Date: June 20, 2025
Author: Janelle Brown
Title: Watch Me Disappear
There was no setting the hook in this book. It was more like Mz. Brown had laid out the whole net. I was captured immediately, and she continued to hold me in her thrall throughout.
Ok. Wrap your head around this. It’s coming up on a year since Jonathan and Olive lost Billie, their beloved wife/mother. She went on an extreme hiking expedition solo dolo and never more was to be seen. The only sign of her was a single boot washed up ashore of the raging river she had been hiking along.
It’s been almost a year and they are finally coming up on some closure. A court date is set and looming ahead where the officials will rule the death official. Hopefully this will enable Jonathan and Olive to be able to mentally and emotionally begin to heal.
However, Olive begins seeing visions of her mother and often, leading her to believe her mom is trying to convey some message to her. Is she alive? Is she in danger? What is the message? Or is the head doctor right and the visions were due to a recent head to wall collision that was an unfortunate side effect of the first vision?
While Olive is communicating with ghosts her dad is busy writing the story of him and Billie. Apparently, he went viral confessing the depths of his love and loss and the public wanted more. They wanted much more. They wanted the whole darn book. So, the publishers obliged, and Jonathan got to writing.
As the story progresses Jonathan begins scratching the surface of some disturbing truths about Billie and their life together. Truths that do not paint a very pretty picture of this woman he believed to know and love. In fact, the things Jonathan has been digging up are making him question everything. Who was this woman that he was married to? Was she having an affair? Did she in fact fake her death and run off on them? She’s been a runner and a cheater in her past and they say the past is on repeat.
Update: June 22, 2025: This is the kind of book that stays with you for a few days.