A captivating mystery thriller.

Emlyn has come a long way since Tyler ruined her life and she lost her best friend, Janessa, over him. Now she works as a wilderness guide living alone in a trailer in Idaho backcountry. She's cautiously made some friends, including a Forest Service ranger named Varden. Slowly she is trying to come to terms with her situation and to find some peace, but all of that is shattered when Tyler contacts her because Janessa has gone missing. Janessa was documenting her van life on social media with her boyfriend, Bush, and suddenly went silent. Against her better judgement, Emlyn allows herself to be drawn back into Tyler and joins him in his desperate search for their friend.

This was beautifully written and the narrative shifts back and forth in time as we learn Emlyn's history with Tyler and Janessa. The descriptions and details of the vast wilderness that Emlyn inhabits creates an atmosphere and setting that matches Emlyn's inner turmoil. Some twists and turns provide the suspense, and nothing is quite as it seems. Emlyn struggles with her self-perception and experiences some true growth as she faces the truth. I could relate to Emlyn as a main character and the story was very poignant and realistic.

I listened to the audiobook while following along with the e-book ARC (both provided by the publishers) and enjoyed the narrator though there was not much differentiation in her tone and pitch for the various male and female characters.

Definitely this would make a good choice for a book club to discuss the whole nature of finding yourself, starting over, and getting beyond your past.

⛧The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham - I really enjoyed this one! I loved the authors previous book but was a little disappointed with the lack of thriller elements, but this one had a bit more of those elements, so I liked this one even more. The authors writing is beautiful, which makes it so easy to get sucked in the story.

This audiobook is narrated by Emily Pike Stewart

•Thank you to @minotaur_books & @macmillan.audio

What a great book about friendship, romance, tragedy and mystery set in the wilderness. I listened to the audiobook and it was amazing. The narrator, Emily Pike Stewart did a great job making this story come to life.

This story is about two women and their friendship that started in college. There are positive and negative sides to any friendship and this one has them too, but they are overlooked for years. There is also a strong friendship between two characters that started as children when their families were neighbors. Both of these friendships form the core of the book. This is a book about trust and how important it is in any relationship and what happened when it is lost.

The author does an amazing job of providing detailed descriptions of wilderness survival, which makes this book stand out. The book is well written and flows between times in the lives of the main characters. There is an amazing love story that weaves its way through the book. The author does a great job of controlling the amount of information the reader is given about the characters. In fact, at first they all seem like great people. But as the story goes on, we get more and more information about what went wrong in the lives of each character.

I really enjoyed the combination of the romance, wilderness, mystery and friendship that made up this story.

This mystery had all my favorite things. Wilderness trek, mountains and streams, missing persons, found family, reckoning with the past, choosing a new future. I loved the descriptions of the natural wilderness that the characters lived in. I loved the character growth of Emlyn, and that we discovered so much about her in the flashback chapters. I did predict some of the twists, but that didn’t take away from this captivating story. I hope to read more from this author.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Macmillan Audio for the alc to listen to and review. All opinions are my own.

I was a huge fan of Kimi Cunningham Grant’s 2021 release These Silent Woods. I loved the mixture of beautiful writing and a complex father/daughter relationship. I was so excited to see what The Nature of Disappearing gave us.

Once again, the debate about what should be considered a ‘Thriller’ has arisen. I love Thrillers, but I think slapping it on every mystery or book with some suspense does these books a disservice. Similar to These Silent Woods this is an atmospheric story in nature with a slow burn mystery plot. There, now you’re ready to read this book with correct expectations. I digress.

There were multiple things I really loved about this book. I was quickly invested into the story, and I think Grant is such a fabulous writer, especially when it comes to depicting nature. It’s not a very long book so it can be read quickly; but at 304 pages it was a slow burn plot wise.


Plotwise, I struggled. It wasn’t as put together as I would have liked, and there were quite a few things that felt forced. While Emlyn is described as a highly skilled/trained wilderness guide and highly intelligent, she makes a ton of dumb decisions, and I just couldn’t seem to connect at all with her. Her ex and current ‘love interest’ both felt like subplots trying to bully their way into relevance and it just didn’t work for me.

