When Jiordan Castle was coming of age, she lost her father. Not to death, but to prison. Convicted of grave financial crimes, Jiordan’s father was sent away, and she had to learn how to navigate the world as a fatherless girl. The pain of having a loved one in prison is often equated to the death of that person, yet grappling with an imprisoned loved one is its own kind of grief as Jiordan soon learns.

Because Jiordan could find little literature detailing what it is like to be a child with an imprisoned parent, she decided to write a memoir of her experience. Pulling from her journals written from the age of 11 to 18, she writes with poignancy and nuisance as she explores the stigma and loss she experiences from her dad’s prison sentence.

Disappearing Act is an incredible story of a young girl trying to find herself amidst a terrible family tragedy. Dealing with much more than any child should, Jiordan deftly elucidates the many facets of being the daughter of a convicted criminal. She showcases how life can turn on you in an instant, forcing you to reexamine everything you thought to be true as you rewrite your future, while also coming to terms with your past.

This memoir in verse is so deep and thoughtful, and just full of emotion.

Anyone can enjoy and love this story, but I am so happy that the target audience for this book -teenagers- is clearly going to be thought of.
Castle is a master at capturing the complexity of teenage emotions and this was an amazing novel in verse.

Disappearing Act by Jiordan Castle follows a family in the aftermath of the father being accused and subsequently imprisoned for fraud. The book takes place over the course of five months and covers the day-to-day of having a family member in prison. It covers everything, including school gossip, downsizing, and the repercussions of living in different places through the lense of a young girl who was based on the author as a child. The plot takes a while to pick up, but ultimately follows our main character in sustaining a variety of relationships, including familial, platonic, and romantic. Apart from that, the book deals with a lot of heavy topics, including substance abuse and suicide.

The characters, with the exception of the father, are either passive or two-dimensional, being presented as window-dressing rather than people who can drive the plot. The author says at the beginning of the book that her sisters’ stories are their own and that’s probably why they feature as secondary characters only. The same curtesy is not granted to the father, who is often shown in bad light when scared or angry, further accenting how dehumanizing the prison system is. Considering that the father is the only character not present for most of the book, it's interesting that he takes center stage in the lives of all other characters.

The author uses plain language that is at a distance, lessening the impact of these events and making them somewhat impersonal. The poems themselves resemble broken-up sentences that would have worked just as well as prose. Because of the short nature of the poems, the anecdotes and most of the everyday scenes are disjointed, not adding much in terms of plot and character development and creating repetition. This led to quite jarring transitions between scenes, resulting in being taken out of the story. I would prefer there to be more showing rather than telling, especially when it comes to character setup and development. This writing style led to the main character being passive and observational, rather than taking control of her own narrative.

Jiordan Castle has my whole heart! After reading Castle's exquisite poems and essays over the years, I've been eagerly awaiting "Disappearing Act." I was so lucky to get an e-ARC from FSG Young Readers.
This memoir in verse is so deep and thoughtful, following a young Jiordan as she experiences her father's arrest and incarceration. So many readers, both young and old will benefit from this book, but I am particularly hopeful for kids who have experienced parental incarceration to receive this book and feel seen and understood.
One of the most beautiful, profound parts of this book are the deep internality young Jiordan demonstrates. Teenagers are deep, and Castle captures this aspect of youth with such tenderness. I loved this book so very much.

I'm so glad I read this book! What a story. Told in a way that I don't normally read but love - verse. Well done. Brave storytelling. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.

I’m a little bias because I know Jiordan, but this was a very eye-opening book about what it means to be a teenager going through something so heavy. It’s not a completely unique experience, but it’s so richly personal and insightful that it’s definitely needed. I’d recommend it to fans of Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford.