. Just not one of the GREATS, for me.

My deep appreciation to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The way the author described before and after the death of a character was so addicting for me, I just wanted to know what happened next.
Sally is 13 when her 16-year-old sister Kathy dies. This is the story of Sally, her mom, and her dad, and how they deal with this great loss. It’s also the the story of Billy, Kathy’s boyfriend at the time when she died. I really loved how this story ended !

This entire book is a love letter to Sally’s sister Kathy who was in a tragic accident in her junior year of high school. Written approximately 15 year after Sally reflects in the events leading to the incident and the aftermath of her and her family’s life.

Sally details all her life and all of her inner monologue that goes along with it. We witness a broken family as they try to pick up the pieces. Sally also deals with her love for Kathy’s boyfriend who is just as broken if not more than Sally.

This read’s like a diary most of the time. There are really no chapter breaks at least it felt that way in the Audio version. Reader’s will feel that you are entirely in Sally’s mind, a sad, broken woman, especially as she surpasses her sister in milestones.

This book has started to show up on lot’s of summer reading lists and it is entirely worth the hype. There is sadness, but a lot humor that Espach provides. So glad I received a copy of this book.

Thank you NetGalley, Henry Holt and Macmillan Audio for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful and tragic but conflicting tale that is part family life, part coming of age, part tragedy and moving on, and part.... Love story? I can't say I really liked the ending. The "romance" was unhealthy and built on some really weird aspects and I'm not a fan of them having a "happily ever after" being an ending you're supposed to root for, but that being said it absolutely kept me hooked and is definitely going to be memorable.

The writing itself was beautiful, and I was definitely thoroughly invested right from the first page to the last.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance
by Allison Espach
Pub Date: May 1`7, 2022
Macmillan Audio
I love audiobooks! Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the digital listening copy of this book.
This would make an excellent book group pick. There would be so much to discuss: family, grief, healing, and even the changes brought about by the internet and smartphones as the book begins in the early 90s and ends 20 years later.
4 stars

A coming of age story, set in the 90s (if you couldn’t tell by the fun goodies!) Sally is the younger sister of Kathy. They spend their summers at the local pool, boy watching, especially Billy Barnes, a rising basketball star. When Kathy and Billy start dating in high school, eighth-grader, Sally is a little shocked, confused and intrigued as any little sister would be. But, then tragedy strikes and Sally is left to navigate the world alone.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance takes place over the course of 15 years and is told from Sally’s POV, before, during and after this tragedy. A story about family, tragedy and carrying on in the face of unimaginable sadness, I consider this book a must read!

Thoughts:
You know I barely read blurbs so I thought based on the titles this was a thriller. IT IS NOT!

I tend to favor stories with family especially sisterly bonds and this books was everything I love in a novel.

This story is a slow burn but for me it is beautifully done. The writing is amazing and the way the family grows is real, raw and honest.

There were so many funny parts in this story, like laugh out loud funny, which I was pleasantly surprised about.

A book filled with sadness, love, and laughs before, during and after a family tragedy, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is a 5-star read that I completely devoured!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

A sad yet beautiful story about Sally and her older sister, Kathy, who died in a car accident. Sally life was shaped in the moments of before, during and after Kathy’s death. She was only entering eighth grade when this occurred. The story is about how Sally, her parents, and Billy, Kathy’s boyfriend at the time, and the one who was driving the car, grieve. The book starts with Sally’s narration in the 90’s and moves through 20 years of her life. When I first picked it up, I thought the book was going to be a thriller. Nope. I was wrong. This was a coming-of-age story in the shadow of her sister’s death. The entire book is a love story of sisters. Sally’s life meanderers with no direction for a while. I listened to the audiobook version, and I thought the narrator did a great job. This was a heartbreaking story about death, grief, love, and family.

Just finished listening to this book on audio and liked the narrator enough. I’m giving it 3 stars. I loved “Ask Again, Yes” so I was really excited about it because it was similar? I think sometimes when anyone compares one book to another they’ll run the risk of being compared in a negative outcome. And that’s what I thought happened here. At least for me. It’s told in first person and the MC was… was…. Off? I just couldn’t connect with the story. I wanted more. It wasn’t bad it just didn’t move me emotionally.
Thanks Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

A book to be read with a tearjerking playlist. So much grief and processing and a wonderfully hopeful ending. The narration was pitch perfect and the SPOILER ALERT section toward the end describing the mother after receiving ECT treatments absolutely gutted me. I could not put this audiobook down.

