Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - 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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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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wondernaut55's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I adored this - it felt like a comeback from Five Survive, with a heavy focus on character development as well as an interesting mystery. Because of the equal focus on characters and a twisty plot, the pacing did suffer quite a bit, but I loved the characters and mystery enough to keep going.

Strong Points: Characters, compelling setup, intrapersonal relationships, and themes

Weak Points: Not really many stakes to stick to the mystery until we got to a little past the halfway point - if we’re breaking this up into 4 acts, act 2 bogged down pretty quickly, and act 3 started strong but like a rollercoaster it dropped hard. I also felt like our villain’s motive was pretty weak and didnt unravel the mystery in the most satisfying way. However, the theme carried that on its back, and I loved the wrap-up for it.

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siennaflynn'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? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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bridget_magpie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I was so excited to read this book. I love Holly Jackson’s style, she easily win me with AGGGTM. I really liked this book, there was so much suspense and mystery and I really didn’t expect what really happened. The story is great, but I wasn’t absolutely fan of the ending. Something about it just didn’t feel right with me. Saying all that, this is easily a strong 4 star novel.

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