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Review
Let's Talk!: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
4/20/2015Vanishing Girls
Author: Lauren Oliver
Pages: 357
Published by: HarperCollins
Published on: March 10th 2015
Published by: HarperCollins
Published on: March 10th 2015
New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping story about two sisters inexorably altered by a terrible accident. Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other. "Alarming and uplifting, a rare psychological thriller that has a kind heart at its center. Read it with all the lights on." -- E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars.
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Lauren Oliver, you have surprised me again. After Panic, I was sure she was going to be able to impress me again. Well, I am not wrong. Vanishing Girls was honestly such a great read, I don't know why I waited this to actually get to it. I loved the characters and the plot and everything. Even though I loved this book, it was kind of hard for me to keep up with and a lot of the times I felt myself having the need to skip ahead.
Ahh the characters. This book actually takes place in a sequence of Post and Pre Accident Nick and Dara. There are a few news articles, diary entries, and text messages as chapters as well. I loved reading from Nick's perspective. It was great to see how she handling things after the accident, adjusting to things, and getting her life back to how it was before. Dara, on the other hand got a bit annoying. Maybe it's the fact that I can relate more to Nick, but I found Dara to be a bit of a diva. I always felt like her and Nick were in this competition and most the time, it was between Dara and natural-winning-Nick who wasn't aware such thing. From seeing who could have the most fun at a party to impressing their parents. Nick, at one point, did catch on to this competition and was able to beat Dara in her little game aware or unaware. Dara was basically EVERY cliché teenage rebel. Drugs, parties, drinking and all the sha-bang. Even if these two didn't seem very friendly to each other when they were older, when they were younger they were so cute. It was just like how all siblings are, where the younger one is always nagging to play with the older one. (<-- Me and my sis back then)
Like I mentioned above, the plot of this book was great. I loved the concept of it and how Dara goes missing, which may be related to the fact that Madeline Snow is missing as well. It was just so mysterious because with Madeline, there were so many aspects of her disappearance that kept you wanting to know more. That is the same that went for Dara's disappearance. I was always wondering what had happened to her and I really think that added well with the post-accident thing.
Now how did I feel like I was jumping around with the text? Usually when I read I am able to stick to the text and not get ahead of myself. I haven't read so fast my brain can't keep up with my eyes in a long time! I've been better with sticking with the text but this time I just kept reading ahead. There were just too many sections of big boring description...
I gave this book 4 stars because even though this book got a little jumpy at some points, I loved the plot and characters.
The ending! I was super confused about the ending. Right before Nick found Madeline it mentioned how people were mourning Dara at the crash site. There were things that read " RIP Dara" and all I thought was,"Wait, what? I thought Dara was alive." I finished the book still super confused and had to ask someone to explain it to me! It wasn't under it was explained that Nick was imagining all of Dara's POV post-accident. That STILL didn't make sense to me because of the fact that Parker had spoken to her and how Arianna talked to Dara as well. The person who explained it to me (Kaitlin @ Reading is My Treasure! Thanks Kaitlin!) informed me that at the Drink, no one said it was Dara or Nick and then it all started to make sense to me. Also, Parker and Nick finally got together! Honestly, I'm not even sure if Parker really loved Dara but I just kind of feel like it was forced...
Just a thought: Wow, this book reminds me so much of We Were Liars.
Then there was that business with Madeline Snow! Honestly, I'm not sure if her disappearance is anything relevant to Dara's. Other than the fact that Aaron was somehow part of it, you wouldn't be able to find Dara based on Madeleine's disappearance. I was so surprised to see that she actually was at FanLand the whole time! That is so weird and cool! She just hid out on the roof for about 4 days and was able to survive. Man, it would take awhile to recover four days of basically no water, candy, and burgers.
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