I’ve found lately that books that involve big, mysterious houses are definitely ones I want to be reading. Bonus points if there are enough descriptive details that I can envision the mansion easily. Most of the time these books involve some sort of mystery, so that makes it even more up my alley. A Place for Vanishing hit a little different though, and I think it was just not quite realistic enough for my taste.

First, I would like to address the fact that the protagonist in this book, Libby, is very transparent about dealing with a mental health diagnosis and her time in a psych ward. I was impressed that the author added some of the difficult details right away and peppered the rest throughout the book, making the story of Libby’s recent past and diagnosis of bipolar III seem like a life-changing event, (which it was) but also possibly a metaphor for the healing she is going through in stages as time moves on.

The main reason Libby, her younger sister Vivi, and their mom moved to the big old house that was their mother’s childhood home is to escape the memories of some recent incidents they’d rather forget. It seemed like the perfect opportunity: a need for a change and an old house inherited. Sounds like fate, right?

Unfortunately, the mother didn’t strike me as super stable and responsible. She’s doing the best with what she has, but sometimes she takes on more than she can handle…like moving to a huge, possibly haunted, house. Apparently, the fact that her parents possibly disappeared rather than died (as she was told) and several other people have disappeared from the house aren’t anything concerning to the mother. Or maybe she doesn’t believe that they were disappearances in the first place. The more the whole family learns about the house and its history, the creepier the story gets, with séances and secret ceremonies and a past that is filled with shadows and uncertainty. 

All in all, this book mixes reality and a world of spirits and ghosts quite successfully, in my opinion. I appreciate that while Libby is fighting mental battles she’s also fighting these fantastical physical battles simultaneously. A Place for Vanishing captured my attention and held it until the very last page.

Review of a Digital Advance Readers Copy from Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 2 religious exclamations; 50 mild obscenities; 4 religious profanities; 25 scatological words; 6 anatomical terms; 4 F-Word derivatives.

Violence/Gore: A girl thinks about her grandparents’ deaths; a house is implied to be dangerous and causing disappearances; a minor hears a wail in the night and is frightened; stained glass windows in a house are mentioned to depict odd and creepy scenes of death and bugs; a minors imagination runs wild with different scenarios that could occur after she sees some creepy things; an adult is trimming roses and squeezes a stem too hard and a thorn pierces her skin, some blood is mentioned; a minor runs into a rose bush maze after a minor trespassing, she is mentioned to get lots of scratches; seances are mentioned to occur as well as spirits contacted and ouija boards used in several scenes; a brief scene occurs where a minor is mentioned to have attempted to kill herself before moving to a new town; a minor girl recalls when she tried to overdose and briefly describes how she was told her mom found her and she was eventually admitted to the psych ward; a minor wonders if her mom thinks she is self-harming; a bug infestation is described in a brief scene involving bugs crawling and attacking minor girls, a brief description is given of a girl killing some bugs; a deer is depicted eating raw meat in a piece of art and it is mentioned how odd that is; an adult woman is mentioned to be bleeding quite seriously after an accident; a girl is mentioned to have died long ago; a couple brief scenes occur where a spirit is described to wear the body of someone who is alive so they can communicate; bugs are mentioned to attack humans in a brief scene; candles are knocked over and cause several characters to sustain burns; a creepy scene occurs where a girl tries to help her mom remove a decorative mask from her face but they discover it has fused to her skin and it is removing skin as the mask is removed, some blood is mentioned and bugs, specifically mosquitoes are mentioned to be feeding on the blood; another scene occurs with the mom trying to remove the mask and more blood mentioned; a minor punches a boy to get him to come to; a creepy scene occurs where a skeleton is described to have skin sloughing off of it and some blood is mentioned.

Sex/Nudity: A mention is made of an adult woman’s sexual identity as she used a sperm donor to have her daughters to avoid a relationship; minors of opposite sex embrace and kiss in two brief scenes; a girl acknowledges she is wearing her tightest jeans for a boy.

Mature Subject Matter:

Mental health; loss of a loved one; death; spirits/haunting; trauma; suicide; Ouija board/seances.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

A minor is mentioned to drink a lot; a mention is made of illegal drug usage; a minor is mentioned to try to overdose on prescription medication.