The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston
3.5/5 stars
Hyperion, 2013
314 pages
YA Suspense Contemporary
Scheduled to release May 14
Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I have long had a weakness for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movies including "Our Lips Are Sealed" where the girls are enrolled in witness protection down under (please tell me someone else knows this movie!) This released in 2000 and since then I've harbored an interest in stories involving the relocation of characters. Therefore when I saw that this book featured just such a plot, I was immediately grabbed.
The novel drops us right into the thick of things with "Megan" choosing her new name and being physically transformed to be placed in another identity, her family's sixth placement in less than two years. She's tired of being on the run, tired of not knowing whatever it was her father did that landed them there, and tired of all the changes. So she's not going to get involved, just waiting out her final years of school. However she meets the very charming Ethan who seems determined to figure out all her secrets no matter how dangerous the situation becomes.
Honestly I found the first part to be fairly average. I was just going through the motions reading about Megan and her family's resettlement, with occasional hints at something bigger occurring. I wasn't actively frustrated by anything but I wasn't engaged or particularly rooting for Megan. My biggest source of amusement was seeing Megan's relationship with her younger sister, which has been strained by all their changes plus Megan's attempts to pretend she was from Arkansas when she has never even been there.
However the second part is where things really start getting interesting. It turns out that Megan actually knows more about the reasons why the family is in Witness Protection than she thought and she decides to do something about that (along with the very persistent Ethan). These events really ratchet up the tension and kept me glued til the final shocking page. Is there going to be a part two? I don't know and I don't think there needs to be but there is room for Megan to move forward.
Other Opinions:
The Flyleaf Review
Into the Hall of Books
Paper Riot
