Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Reappearance of Rachel Price

➽ The Reappearance of Rachel Price is an intriguing mystery all about the reappearance of a missing person. Normally, it's all about someone disappearing and the characters chasing clues to find them. It was a nice subversion to have the person - in this case, Bel's mother Rachel Price - reappearing and causing a mystery about their whereabouts. Just when her family was filming a documentary about Rachel Price's unsolved disappearance, Bel is confronted with the reappearance of a mother she barely knows. She was still young when her mother vanished, so she barely remembers her. What's supposed to be a happy incident for the whole family quickly sours as Bel suspects her mother is lying about where she was and who took her.

➽ I loved the ominous atmosphere of having a practical stranger living in your house and uprooting your entire life. Bel doesn't trust Rachel and keeps carefully watching her for any slip-ups. She wants to believe her, but can't shake the insidious feeling that something isn't right. I loved the deep dive into Rachel's relationship with her daughter and her behavior after having been 'supposedly' abducted for years. The focus was on Bel's personal turmoil and complicated feelings toward her mother, whom she barely has any memories of. The atmosphere was good, as I felt Bel's unease and efforts to investigate Rachel without alerting her. She starts digging deeper into Rachel's past with the help of Ash, a part of the documentary's crew. I loved their interactions and investigation! Bel has issues trusting anyone to stay in her life, but Ash can be disarming and is willing to help her when most people believe she's grasping at straws.

➽ Unfortunately, the story was slow-paced and it took me a while to connect to the characters. I debated giving this a higher rating, but this paled in comparison to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. The book felt like it could have been shorter, especially as it took a while for everything to fall into place. Some plot points like Bel and Ash's investigation were interesting, but I wish we'd seen more of their dynamic. In between their interactions, I felt like the story stagnated at times and the ending was suspenseful, but a bit rushed. It also took me some time to fully understand and connect to Bel. Some secondary characters like her cousin Carter and other family members remained one-dimensional. In the end, the book could have focused more on the documentary and Bel's investigation with Ash, as I felt like this was pushed into the background after some time.

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glutenfreebread's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

honestly kind of a letdown. I love GGG and 5 Survive because of their pacing and twisty stories, but this book had me re-reading passages and going back pages to try and find context I missed because it felt like the story was jumping around SO much during the middle portion. Yes, I still loved the twists, and yes the ending had my jaw on the floor... But again, I had to re-read everything to understand the twists,

because of how wedged they were between Bel's, honestly, unfounded distrust in Rachel when she first reappeared.

And the ending felt unfinished. Half thought over, yet fully understandable.
I'm super conflicted, my heart likes this book, but my head just can't stop being nitpicky.

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phoenixlovesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Another amazing book by Holly Jackson!! I had such a fun time reading this, and it felt like I was reading Good Girl, Bad Blood again! The Beginning was a bit slow, but the last 40% was unpredictable and had me screaming and crying for Bel.

I will be recommending this to everyone I know!!

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caitlinspeachyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Thank you to PRH Audio for the ALC. I am providing this review of my own accord.

This book follows 18-year-old Bel as she begins filming a documentary about her mom Rachel's disappearance when she was 2 years old. Her father only agreed to this because they desperately need the money, and they just haven't received any answer about Rachel's whereabouts in the last 16 years. They're hoping the money will help their family, as Bel's grandfather slips deeper into dementia, and that they can possibly find some answers regarding Rachel. However, all of a sudden, Rachel re-appears and havoc ensues, obviously! Her answers about where she has been do not make sense to Bel, and Bel refuses to be led astray, investigating her mom herself, with the help of a documentary staff member, Ash. She leaves her younger cousin Carter and aunt Sherry and uncle Jeff out of this though, as she doesn't want to upset her family, especially her dad.

The audiobook is 16 hours, so if you listen at 2x speed, then it's 8 hours. I loved the AGGGTM series, like it is one of my all-time favorite young adult thrillers/mysteries. I think the entire trilogy is genius!!! However, this book was too long! HAHAHA. My friends who read this review will laugh at me, because that's always my top criticism and I'm sorry! I feel this could have been 4 hours shorter, cutting out a lot of extra fluff, especially the romance between

Ash and Bel, because I didn't particularly feel the same vibes I felt between Poppy & Sal in AGGGTM, but that's just me I guess?

Anyway, the actual mystery of:

what happened to Rachel
who took her
how she escaped
why she came back/at this time
where Bel's dad went

was .... not what I was expecting, and yet.....

it's always some dusty, crusty man. Let's be real! And it's always the spouse UGH.

Holly Jackson once again did the damn thing in letting ciswomen make wild choices, and allowing readers to unwaveringly support them lmao.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I only wish it was shorter & I had to suspend disbelief in the aunt/uncle's storylines because ... I find that almost wrapped up *too* nicely with a bow, but whatevs.

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violet_viper's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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