"A Place for Vanishing" was a perfect way to start spooky season off right. This book was eerie, atmospheric and gripping!

From start to finish the author's storytelling and intricate world they wove pulled me into the story. This tale is a relentless rollercoaster of mystery and suspense. The skillful pacing left me on the edge of my seat both eager and nervous to unravel the mysteries lurking within the pages.

I personally love when the fine line between reality and the supernatural is blurred. Mentally it's a tug-of-war between accepting the rational explanation or the fantastical one. Add in a narrator that may not be reliable and the whole atmosphere of your story becomes a bit more chilling and alluring.

The characters were so well-developed. Their struggles, hardships, fears and reservations really brought them to life with such depth and authenticity. I would check Trigger Warnings because this book does tough on a few very heavy topics.

Overall this was a fantastic read and I will be recommending it!

Thank you Ann Fraistat , Net Galley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.

5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: horror, fantasy horror, ghosts, spooky reads, haunted house

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 10/1 and will be posted to my book blog and Instagram on 10/12.

TW suicide attempt, suicidal ideation

I read Fraistat's debut, What We Harvest last year and really enjoyed it, so I was excited when this book was announced. Both of them fall into that middle category of 'horror' and 'fantasy' that I can tolerate without getting (too) freaked out.

This story focuses on the new house Libby and her family move into. Or, rather, the old house that's new to them. The house has been in the family for generations, but was left largely abandoned after Libby's grandparents died when her mom was a child. From there the mysteries grow. Doors that close on their own, stained glass windows as beautiful as they are creepy, the bugs that just don't seem to die, and, of course, the way people seem to simply vanish from the house itself. The main plotline revolves around the mysteries of the house. It's 'haunted' in an odd sort of way, but there's a magical sort of wonder to it as well. I enjoyed learning how the bugs and the masks and the disappearances all tied together, and was surprised at the mystery.

Libby, despite her many misgivings, wants things to be alright. Her family has already had a rough time of the past couple of months, and while everything in her rebels against staying in the house, she's determined to do it for her mom and younger sister, Vivi. Vivi and Libby are, or were, clearly very close, and it comes through just how much Libby loves her younger sister. Libby is struggling with more than just the house though. After weeks/months of spiraling that culminated in a suicide attempt, Libby is now trying to find her way back to stability. While she's enrolled in therapy and taking medication to help with her cyclothymia, there's no quick road to recovery and Libby still has moments when those darker impulses intrude.

Vivi is several years younger than Libby, and has a fairly bubbly, optimistic personality. She's eager to still believe in magic, and while she's as wary of the house as Libby, she's also captivated by the strange masks around the house. Despite her loving nature, she's fairly angry at Libby at the start of the book, though part of this anger is a desperate attempt to reach her sister and try to understand and reconnect. Vivi has a ferociousness about her that comes out as the book progresses, and it's clear she has a deep love for her mom and sister, with the bravery to prove it.

Flynn, the next door neighbor boy, immediately gives off weird vibes. He knows more about the house than he should, and more about the spirit world than he lets on. It was kind of hard to like him at first, what with all that gaslighting going on, but he ended up being a good guy. Once they're past all that, Flynn comes across as someone who genuinely cares and has a softness about him that peeks through even when he's not at his best. His connection to the house is similar to Libby's, and once they've teamed up, the secrets of the house begin to reveal themselves.

This book is definitely a haunted house book, and like all good hauntings, the ghosts of the house mirror the ghosts in the characters' heads. I enjoyed the symmetry between the masks and the personal demons each character had to face inside themselves. I also appreciated how the haunting acted alongside and in conjunction with the internal character arcs for most of the characters.

Overall, this is a nice spooky story and I'm glad I got the ARC around spooky season. The story mainly deals with a creepy, haunted house and mental health. There's some light possession but honestly....that's kind of the least of anyone's worries, lol. Definitely recommend if you're looking for a good fantasy horror story.

A great horror and eerie tale from Fraistat. Moreover, I liked the overall atmosphere of the whole story and how some scenes actually made my skin crawl. Mental illness was well connected to the storyline and I loved all the characters portrayals as well as the creepy house elements. Overall, a good read.

Although I liked the premise when I initially requested the book, I don't feel as though my kids will gravitate toward it. It felt a little long, and I wasn't able to get attached to Libby. I will definitely try another novel, but this one was not a hit for me.

I cannot resist a small-town haunted house/family returning to their roots story, so I inhaled this book in the span of 24 hours and begrudged my sleep in the middle. Did it live up to my expectations? For the most part, yes. It's very wild, and it gets *very* out there, but I loved how MANY things Fraistat threw at the wall and made stick. The ultimate reveals might not be the most shocking for this sub-genre, but the journey there is certainly a wild ride, and some of the elements were totally new to me. (I'll perhaps never look at stained glass the same way again, which is awesome). The ending didn't fully work for me, but I certainly didn't hate it, and I can't wait to read more from this author. (I will say I'm shocked that the cover doesn't incorporate blue more aggressively, given how much the blue roses feature in the story. The cover and title are a bit more generic than I think the novel deserves.)

I really enjoyed this book. It was a perfect blend of creepy, mysterious, and gross that I wanted. A house and family with a dark past, and a narrator who doesn't even know if she can trust the things she sees. A Place for Vanishing was great and I loved the writing.

Brimming with eerie atmosphere and insects most foul, A PLACE FOR VANISHING gave me the best shivers! I loved exploring the hidden stairwells and long kept secrets of Madame Clery’s House of Masks and so will you.

Another great horror from Ann Fraistat! In particular, I really liked the way that mental illness was depicted in this book for the main character Libby, as well as how that tied into the particulars of the haunted house. The "backstory" of the house was fully fleshed out in a way that I don't see too much in the YA Horror genre. At the same time, the actual scary scenes were so creepy, I had to read this with the lights on. I'm really excited to see what Fraistat does next.

Fantastically gothic and just truly enchanting. It felt so fresh and bold, but also familiar in a really good way. Recommended to all readers.

A great and spooky read. I definitely did not see where this one was going at all. This was such an original angle, and I absolutely loved it.