The Nature of Disappearing really failed to provide any suspense for me and didn’t feel fully flushed out. There were too many avenues trying to take center stage and closed with an ending that felt rushed and out there. If you’re looking for a well written story and are more interested in the atmosphere, then this one is for you; but thriller lovers will be disappointed.


The Nature of Disappearing comes out June 18, 2024. Thank you to Minotaur Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

★ 3.5 Stars (rounding down) ★

I previously read "These Silent Woods" by this author and found it captivating, so I jumped at the chance to receive her latest ARC, "The Nature of Disappearing." Kimi Cunningham Grant is an excellent writer who captivates her audience with eloquent prose.

This novel, with its past and present timelines, vividly describes the atmospheric and mesmerizing setting of the Idaho and California wilderness. It introduces characters who, despite their flaws, feel familiar. Although I was prepared for a slower-paced read, this story felt slightly wordy and drawn out. The lack of suspense until towards the end of the book might have been a significant factor. Even though this book wasn’t my cup of tea, I’ll definitely try her upcoming adventures.

Thank you to the author and Minotaur Books for providing an eARC through Edelweiss. Macmillan Audio also provided an audiobook through NetGalley. Finishing a slower-paced book in audio format is easier, and these narrators were very entertaining! All thoughts are my own and shared voluntarily.

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I was intrigued by the short chapters that I read in the Minotaur sampler so requested the full book, thank you Minotaur, to follow the rest of the Janessa mystery. The first half of the book felt less like a mystery than a character study and the back and forth of the timeline was a bit confusing, but Grant did a good job laying out the underlying conflicts within the relationships. While I mostly enjoyed the story, I did have a problem with some of the decisions made by the main character, Emlyn, as we're told that she left her prior life to live in nature and became self sufficient yet she makes some stupid decisions both in the woods and with the untrustworthy man she's trekking with that she just didn't need to be so wishy washy about after supposedly becoming a strong woman who stands on her own two feet. Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Minotaur, and NetGalley for the early listen in exchange for my honest opinioin.

I had really enjoyed These Silent Woods so I’ll admit that I went into this with high expectations. I do think the synopsis nails it when it says a novel of suspense. There is a very slow burn mystery and combined with the lush descriptions of the wilderness, it made for an intriguing read at first. I really enjoyed some of Grant’s nature writing and all the parts about surviving in the wild were fascinating. The novel builds up to explain the enigmatic behaviors of the missing friend, and despite all that build up, I found myself having to suspend some disbelief as the mystery unfolded. There were definitely some twists I didn’t see coming that added some last minute intrigue.
The plot worked well as an audiobook and Emily Pike Stewart’s narration worked well with the atmospheric vibes of the novel. Overall I enjoyed the survival/nature parts of this one more than the mystery but still thought it made for an entertaining read.

I loved Kimi Cunningham Grant's 2021 release, These Silent Woods, so I couldn't wait to read The Nature of Disappearing. But while Grant's new novel shares some traits with her previous one -- complex characters, a past and present timeline, rich atmosphere and luminous prose -- I found The Nature of Disappearing to be a much less compelling book overall.

This book centers on Emlyn, who lives a simple and solitary life in the wilds of Idaho, working as a hunting and fishing guide. Three years ago, Emlyn's boyfriend Tyler abandoned her in the wilderness, upending the trajectory she thought her life would take. But when Tyler shows up with the news that Emlyn's former best friend, a rising social media star named Janessa, is missing, Emlyn reluctantly agrees to help Tyler track her through the wilderness. As Emlyn and Tyler follow Janessa's trail, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry that still exists between them, even as she struggles to resist the pull of their complicated past.

Despite an exciting turn of events in the last few chapters, The Nature of Disappearing is not a thriller. What it is, instead, is a melancholy and poignant character study about fraught relationships and complicated personal histories. The book feels modern in its plotting, but timeless in its themes. Grant's writing is nuanced and profound as she unflinchingly explores Emlyn's life experiences. The book has a strong sense of place, too, with vivid and lush descriptions of the Idaho wilderness that made me feel like I was on the trail with Emlyn and Tyler.

