This was written in such an interesting way and I loved the way the author crafted this. I loved this mystery and thought it was a great read.

We really have to stop comping things to We Were Liars because it gives away the twist (or the assumption of every character except the MC in this case). This was fine, but it wasn't spectacular.

#NetGalleyARC This was a great mysterious read. It's perfect for this time of year and I'm kinda glad it took me so long to get to it. The writing was good and the story kept me entertained and kept my attention throughout the story. Will for sure be getting this for my HS library.

apologies for delayed review!

I enjoyed this book and got into the plot really quickly. The characters are well developed and have good dynamics. I enjoyed the different perspective of the writing and thought it was a good technique.
Overall an enjoyable read!

Thanks netgalley for the arc!

I really enjoyed this book and got sucked into the plot quickly. All the characters are well developed and I found myself rooting for them to find out the truth. This was sort of a modern day Nancy Drew and I loved every minute of it. Several times I was certain that I had figured it all out, only to discover that I had no clue. (An interesting side effect of reading on a Kindle is thinking that you have figured out the story and looking at the percentage read and realizing that you haven't! I enjoyed the different style of perspective that the writer used, with Teddy speaking to her sister, instead of the reader. Once I was used to it, I enjoyed the extra details included by this perspective of their bond. I wish there was a sequel because I enjoyed the development of the characters so much, but I appreciate the ending that allows me to imagine what I want to happen next.

A rather good “who done it” or “did anybody do it”. Izzy’s been gone nearly a year, but Teddy – her twin sister – cannot believe her nearly Olympic material swimmer could have drowned. As Teddy begins to delve deeper into what happened that day/night at Bottomrock Lake she finds she did not know her sister as well as she thought.
This is a good debut novel from E.A.Neeves and I look forward to seeing another.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of After You Vanished. I loved this book. Not my usual genre, but written well with a good mystery. The author keeps the reader turning pages wanting to know what happened. The end did not dissappoint. 4 stars

After You Vanished
By E. V. Neeves

Genre:
Young Adult Psychological Thriller/Mystery

Red Flags:
Loss, Murder, Sexual Assault, Rape

Summary/Review:
Teddy and Izzy are twins who are very different, but love each other all the same. Izzy vanishes and no one seems to know what happened to her or where she might be, Teddy becomes obsessed with finding her twin sister. E. A. Neeves creates a young adult mystery with elements of built up suspense and keeps the reading guessing until the very end.
Thank you to E. A. Neeves, Disney Publishing Worldwide, Disney Hyperion, and Netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#reluctantreaderreads
#afteryouvanished
#eaneeves
#disneypublishingworldwide
#netgalley
#advancedreaderreads

I did not love After You Vanished... and I can't tell if it's because I didn't expect what it actually was. The book is a victim of improper marketing... it's a mystery without the mystery. There's nothing exciting here and the characters were meh.

I'm not gonna lie, it took me a bit to get in to this book, but once I did I had to finish it as soon as possible. Izzy is a strong swimmer training for the Olympics, but on a swim across the lake she's gone. Told from the perspective of her twin Teddy, we see what has happened in life after she vanished as she trys to figure out what happened that night.

This book really fell short for me.
Izzy, Teddy's twin sister went missing the summer before and Teddy is determined to find out where she went.
The characters in this book were bland and a lot then didn't add anything to this story. I had hopes that the book had a different outcome. But honestly I felt the whole story was pointless.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

After You Vanished was more of a teen drama than a real mystery. There was nothing new here and the characters were especially bland. They never seemed fleshed out and real. It was hard to connect with them.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
After You Vanished had me hooked from the start. It's a mystery and a story of dealing with grief. Teddy is trying to move on with her life after her sister vanished. Did she die or leave. There was never a body. Neeves kept me guessing and I kept rethinking what happened. The story is told as Teddy writes to her sister. and narrates the present. I think students will enjoy the mystery and want to keep reading to find out Izzy's whole story

Teddy used to love lifeguarding Bottomrock Lake, until her twin went for a midnight swim and never came back. Being a talented swimmer, Izzy couldn't have drowned. If she did drown, where is her body and why is her passport missing? With Toby's help, Teddy will spend one final summer trying to figure out what happened to Izzy.

The story is told from Teddy's point of view directly to Izzy. The author has written a plot on themes of grief, family, identity, and guilt are explored. It is a compelling, heartfelt mystery that I enjoyed.

Teddy’s favorite place is Bottomrock Lake, where she’s been a lifeguard every summer, even though it’s the last place her twin sister, Izzy was seen a year ago. Now, she can’t stop thinking of all the places her sister went - Izzy was on her way to become an Olympic swimmer, there’s no way she could have drowned. Plus, her passport is missing.

But when Toby, the boy who was with Izzy that fateful night she vanished, comes to Bottomrock to work as a lifeguard too, Teddy can’t help but want to ask 1,000 questions. How many secrets does Toby have of Izzy’s that she didn’t share with Teddy? And why does undercovering one always lead to ten more?

