Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Disappearing Act

🔑🔑🔑 Three Stars (as rated in Emily's car keys)

Mia Eliot is in Hollywood to make a fresh start. Her personal life may be crumbling around her but professionally she's riding the wave of her new-found fame on the critically acclaimed show called, *Jane*. With nothing and no one holding her back, Mia is determined to land her next big role. But the L.A. scene is a lot more cut-throat than what she's gotten used to in London. Mia finds solace one afternoon in commiserating over the whole charade with another actress at an audition. But only moments later the woman is gone, her keys and wallet left behind in Mia's possession. What began for Mia as a random act of kindness is quickly spiraling into something more dangerous. In a city built on fake personas, how far should one actress go to discover what's real?

“It’s hard not to think the worst when you’re trying not to think the worst.”

I very much wanted to love this story. It has a neat enough premise and I think the bones were there. I just didn't really connect with any of what was happening and felt let down by the end. I can't say it was "bad" in any way, but I certainly had to drag myself through the end. Truth be told, my biggest motivator for finishing this book is that it was my Taurus pick for the month of June and I am nothing if not a completionist!

✨ Read this book because: you need a beach read or something to get you through a flight or longer commute

✨ Content warnings for this book: sexual assault, sexual violence, rape, violence, murder, drowning, gun violence, blackmailing, threats of violence, suicide, stalking

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Content Warnings

joleentraynor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

csunshine17's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I enjoyed this book and finished it quickly! The writing flowed easily and the twists and turns of the plot were engaging. Even though some of the character's decisions seemed unbelievably rash, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the plot or the character.

Content Warnings

theastj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

eddyn's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

When I gave this book 5 stars I thought, very snobbishly (is this a word?) is it too much? Can I compare it to the best works of classic literature? are the sentences heart stopping? are the characters fully formed? is it a fully developed world of its own?
But actually, F all this !!
Because this book does what it is supposed to: immersive, the writing flows with the action, it's not literary fiction –but that's not what it is here for– it does not spend much time on the characters and you might not relate to them too much, but for me it didn't bother me. Not all books can be careful character studies, and anyway,it would be a bit boring – they were realistic, so that's enough!

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author –who is an actress– and it was just, simply, immersive and for a couple of days I lived this story with the same clarity as one watches a movies and comes out of it forgetting about real life. I might not cite it on my epitaph but who cares!

I think this book worked especially well as an audiobook! Maybe if i'd read it with eyes I wouldn't feel so surrounded and kind of trapped by the story.

Well conclusion of this rambling: it doesn't have to be 'Literature' to be worth 5 stars. :)

Content Warnings

mysterymom40's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

When British actor, twenty-eight-year-old Mia Eliot, is heartlessly dumped for a younger woman by her boyfriend of six years, she decides to take up an invitation to go to LA for pilot season. When she arrives she is stunned to be housed in a spacious apartment & given a brand new car for free - all she needs to do is promise to Instagram them. Mia's agent has booked her a photo shoot & several auditions, but at one of them Mia meets Emily, an actor from New York, up for the same part. Despite this the women get chatting & when Emily is called into her audition, Mia offers to feed the meter so Emily's car isn't towed away. After doing so, Mia returns to the reception room but the person coming out of the audition room isn't Emily - in fact she seems to have disappeared altogether. When Emily won't return her calls, & the police don't want to know, Mia starts a desperate search of her own to find out what really happened to Emily, but when it looks like someone is gaining access to her emails & even entering her apartment in the middle of the night, it seems Mia may have put herself in terrible danger.

For 80-90% of this book I was absolutely hooked, the MC was fairly easy to like & the pace was blistering with some excellent twists & turns. I literally couldn't put it down & found myself a third of the way through in the first hour. I think the ending felt rather rushed though & it didn't quite do justice to the rest of the book in my opinion, but I enjoyed the rest of it so much that it deserves 4.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Simon & Schuster, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.

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