What I often struggle with in past and present timelines (and struggled with here) is that I am almost always much more invested in one timeline over the other. In The Nature of Disappearing, the timelines felt unbalanced. I wanted more about Emlyn's present-day life and the people in it; the past unfolded much too slowly, with not a lot of substance. And the thriller-like conclusion of the book felt unearned, and a bit of a let-down.

I think I was just hoping for a reading experience as special as These Silent Woods, and The Nature of Disappearing felt too normal in comparison. Emily Pike Stewart did a wonderful job with the audio version and kept me engaged even during the slower parts of the narrative. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the early reading opportunity.

It was immediately apparent to me that this story was very inspired by the Gabby Petito case. I appreciated that it wasn’t an exact retelling (to the degree that we know) because that would’ve retracted from any shock value.

I loved the setting and how atmospheric this story was. The plot twists were shocking but not to the point that I had to totally suspend my disbelief. Ultimately though, I felt this was a little too slow for my liking. By the end, I had become a little disinterested in the characters.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC!

Emlyn thinks she has successfully escaped her past until an old acquaintance, Tyler, shows up in her small town asking for her help. Reluctantly she offers her skills to track down her former best friend, Janessa, who has seemingly disappeared into the wilderness.

The Nature of Disappearing is a well-crafted, emotional suspense novel. It alternates, almost every other chapter, between past and present. While this style can be difficult to follow, it helps to establish solid backgrounds for each of the characters, especially Emlyn. Emlyn’s history seems to be one traumatic event after the other and when she finally gets comfortable, something/someone comes in to upset the order of things. The pace is a little slow to start but once it got going I was captivated. I was genuinely surprised by the twist.

The audiobook is solo narrated by Emily Pike Stewart. She brings a somberness that really shows Emlyn’s mental state as the story progresses.

This is the first book that I have read/listened to from this author but I plan to check out more of her work in the future.

I voluntarily listened to and reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Nature of Disappearing
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I really enjoyed the book. You will fall for the characters & their strength and courage. It kept me turning the pages & wanting to know the outcome. It was a great story.
Thank you NetGalley!!

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my early e-arc copy.

Kimi Cunningham Grant has such a talent for nature writing. This is my second book from her and she really makes it feel like you are submerged into the environments that she can create. This book mostly takes place in the Idaho Wilderness, being raised in Idaho really had me feeling like this was even more personal.

I do not think that the book was very interesting from a mystery standpoint, however I will probably always pick up her books solely for the fact that she can make me feel so immersed in her nature descriptions.

I would give this a 3/5 stars, but I can see that if I didn't love the nature aspects as much as I do, it would be closer to a 2 for me.

Thank you Minotaur Books, Kimi Cunningham Grant, and Macmillan Audio for my #gifted copies of The Nature of Disappearing! #MacAudio2024

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐊𝐢𝐦𝐢 𝐂𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐦 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐭
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

I read These Silent Woods and was so excited when I heard Kimi Cunningham Grant had a new book releasing this year. I’m happy to say this book definitely lived up to my expectations. This book was so atmospheric. I felt like I was there with the characters because of how descriptive the authors was and I just loved it. And the suspense! The suspense was so good! I loved the dual timelines and feel like it worked so well with this book and helped to build everything up so well. If you are a fan of slow burns, I think you should give this one a try. The author does such an amazing job of painting such an amazing picture and you will be hooked from the start!

🗻Dual Timeline
🗻Slow Burn
🗻Atmospheric
🗻Wilderness Setting

🎧I listened to the majority of this while through the mountains on the way home from vacation and it was the perfect setting. The narrator, Emily Pike Stewart, was phenomenal. She did such an amazing job bringing this story and the characters to life and I could not have picked a better narrator. This is definitely one I would recommend on audio if that option is available to you. You will not be disappointed!

Posted on Goodreads on June 18, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around June 18, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on June 18, 2024
**-will post on designated date

Emlyn is reunited with Tyler, ex boyfriend who once stranded her in the woods, to search for a mutual friend who was gone off the grid. Since being stranded, Emlyn has jumped from one spot to another, living in the wilderness as an animal tracker and making friends with a few locals.

This book takes a past to present approach to better understand between Emlyn and Janessa, the missing friend, and Tyler, the ex boyfriend.

It’s hard for me to put much in the review to avoid spoiling - but I will say this took a way different direction than expected ! There were some shocking elements, points of confusion and misdirection, and adventure / survival themes.