I picked this up because it mentioned Sadie by Courtney Summers as a read-a-like, and I absolutely love that book and am constantly recommending it, so to have another title that would get to be added to that list was what I was looking for. I had high expectations, and this one didn’t disappoint.

This is most definitely a slow burn mystery with low stakes (no one is coming after to kill Teddy or anyone else) mixed with a bit of romance. There was always something that made me turn the page, even when Teddy would eliminate something. I always had hope it would turn out one way. I will say I think it took me a bit longer to see a few of the curveballs that were thrown, but in the end it was fun to see it all connected.

Though a mystery, this book also focuses on Teddy and her grief of losing not only a sibling, but her twin. And how she uses it to grow out on her own for the first time. Her story in that regard was well written.

Needless to say, this will be on my recommendation list, alongside Sadie, for anyone who wants a good mystery with emotional layers to it.

*Thank you Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review

AFTER YOU VANISHED by EA Neeves is an interesting take on the missing sibling trope. I thought it was cool how the whole novel was written in second person, addressed to the twin who went missing one year prior. Her grief over her lost sister feels tangible on the page. The friendship dynamics are messy in a realistic way. I think it would be a good fit for teens who like One of Us Is Lying (Karen McManus) or Sadie (Courtney Summers).

It's been a year since Teddy's twin sister disappeared, and she is still waiting for answers about what really happened to Izzy.

How could an aspiring Olympic swimmer like her sister go for a midnight dip in a lake and never surface again? That is, if that's actually what happened - as Izzy's friend and swim team buddy Toby claims it did.

Izzy's body was never found, but her passport is also gone, which seems strange to Teddy. She clings to the idea that her twin has left for some faraway place because - for whatever reason - she needed to get away from her life.

Meanwhile, Teddy remains suspicious of Toby, not least because he has now come to work at Bottomrock Lake, a place where Teddy has worked as a lifeguard for the last several years. It can't be a coincidence that this is also the spot from which Izzy disappeared. Plus, Toby was the last one to see Izzy alive when they met at Bottomrock Lake that final, fateful night...

The story conveys the depth and sharpness of Teddy's grief very effectively. And there are elements of romance, delivered with a light touch.
But it took a long time for the plot to get going, and I didn't enjoy the meandering in the earlier part of the book.

The setting is atmospheric and the lake seems almost like another character in the book. Speaking of which, this is very much a character-driven story. And the characters are interesting enough, so if it's a slow burn novel you're looking for, this might just fit the bill.

I ended up listening to this as an audiobook, but will share my audio review for the purpose of sharing what I liked about the story itself:

The narrator did a nice job using pitch and inflection to differentiate the different characters, and acknowledge the grief and confusion of a surviving twin whose sibling went missing. The police determined that it was an accidental drowning, though her body was never discovered and she was an Olympic level swimmer. In the aftermath, the surviving twin tries to uncover clues that will help her determine whether her twin disappeared of her own accord, or if something more sinister occurred.

I was hopeful for a great mystery, then started to become disillusioned when the great mystery became less of a mystery and more of a sibling in denial. However, the complex layers of the story came around at the end to lead to a thoughtful synopsis on grief, healing, stories that may go untold, and moving forward as a survivor.

It's important for teens to see that sometimes there isn't a pat answer to the question of "what happened?" We end up finding out more along the lines of what *didn't* happen. And some things that were never told.

We find ourselves answering questions before the narrator, awash in grief and denial, just isn't yet ready to. I really ended up enjoying this book and think it would be a great thoughtful read for young adults who like layered mysteries.

After the disappearance of her twin sister, Izzy, Teddy is still looking for answers. According to the last person who saw her, Izzy ventured into a lake and never came back out. It's been a year since then, and when the last person who saw Izzy, a swim team member of hers named Toby, starts working as a lifeguard along side her, Teddy can't help but continue to search for answers. Is Toby the key to finding out what happened to her sister? Or will the day she went into the lake forever remain a mystery?

After You Vanished has a lot of things going for it. Despite being a pretty unoriginal YA plot, it does a lot of things well. But the main problem I had with this book was the pacing. The book takes quite a while to get going and, after taking a pretty obvious detour in the form of a red herring, the plot finally starts to pick up speed. But by that point, then things start to happen almost too fast. A lot of the big mystery starts to uncover itself in the last 30% of the book, and I can't help but wonder if I would have enjoyed the story more if it was just paced out better.

However, despite the change in pacing nearly strong enough to give me whiplash, I did enjoy most the last 30%. Some of the resolutions felt almost lackluster, but I don't think that really mattered, in the end. The book's main focus was not so much about the mystery, but about the grief Teddy goes through, how it impacted her life, and how she slowly started to grow from it. Her character arc was really well done in that regard, and good development like this is something I normally find missing in similar books within this genre. So in that regard, the book is very well done; I just wish it could have been applied to the rest of the book.

Overall, I can't help but wonder how much more I would have enjoyed this book if it was better paced. But I am happy I read it nonetheless, and would recommend others giving it a shot.