I really struggled writing this review. I enjoyed the narrator and I think this story will be a big hit with my students, but it just wasn't for me. It was predictable, but maybe that was just because I am an adult that reads more than 50 books a month. But after losing my grandmother I thought about grief and realized that this book does a great job of showing that grief and changed my rating. I think students who have lost someone will really connect with his book.

3 stars

Teddy's sister, Izzy has gone missing, from a midnight swim. This is from Teddy's point of view as she "speaks" to Izzy, to find out where she could be. I listened to this on audiobook. It flowed nicely , was a nicely paced. The voice artist was fantastic.

(Alert - here there be mild spoilers) At first, this seemed like it was set up to be a standard missing person narrative. Teddy and Toby track down secrets and threads that seemed to stymie the police. We expect them to uncover a vast conspiracy. Or people desperate to cover up dark secrets. Some of their clues sure point in that direction. But that's not really what this book is about. It's a story about grief and personal secrets. About discovering who your sister really was and realizing that you never know everything about a person. It's about accepting truth. And also about accepting things that you can't know and finding a way forward. It becomes a more introspective and thus a more realistic story.

Teddy’s identical twin sister, Izzy, has been missing and presumed dead for nearly a year, ever since Izzy went for a late night swim at Bottomrock Lake and never came home. Teddy is convinced that her sister isn’t dead–how can someone who had just competed in the Olympic swim trials drown, and why hasn’t her body ever been found? What part did Toby play, the last person to see Izzy before she took that fateful swim, and what about the cyberbully from Izzy’s swim team who sent her hate messages hours before she disappeared?
This mystery, told as though Teddy is talking to Izzy, has many twists and turns that will leave the reader unable to guess at the ending.

Dealing with the aftermath of her twin sister's disappearance, Teddy must come to terms with the truth that she is never coming back. Along the way she unravels the story of your last summer. A story of love, betrayal, and heartbreak. Very enjoyable story with a good narrator.

This one was a bit slow for me and kind of meandered a bit when it didn’t need to. I felt like the mystery was secondary and took a long time to get to the point. This was more a book about grief than a mystery.

This one was just okay for me.

Narration by Kathleen McInerney was excellent she always brings the emotions and voices.

3 stars

I received this audiobook from Disney Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this advanced audio edition of After You Vanished by E.A. Neeves.

This is the kind of YA book that I would have just lived for as a teen. Mystery, tension, family, friendship and romance. Lots of personality and a rich storyline. I loved the relationships and the backdrop of the lake as practically it's own character. A wonderful escape of a YA novel.

This is one of those books where not a whole lot happens in terms of events, but instead you get so emotionally invested in the characters. The author did a nice job in sharing the characters and their grief. I really felt for all of them and what they went through. I also liked the descriptions of the relationship between the twins. I thought it was an interesting take on a sibling relationship. I listed to the audiobook version of After You Vanished and I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator. She did a wonderful job speaking and in really making you feel the emotion involved in the plot. If you’re a realistic fiction fan but like a hint of mystery, give this one a try!

This was a wonderful book. A great Thor ill er that kept me guessing the whole time. I would recommend this to all thriller lovers!

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.

I liked the narrator.

This was a great book to listen to on audio! It took me a little while to get into it. I liked the suspense of not knowing what happened to Izzie and not knowing every aspect of her life. The one thing I did not like was how we were left to our own devices to imagine on our own what exactly happened to Izzie. I like having closure when I read a book. Besides that, this was an easy and good read.

I enjoyed this YA mystery/contemporary with a girl whose twin sister went missing a year prior to the story. Teddy firmly hopes and believes that her sister, Izzy, somehow slipped away and didn't actually drown in the lake. She sets out to investigate what happened to her sister with the help of Toby, the boy who was the last person to see Izzy.

This was a fun mystery to follow along with, even though it might break your heart a bit in the end. Teddy is a great character with her head on straight. She's smart and obviously misses her twin so much. Toby is a darling and I warmed up to him pretty instantly!

I will say the narrator had a bit of a halting, William Shatner-type speech pattern, which if I'd listened to it at normal speed probably would've driven me crazy. Since I listened at 2.5 speed, it didn't bother me as much, but I did still notice it. I will say she did have distinctive voices for each character, which I can only imagine is really hard, and she did male voices very well!

Overall, I enjoyed both the story and the audio. Definitely recommend this to any fan of YA mystery!