I liked the direction the story took and the guessing. Didn’t so much like the past to present theme that skipped around a little too much for me and made it hard to order the events.

Overall- 4 stars. Loved the narrator !

Thanks to NetGalley for access to the advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review

Special thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. A journey into the wilderness that is laced with mystery with each step. Although, a little predictable I was engrossed for the entire book.

<b>Grant's thriller is set in the wilds of Idaho, with a wilderness expert of a main character who has fought to trust others and be vulnerable--and who may find herself deeply betrayed again. </b>

In Kimi Cunningham Grant's newest thriller, <i>The Nature of Disappearing,</i> Emlyn is a wilderness guide who very deliberately tries not to think about the past--her fractured best-friendship, her failed love, and the vulnerability that allowed her heart to break.

But when her estranged old friend Janessa goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Emlyn must team up with the man who broke her heart in order to try to find social media icon Janessa and, hopefully, bring her home, safe and sound.

I love a book set in the wild (Peter Heller's novels <i>The River</i> and <i>The Guide</i> come to mind as favorites), and I loved the outdoorsy element here. Much of the story takes place in an Idaho forest, and it made me reminisce about my college summer spent in that beautiful state.

The story is more of a thriller than a mystery; after a time we aren't wondering what happened, rather wondering if those who seem untrustworthy are in fact bad seeds.

I loved the focus on repairing a friendship, and how Emlyn has difficulty trusting and being vulnerable but works to do so. I wasn't surprised by the final denouements but felt satisfied that we are left with the promise of a fulfilling future for some characters at the end of the book.

I listened to <i>The Nature of Disappearing</i> as an audiobook, courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.

Kimi Cunningham Grant is also the author of <i>Fallen Mountains, Silver Like Dust,</i> and <a href="https://www.bossybookworm.com/post/review-of-these-silent-woods-by-kimi-cunningham-grant/"><i> These Silent Woods.</a></i></b>

The Nature of Disappearing is at once an ode to nature, a book about growth and self discovery, and a compelling mystery. I flew through the audiobook - finding more reasons to do yard work so that I could finish it in one listen. Emlyn is a flawed main character and the back and forth timelines provide the readers with a front row seat to witness her come into her own throughout the book. I read and adored "These Silent Woods" last year and if I have a complaint about this newest book it would be that I think it lacked a little bit of the depth that I so loved in TSW. This book moves more quickly and I missed some of the more introspective moments. That being said, they are still there, just fewer! I particularly connected with the character Rev, I love that in Kimi Cunningham Grant's books there is always an element relating to faith (without bashing you over the head with it). I got more out of the back half of this book as more of Emlyn's past was revealed and we got more of her backstory with Rev and Varden.
I really enjoyed Emily Pike Stewart's narration; her voice was the right mix of experience and naivety for Emlyn's character. The mystery was perhaps the weakest element for me, but overall I was drawn in by Grant's excellent writing and stunning descriptions of the natural world.


Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an audio ARC.

In the beginning, we know only that Emlyn was hurt by her previous boyfriend and friend, and started her life over as a wilderness guide. When Tyler, her ex, comes back into her life, she needs to make some decisions. Should she help him find her old friend? Will she forgive him for his past mistakes and let him into her life again? I was intrigued by Emlyn’s past, and enjoyed learning more as the mystery unfolded. It was a little slow in parts, but the descriptions of the wilderness were beautiful.

This was such an immersive and atmospheric read.

The narrator did a phenomenal job of differentiating the characters and keeping a pace that allowed me to easily immerse myself into the story.

Emlyn is a wilderness guide who has to team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when her estranged best friend goes missing.

I loved Emlyn's character and how it developed over time. We got a picture of her earlier on and how she grew to be a much stronger person while still maintaining her introverted personality.

This book has some mystery aspects, but you can't go in expecting a popcorn thriller. It was more about the unfolding of the story, revealing of the past, healing, forgiveness and moving on.

The author does a fantastic job portraying the significant other of someone who is suffering with a substance abuse problem. It was done tastefully, yet fairly accurately which I appreciated.

Overall, I thought this book was fantastic and highly recommend it.