What a story. A quiet but moving coming of age story. It took me awhile to get used to how it was written but I very much enjoyed - it's bittersweet and sad, but I couldn't put it down. Will definitely stick with me for a long time. 4-4.5 stars.

This was by no means a feel good book, however, I ended up feeling so tenderly for Sally. She's the focus of the book as she addresses her sister before, during, and after her death. We get to grow up with Sally and learn all of the intricacies of dealing with loss and grief and the guilt and shame that go along with that. We also get a glimpse of the people that surround her, her family, friends, and people in her neighborhood and school.

There's also this forbidden love feel to it with Sally and her sister's boyfriend throughout Sally's life; from childhood into adulthood. To watch it play out over years is both cringey (for lack of a better word) and heartbreaking. I was cheering them on but also felt a bit weird about it. The writing of this book was beautiful. I listened to it through audio, and while I thought the narrator did a very good job, I wish I could have read it in print.

Overall the story and writing was beautiful. There were a few parts that I felt rather bored, but I think that was due to me listening to the audio book and only able to go at the pace it went. I think reading it I could have flown through it.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio.

Y’all know what that means, NEW BOOKS ARE RELEASED TODAY🎉🤩

Three books that should be on your new release radar:

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄- review below🤓

𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑- gothic horror about a cult survivor. Literally SAY NO MORE. I’m starting this baby tonight😳👏🏻🤩

𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒- 3 life long friends in a East Texas, a hot newcomer, and a MURDER. I’m thinking this one is going to be some beach read worthy material🏖

Thank you a million times over to the incredible publishers that give me the opportunity to read all these books. I adore you guys so much🖤🖤🖤@henryholtbooks @tornightfire @berkleypub

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐭. 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭:

I’ve actually decide to not rate this book because I don’t think something as simple as a rating can truly rate this book.

It’s a hard book and is mildly depressing for the majority of it. I will say this though: it is in equal parts a book about grief as it is a book about finding love in the most unexpected places. And the writing is masterful. Really a beautiful take on how grief can run a tornado through your life in the most unexpected ways.

In it we follow the growing mind of Sally, almost an eighth grader, who was in a car wreck with her older sister, Kathy, and her sisters boyfriend, Billy. This is a coming of age novel for Sally, and in parts for Billy, but it reads like a memoir. Slow, and it is really just Sally rambling. Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is a ‘feels real’ (albeit fictional), honest book about how grief strikes a family and how tragedy changes the way your life turns out, in all of its facets.

I was expecting a juicy murder book so oh boy. I was in shock haha but if you are in the mood for a book like this, I’m sure you will find it wonderful. The ending is a good ending🖤

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful week and if you’ve read this one, or are excited to read any of these new books out today, shout out! I’d love to hear from you guys!

This is such a melancholy, yet lovely book. Sally narrates the story, telling it to her sister Kathy, who died in a car accident when she was in high school. It is the tale of grief manifested in many ways--by Sally, who was in the car but unhurt, by Kathy's boyfriend Billy, who was driving, and by Kathy and Sally's parents. It's a coming of age novel, but it's also a tale of self-discovery.

I listened to the audiobook, which was brilliantly narrated by Jesse Vilinsky, who also was one of the narrators in Laurie Frankel's One Two Three. She absolutely captures Sally's voice, her nuances, her quirks, and her humor.

The timeline of this book begins in the 90s and moves forward through twenty years. The movement through time is chronicled through the changes in technology and the occurrences of world events, which show the passage of time even as some of the characters have difficulty navigating their own way forward through their grief. This is a familiar subject for me, and I could really identify with the different ways the characters moved forward with stops and starts, sometimes staying in one place for a long time.

This is not a thriller as the title might seem to indicate. It's a deep family drama about relationships and how those relationships grow and change in the midst of grief and pain. The novel really resonated with me and I hope it reaches other people in the same way.