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A review by dembury
Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
4.0
Let me just say that I really love a good horror novel, and deeply appreciate one that can bring something new to the scene all while leaning on familiar tropes/set-ups, in this case, the found-footage style of the Blair Witch project. "Rules for Vanishing" has all the familiar tones of a woodsy, local folklore-based horror story but Kate Alice Marshall is in complete rule of her world and has created something altogether new. It reminded be a bit of Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy, but it a much more accessible way. This book is downright chilling at times, to the point where I wasn't letting myself read it before bed because of some of the images Marshall conjures up. Seriously, it's not your average creepy girl wandering the woods book - "Rules for Vanishing" has a much higher-stakes game its characters must play, with very strict rules, and it creates a terribly and darkly readable book.
I really thought this was gonna be a full 5-star read for me, but there were a couple things holding it back. The main thing is that this book has a pretty huge big cast of characters, who we get introduced to VERY fast, in rapid succession, and there isn't much done to delineate them (aside from a couple "main" players"). It's actually pretty important readers know who EXACTLY is who; it ties right into plot points, but I struggled to keep names straight. I think it would have helped to have more attention given at the beginning to making distinct characters instead of sort of introducing them in a big blur.
Secondly, there is a mythical aspect of this book (no spoilers) that would have been much stronger if readers had been introduced to it a little earlier on. It comes up at a couple moments, but at the end it becomes WAY more important and there wasn't much foreshadowing to it, which would have been nice.
Finally, although the ending was pretty good, it honestly paled in comparison to the rest of the novel and I think it was a little predictable. I would have loved to see a more unexpected ending!
All in all, "Rules for Vanishing" is one of the most well-written, unique, and CREEPY YA horror stories I've read, and I definitely want to read more by Marshall.
I really thought this was gonna be a full 5-star read for me, but there were a couple things holding it back. The main thing is that this book has a pretty huge big cast of characters, who we get introduced to VERY fast, in rapid succession, and there isn't much done to delineate them (aside from a couple "main" players"). It's actually pretty important readers know who EXACTLY is who; it ties right into plot points, but I struggled to keep names straight. I think it would have helped to have more attention given at the beginning to making distinct characters instead of sort of introducing them in a big blur.
Secondly, there is a mythical aspect of this book (no spoilers) that would have been much stronger if readers had been introduced to it a little earlier on. It comes up at a couple moments, but at the end it becomes WAY more important and there wasn't much foreshadowing to it, which would have been nice.
Finally, although the ending was pretty good, it honestly paled in comparison to the rest of the novel and I think it was a little predictable. I would have loved to see a more unexpected ending!
All in all, "Rules for Vanishing" is one of the most well-written, unique, and CREEPY YA horror stories I've read, and I definitely want to read more by Marshall.