Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
Vanishing Girls
by Lauren Oliver
Harper, 2015
ISBN: 9780062224101
357 p.p.
When Nick’s divorced parents decide it’s time she moved back to her hometown of Somerville four months after the car crash that permanently disfigured her younger sister, Dara, Nick is less than enthused. Once inseparable, Nick and Dara now have not spoken since the night when Nick drove her car straight into a wall of rock on the side of the road after a high school party. In the crash, Dara, the former socialite, sustained major injuries that left her once beautiful face scarred. Now she hides herself away in the upstairs bedroom of their mother’s house, determined to avoid everyone, even her sister.
All Nick wants to do this summer is serve popcorn at the local movie theater and emerge unscathed by Dara, but plans quickly change. In an effort to keep her daughter distracted, Nick’s mother forces Nick into a summer job at Fantasy Land, an outdated amusement park proudly owned by Mr. Wilcox, a former math teacher and a constant fountain of enthusiasm. There, Nick’s coworkers include Alice, a fourth year returnee who is so in love with FanLand she wants to die there; Princess, the ancient snack stand worker; and Parker, Nick and Dara’s childhood friend and Dara’s ex boy-toy.
All of a sudden, this simple summer distraction turns into so much more when Nick struggles to mend her torn relationship with Parker and move past the events of that horrible night. The intensity builds when the whole community starts buzzing as another sister duo hits the news. Little Madeline Snow has just been abducted from her older sister’s car while the two were out getting ice cream and no one has heard from her since.
Nick begins to wonder about Dara and the risky, secretive behavior she expressed in the months leading up to the car crash. She remembers finding some questionable photos on her sister’s phone and how quick Dara was to delete them. Nick tries knocking on the door and even leaving Dara notes, but no one answers. Seriously concerned now that Dara is in big trouble, Nick beings to worry. Who took those pictures of Dara? Does it have anything to do with where her sister is sneaking off to every night?
From beginning to end, the story of Nick, Dara, and Madeline Snow is told in a new and unique way. Not only does Lauren Oliver write chapters from Nick’s perspective both before and after the crash, but she also includes entries from Dara’s diary, community discussion board posts from online forums, missing persons ads, and other styles of text and images interspersed throughout the story to help bring it to life. She draws readers into the mystery of Somerville, and makes them gasp out loud when they discover the truth.
Eventually, in a last-ditch effort to find her sister and make things right, Nick is led past the site of the accident where she discovers the memorial flowers and hand made cards from classmates encouraging Dara to rest in piece. Terrified with the sudden realization of her sister’s death, Nick continues on to FanLand where she had convinced herself that Dara would be waiting for her. Instead, Nick discovers little Madeline Snow hold up scared and alone in a broken down ride in the far corner of the park.
In this way, the two vanishing girls are found and the tragic mystery is put to rest. Oliver explores the darker struggles of the teenage mind and the tremendous power guilt is capable of wielding over family and loved ones. Vanishing Girls is sure to get your heart racing and your imagination flying.
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Lauren Oliver is a New York Times bestselling young adult author of novels such as Before I Fall, the Delirium trilogy, and Panic, which has recently been optioned for film by Universal Studios. She has also written for a younger audience with her books The Spindlers and Liesl & Po as well as adult audiences with her novel, Rooms. After graduating from the University of Chicago and NYU’s MFA program, Oliver went on to write and eventually become the co-founder of a boutique literary development company called Paper Lantern Lit.
