Loss and Grief are powerful forces that are explored in this raw, heartfelt, and sometimes funny love story. A solid 4.5 Star for me.

Jesse Vilinsky narrates this at times heavy story with perfection. She captures the early naivete of a young Sally as well as the emotional hard and soft lines of her as she ages through the 15 year timeline. Alison Espach wrote a moving story and I felt it all.

The story begins with the "before" the accident with Sally's trip down memory lane with her older sister Kathy and their long infatuation with Billy. When Kathy dies in an accident, it pulls the rug out from everyone's life. The aftermath finds that healing is long-term and relationships become complicated.

I loved the sister relationship in the beginning. It was so relatable. There is certainly a complex love in these sisters and it felt so real. The connection Billy and Sally forge after Kathy's death seems understandable as they both know what it feels like to love and lose Kathy. The way Sally tries to move forward with her life despite her mother's failure to do so is also something that felt authentic. Though this sounds super sad and heavy, it is sprinkled with such humor and wit that it kept it from weighing down too much. So don't fear! My only 1/2 star dock is due to my personal preference of not loving descriptions of intimacy. There wasn't much, but I didn't need it for the story to be great!

Thank you so much to @NetGalley and @macmillan.audio for the opportunity to hear this ALC. For those who enjoy a moving coming-of-age story, keep this on your list! Pub date is May 17th 2022!

Masterfully written, this story reads like a cathartic journey through love and life. Told through bitter isolation of a sister left behind, your heart instantly goes out to Sally, and her experience plays on in detailed, somber ways. Definitely not one Id recommend to anyone actively grieving, but once you’re ready to dig into something that ‘goes there’ in terms of grieving a loss, this is a touching ride to be on.

I was fully captivated by this story. It’s heart wrenching and sweet at the same time—it will make you sweat and feel slightly nauseous. Is this a coming-of-age-ghost-story-romance? Or something else?

So much of this narrative feels familiar but also jarring. In the universe of this novel, grief and sex collide and become synonymous. I can’t help but think about Wuthering Heights and Kathy, Healrhcliff’s dead lover, scratching at the window. And like Jane in Jane Eyre, Sally (the protagonist) is bound to a darkness she can’t escape.

I highly recommend this book. Though I would’ve preferred to have read the ebook over having the audio because I found the narration distracting and eye-roll worthy.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Net Galley for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sally is excited for summer of spending time with her older sister Kathy. Well, and both are enjoying checking out Billy Barnes. Over the summer Billy and Kathy continue to get closer, until they become an exclusive item. A quick drive ends in tragedy however. Over the next 15 years, Sally works to come to terms with the loss of Kathy, and unfortunately, can only find solace in Billy, the driver in the crash that killed Kathy.

This was such an interesting tale of loss, love, comfort, hope, and grief. My heart just broke for Sally as she dealt with her sisters death, and the effects it had on her family. I also felt for Billy and the trauma he faced after the accident. This was such a wonderful coming of age story, while facing truly unthinkable things at the same time. I really loved the friendship between Billy and Sally, and how they helped each other through the loss of Kathy throughout the years.

An excellent look at the interplay of grief and coming-of-age. A recommended purchase in all formats.

What a beautiful, heartbreaking, coming of age story. Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is written in Sally’s point of view through letters to her older sister, Kathy. We follow Sally through childhood, college life, and then throughout her early adult years.

I listened to this story whenever I could. I was truly touched and moved by Sally’s story. This one is a sad one – and I felt it. I connected with Sally and her family and felt their pain.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book sounded like an easy win for me and yet I struggled to sink into the story. All of the elements were there (family, grief, coming of age) and the writing was certainly solid, but the story lacked a beating heart. I felt surprisingly little listening to this story. The pacing felt slow throughout and I never satisfactorily connected with the characters.

I finished Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach while I was on a long walk with my dog over the weekend (thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy) and when it ended I felt sad so I walked a little ways with my earpods silent- not just because it's a sad, heartbreaking novel, but because I was sad it was over. I enjoyed it from start to finish and found Alison Espach's writing and details vivid - I also enjoyed the experience of reading a nostalgic "period piece" set close to my own childhood and teen years, as I'm just a couple of years behind our narrator in age. Audiobook reader Jesse Vilinsky does an outstanding job here, just nailing it.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance (out on May 17th!) is Sally's story, as told to her older sister Kathy. Sally recounts the years, days and moments leading to a sudden tragedy and the years that follow. Constantly in Sally and Kathy's orbit is the enigma of Billy Barnes - their childhood crush, then Kathy's boyfriend, then the only other person in the world who seems to understand Sally's grief.

