After You Vanished

De: E. A. Neeves

Narrado por: Kathleen McInerney

SADIE meets WE WERE LIARS in this YA heartfelt mystery, in which one girl desperately searches to find out what happened to her missing sister.

Teddy’s favorite place is Bottomrock Lake, where sunfish swim in their little saucer nests and lilypads edge the shore. She’s worked there as a lifeguard every summer, including last year, when her twin sister Izzy waded into the lake for a midnight swim and never came out. Now, Teddy can’t stop scripting stories for where she went. Izzy was an accomplished swimmer, so she couldn’t possibly have drowned. And if she did somehow drown, where’s her body and why is her passport missing?

When Toby, the gorgeous jerk who was with Izzy on the night she vanished, comes to Bottomrock to work as a lifeguard alongside Teddy, she can’t help but be suspicious. How many of her sister’s secrets does he hold? And how can Teddy unearth them—without falling for the boy who watched her sister disappear?

Told from Teddy’s point of view directly to Izzy, AFTER YOU VANISHED is a heartfelt mystery that will have listeners trying to piece together the secret life of a sister who’s gone.

©2023 E. A. Neeves (P)2023 Disney Hyperion

Captivating Coming-of-Age Keeps You Guessing

This mystery / rom-com / coming-of-age story is thoughtfully written and not at all predictable — E.A. Neeves kept me guessing until the end. Compelling characters and skillful discussion of grief and trauma round out this brilliant debut.

Awesome slow burn mystery and romance!

I really empathized with the protagonist and her vulnerability. I enjoyed the twists and slow unfolding of the mystery and how everything tied together, nothing wasted. I loved the humor and sensibility. I cried toward the end. The novel explores themes very important to today’s young adults with a careful hand.

Meh

The blurb for AFTER YOU VANISHED sounds much more interesting than the book actually is. I saw zero similarities to SADIE or WE WERE LIARS. Teddy doesn’t think her twin Izzy drowned. A world class swimmer Izzy’s body was never found and her passport is missing, Teddy spends most of the book investigating and accusing before coming to coming to the conclusion her twin did drown.

I wanted to like Teddy, but her repeated selfish actions and failure to care that disappearing for hours at a time would worry her family and friends since Izzy disappeared, never returning made her lack of care for others less forgivable.

I hoped for a different resolution to AFTER YOU VANISHED, a twist or *something* to differentiate E A Neeves’ debut from other books, a way to salvage my enjoyment. Instead AFTER YOU VANISHED was a book about denial and grief, not a mystery. Meh.