Reviews

The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands by Jon Billman

danilediard's review

slow-paced

2.25

meowdermix's review

This book bounced around between a main case and short snippets of other cases. It lacked focus and often backtracked, repeating sections of the main story as though it was new information. It was confusing and poorly edited.

bridgetwalde's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

basil_plant's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

edit: from what i’ve now learned this book misrepresented jacob and elements of the search for him, as well as failed to fact check/clarify with many of its sources. incredibly disappointing to hear that the author grievously mishandled such delicate circumstances. 

the way that jacob gray’s father randy is described throughout the book is something that will stick with me for a long time. i cried after finishing the book and i know it’s because of how much i admire randy, both in his persistence and his joy for life. 

sections of this book did feel jumpy to me, as the author talked about other missing persons cases and jumped from case to case a bit, but the emotional impact this book has had on me definitely makes this worth overlooking. 

i know i’ll probably think about this book for the rest of my life whenever i’m out recreating. 

laurenkraigco's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced

3.25

ebroadbent22's review

informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

miss_honey_91's review

Too hard to follow - couldn't tell which case I was reading about when listening to the audiobook.

rockymtndad's review

emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.5

gangxiety's review

3.5

Really great narrative journalism but too much Sasquatch!!

ebrichardson55's review

adventurous informative mysterious sad medium-paced

2.5

2.5 - I am not sure this book achieves what it sets out to be. I became very confused as to the purpose of this book; Investigation of Jacob Gray? Of Amy Bechtel? True crime? A partial Listing of the hundreds of people who go missing in National Parks? A love poem to blood hounds?  What he does do is tell you about many missing persons cases and in the case of Jacob Gray outlines the frustrating bureaucracy that can interfere with the searches. But I was a little disoriented by his structure or lack thereof - I guess I was expecting something more linear. I was fairly shocked that he gave so much space to portals, alien abduction and Sasquatch theories. There is a chapter devoted to Blood Hounds that has nothing to do with Jacob Gray. I guess the main thing I will take away is that many people go missing and are never found - not sure I needed to read a book about that.