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.

Teddy's twin sister Izzy disappeared without a trace last year. Since then she's been struggling through life trying to figure out how her pre-Olympic swimmer sister went for a swim one night, but never came back home. As the mystery unfolds Teddy will become closer to the truth than she ever thought possible, but that also comes with a closeness to the last person to see her sister alive, Toby.

I had a hard time with this story. Most of the time, I couldn't figure out what it was trying to be. Is it a mystery? Is it a drama that delves heavily into grief? I still can't tell you. What's more is that this book uses 2nd person as Teddy "talks" to Izzy. (It's in quotes because obviously Izzy isn't there.) I think what added to my struggles with this book is the audiobook narrator, Kathleen McInerney. She has a real halting way of speaking, and it just sounded off. Also, if you're looking for an ending where everything is tied up in a pretty bow, that's not this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. In the end, I wanted to like this book, but it was not for me.

I love a mystery that keeps you guessing. Teddy’s twin Izzy is missing and possible dead. How could a potential Olympic swimmer drown in a lake? Teddy is determined to find her sister and everyone in her life is ready to move on except Toby, Izzy’s best friend who was the last person to see Izzy the night she vanished.

The story is told through the voice of Teddy as if she is talking directly to Izzy. As Teddy and Toby piece together the events that lead to Izzy’s disappearance, they learn about the secret life Izzy was hiding from everyone especially Teddy. Along the way, Teddy grows by learning and loving the people in her life, finding forgiveness, and her ability to move on beyond this tragic event in her life.

With a little book talk, this book will be quite popular. There is drama, mystery and romance. However, we must preface it with a potential trigger of sexual assault.

The audiobook was well done with excellent narration.

Some Y.A. books live up to their genre, but some capture the very essence of youth as if you are missing out. This will sprinkle in the confusion of belonging in the teen years and it will all come back to knock you off your core. It is a heartfelt mystery and told through Teddy's POV, she tells the story as if she is talking to her twin sister, Izzy, who is missing. This was a clever part of the story...the conversation that she would have had with her. Izzy met up with a friend Toby at midnight at Bottomrock Lake. She was an excellent swimmer and had planned to compete in the Olympics, so she wanted to swim across the lake and have him meet her on the other side. She never resurfaced. A year later, Teddy still mourns their loss and considers her missing and not dead.

There are many twists and turns leading to suspects in her disappearance then assumptions maybe she ran away when online bullying comments are found. It uncovers sibling rivalry, grief at its toughest moments and the anxiety of the stares from locals. Her and Toby will find a connection that is raw and real.
I enjoyed the unraveling and how it is delivered. The characters are well thought out and depicted with emotion. The story flows so evenly and I rushed through the audio to find out what happened to Izzy. This will remind you of John Green's book Looking for Alaska, which you got to love.
Thank you NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Excellent narration by Kathleen McInerney.

The comparison to Sadie and We Were Liars is spot on. The story twists and turns and it feels as though Teddy is talking directly to you, which just draws you deeper into her world and Izzy's disappearance. So good!

Reminiscent of books by Amber Smith and Laurie Halse Anderson, this book was so captivating, even for this old lady. After You Vanished is a beautifully written YA novel about the power of resilience and the depths of loss with so many questions left unanswered. Teddy and Toby are forced to confront their overwhelming grief, while still holding on to the here and now of their lives. In addition to exploring themes of grief and acceptance, this book delves into topics such as nature, family dynamics, coming of age, and self-discovery.
Through Teddy and Toby's journey to discover the truth behind Teddy's twin sister's sudden disappearance, readers are taken on an emotionally charged ride that is sure to hit home for anyone who has ever experienced sudden loss.

Copied from Goodreads:
Excellently written epistolary YA novel. I can see lots of teens digging into these covers. Characterization, plot, and dialogue were well done.

I did have issue with the setting. I don’t know where the author lives or is from, but I’m not sure there is anything close to an Olympic sized pool in Cambridge. It is much more likely that someone living in Cambridge would drive out for an elite swim team than vice versa. Also, I attended high school outside of Boston and I cannot for the life of me figure out where this pond is supposed to be. The referenced locations are so varied that even those of who were teens driving before gas was more expensive than gold would not be traveling between those areas.

Setting aside, this YA novel is a great upcoming choice (Aug 28, 2023) for teens and those of us who work with them.

Many thanks to Disney Audiobooks via NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.