The one is sad - the loss in this story is felt not just the moment of impact, which we experience in real time via Sally's memory, but the aftermath and the toll it takes on the entire family. However, I found joy and loved the deep connection and romance (if you can call it that) that Sally and Billy share, like no matter what these two forces are drawn together. I also really felt the realism of the somewhat shocking decisions grief can force people to make (trusting psychics that offer their services for free, completely veering off their life's path, getting neck tattoos, and so on). I think this is lining up to be one of my favorite books of the year and we aren't even halfway through yet.

Many thanks to Macmillan for the audio copy, it was an absolute pleasure to listen to.

Narrator rocked this character. All the emotion, frustration, sadness, love was JUST RIGHT! it was a great story. Very easy to connect with all the players. Well done. Will recommend at Library for sure to my patrons!

Billy Barnes - the dreamy high school basketball star. Two sisters - Kathy Holt, who is dating Billy, and Sally Holt, who is secretly in love with him. I loved the bond between the sisters and how true to life it was. They share secrets, they giggled, they fought, they talked about boys - all the sister like things. Their family takes vacations and enjoys summers by the neighborhood pool. School resumes, and one morning Sally bribes Kathy into having Billy drive her to school, even though it's the opposite way from this high school. And this is where the story takes a turn. Billy is zooming down Main Street and swerves to avoid a deer, hitting hard into a tree. Billy is hurt, Sally walks away without any physical injuries, but Kathy dies in the accident. And Sally and Billy's lives are changed forever.

We are then led through the "after" through Sally's eyes. She suffers from grief and regret, a strong connection with Billy that, despite her parent's efforts to banish him from their lives, lives on. They have secret chats. They are separated many times but seem to find their way back to each other. They share a loss that no one else truly feels about the way that they do and it bonds them for life.

This could have been a very depressing story, but through Sally's eyes we witness that life does actually go on, even though the road of life may be even bumpier after loss. We watch her grow, deal with her grief in her own way, and fall in love!

Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review!

In a story told across several decades, this book follows Sally's journey from a little kid to tag-along little sister until one day a car accident takes her sister's life. From that point, we follow Sally's life moving forward without her sister as she and her family struggle with their own ways of coping.

I thought I was a good audience for this book because I lost my best friend in January and often think about what she would say about what's going on now and how weird it is that she's not here...and to some extent the author captured that. However, I felt like the story was kind of slow and doesn't really go anywhere until the very end. Additionally, I found the whole story line with her dead sister's boyfriend to be unrealistic and kind of gross honestly.

This book wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I would recommend this book to fans of 'Everything I Never Told You' by Celeste Ng, or 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' by Claire Lombardo

4.5/5 rounded up. In this emotional coming of age story, we meet Sally and her older sister, Kathy, when they are in elementary and middle school. The story is primarily told through Sally’s experiences and with the audio at just over 12 hours long, there was time to develop her voice and let the reader build a connection to her. We follow Sally through the tragic and sudden loss of her sister, through her childhood, and into early adulthood. We get to hear her inner thoughts as she makes her way through the world. Often, she is misunderstood by those she is talking with, and the author did a great job of giving space for the close encounters of relationships when people aren’t connecting as their true selves. I felt myself longing to nudge people closer together or just clarify how they felt, but that’s not always how life works and the story felt wistfully authentic.

The two primary people in Sally’s life are her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, Billy. Billy continues to be an important person in Sally’s life, even beyond her sister’s death, and the way their relationship evolves felt realistic and tangible. I need to be in the right mindset for an emotional, sad, and wry coming-of-age tale and reading this felt like great timing. When an author captures a teen or young adult inner monologue well, especially as they navigate a world that doesn’t always “get” them, it always pulls me in.

If you enjoyed books like In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn or Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, then I highly suggest this book. Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the chance to read this advanced copy!

Content warnings: Child death, Grief, Self-harm, Mental illness

I really enjoyed Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance. It has a bit of a dark comedy feel to it, as well as a great character study and portrayal of grief. I don't always love books where the main character is a child, but if that's you, still consider giving this one a try! I thought it was really well done. Sally, our main character, wants to keep her missing loved one involved in her life (trying to be vague to not spoil!) and we get a couple of decades of it. Unlike other characters, she's not deluded about whether this person will come back, but she wants to continue talking to them, and to share the things they would have shared in life. The second person perspective really worked for me, and I'm so grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for access to the audiobook - this book worked especially well for me on audio, with Sally's second-person narrative.

Dear Notes on your Sudden Disappearance,
I have been pondering what to say to you for the last few days. I am unsure if I was in the wrong frame of mind listening to you, mourning the loss of Maggie and Mira. You are an incredibly powerful testament to the power of loss in a family and what it can take to move on. I struggled with your pacing a bit, very few breaks in your audio, and no way to tell one time frame from the other. There was a polished, stream of consciousness feeling to you, a bit like a journal for Sally as she tried to make sense of what happened to Kathy and the complexity and depth of her feelings for Billy. Even the later chapters, Sally had an adolescent quality to her relationships, as if she was stuck in time at 14 with Kathy. Your story was powerful, but you lacked emotional depth for me.

This book follows Sally throughout her life before, during, and after her sister’s death. The narrator did a great job on helping you connect with the characters and was very easy to listen too. I think the author did well in describing how grief can shift families. Sally had to live with being the sister and daughter who survived. The beginning of the book was great and I was hooked. However, the last 1/3 of the book really dragged on and the ending was very abrupt and seemed rushed and unfinished.

3/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was a decent story. Told over several years, Sally talks to her sister before and after her death. I didn't get very invested in the characters, but the author did try to give a lot of details.

When this first started out I wasn’t sure if I would like the way it was written. The book is told from the viewpoint of a female MC writing to her sister. I really thought I would get tired of it quick, but it was so well written and beautiful I didn’t end up minding it at all.

We follow Sally throughout her life before, during, and after her sister’s death. The phases of life Sally goes through, the thoughts in her head, the situations she puts herself in feel extremely genuine, which in my opinion is rare in most stories. In the parts where Kathy was alive, she was very likable and their relationship seemed like the typical close sister relationship. Billy’s character was fantastic as well. We watched him grow up in Sally’s eyes, while he torments himself over the guilt he feels for Kathy’s death.

The plot moves quickly enough to not get boring, but slow enough that it never felt rushed. It was just a beautiful story and my first by the author. I highly recommend checking this one out.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance byAlison Espach follows Sally Holt over the course of fifteen year who .writes letters to her sister Kathy before, during, and after her sister's death. We watch as Kathy’s absence creates a gaping hole that only Billy, Kathy's boyfriend at the time of her death—now firmly off-limits to Sally—understands and might possibly begin to fill.

I went into this book under the notion that this was a mystery book, probably because of the word "disappearance" rather than "death". However this book not a mystery, rather it's a very dark coming-of-age story as the main character deals with her immense grief. This book was very difficult to read in terms of content but also so moving and unfortunately relatable. This book does an excellent job of not only allowing us to see how the main character deals with her death but also how the death of her sister impacts her parents and her then boyfriend. This was definitely one of my favorite books of the year so far and highly recommend it.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ah! This is truly a story that is going to stay with me for a long while, and one I am so sad about finishing - I wanted to go on and on! Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is a book that wasn't even on my radar, and I went in blind thinking I was going to read a thriller. Instead, I was pleased to be enveloped in a heartwarming, tragic coming-of-age story that is brilliantly narrated and thought-provoking at every turn.
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My best advice: go in blind and listen to the audio. The narrator does a wonderful job bringing the reader the voice of Sally, a young girl growing up in the late 90's and early 2000's, dealing with the normal things every kid deals with, but also delving through a tragic event that shapes her entire life.
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Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for this memorable read that felt like more of an experience!

Sally’s best friend is her older sister, Kathy. They talk late into the night and share their lives with each other. As Kathy grows older, she starts to shift away from such a close relationship with her sister and tends to do her own thing, favoring hanging out with her boyfriend over her sister, leaving Sally feeling left out and hurt.

One morning, Sally has enough and decides that she needs to demand more from Kathy in return, and requests that Kathy and her boyfriend (Billy) drive her to school. Kathy is anxious to make it in time to school for her first period quiz and encourages Billy to speed, since dropping Sally off at school will take them longer. A deer causes Billy to swerve, and Kathy dies in the accident while Sally is unscathed and Billy is left with scars and injury.

The book follows Sally over 15 years and is written as if Sally is speaking or writing to Kathy about how life has been since she died. The book is both mundane (in a positive manner, as in follows one’s normal life without relying on book tropes to spice up a story) and captivating, and I think it’s mainly due to how it was written. I listened to this book on audio, and Jesse Vilinsky did a wonderful job distinguishing between characters and relaying the story.

I have mixed feelings about the ending. I thought some aspects were beautiful and others were predictable. I don’t want to spoil anything, so you’ll have to read to see what you think! I would definitely recommend this book, especially on audio. I think it was a beautiful expression on one’s journey with grief and how it shapes our life experiences.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.