Book Review: The Other Side of Disappearing
A moving odyssey of family, self-discovery, and love.
Accompanied by two documentary podcasters, two sisters drive across the country to unravel the mystery of a notorious con man who ran away with their mother in this timely, moving, modern love story about intimacy and truth-telling in the digital age, from the acclaimed author of Georgie, All Along and Love Lettering.
Hairstylist Jess Greene has spent the last decade raising her younger half-sister, Tegan — and keeping a shocking secret. Ever since their reckless mother ran off with a boyfriend she’d known only a few months, Jess has been aware that he’s the same accomplished con man who was the subject of a wildly popular podcast.
Now thirty-one, Jess didn’t bargain on Tegan eventually piecing together the connection for herself. But Tegan plans to do exactly what Jess has always feared — leave their safe, stable home to search for their mother — and she’ll be accompanied by the prying podcast host and her watchful, handsome producer, Adam Hawkins. Unwilling to let the sister she’s spent so much of her life protecting go it alone, Jess reluctantly joins them.
Together, the four make their way across the country, unraveling the mystery of where the couple disappeared to and why. But soon Jess is discovering other things too. Like a renewed sense of vulnerability and curiosity, and a willingness to expand beyond the walls she’s so carefully built. And in Adam, she finds an unexpected connection she didn’t even know was missing, if only she can let go and let him in . . .
How was it?
The Other Side of Disappearing was a book that I definitely did like, much as the review I’m about to write may at times seem to contradict that. I always know, going into Kate Clayborn’s books, that it’s going to be good, and this was! (I realize stressing this makes it sound like I’m trying to convince someone of something but truly, I liked it. If that’s all you need from this review, feel free to skip the rest.)
The issue was, I think, that I set my expectations too high. Looking at my previous ratings of Clayborn’s books (4 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars), it’s obvious I would enjoy it. I think the issue for me was that this one came directly after my absolute favorite (Georgie, All Along), which hit all the right notes for me. So, as much as I tried not to think like that, this one had a few points where I couldn’t help but think how it matched up to Georgie and find it a little wanting.
Let me give a brief rundown of the plot here, because now is the time to get into some specifics, beyond “well, it wasn’t Georgie”.
The story follows Jess, who is the sole carer of her younger half-sister Tegan, after their mother abandoned them to shack up with a conman about 10 years previously. Jess knows all this, her sister does not. And then there’s Adam, who is working with Salem on a follow-up podcast regarding this conman (the reason Jess knows this is who her mum went off with is because of the original podcast).
Tegan, behind Jess’s back, gets in contact with Adam and Salem because she thinks they might be able to find this conman (and thus her mother). Only, instead of being able to leave, with only a note to Jess to explain things (which, hello, seriously shitty move when Jess’s entire trauma is down to the fact that her mother did this to her twice and the second time never came back! A shitty move that I never felt was properly confronted, by the by), Jess happens to be home when Adam and Salem arrive. Unwilling to let Tegan (aged 18!) go off alone with two strangers (understandable), Jess comes along on this cross-country road trip to find her mother.
Now, the sticking point for me, relates to how quickly the romance progressed. Perhaps this involves rose-tinted glasses on my part, but it definitely felt like Adam and Jess had a kind of insta-infatuation going on. Not insta-love, because they didn’t claim to be in love with one another until at least a reasonable point, but insta-obsession.
Like how Adam, within moments of their meeting, can’t stop thinking about Jess but in a fawning “oh she’s wonderful [deep sigh]” kind of way. In a “I have to tell Salem I can’t do this podcast since I like her too much” kind of way. Dude, you met her five minutes ago! When I type this out, perhaps it does feel a bit irrational, but I don’t know how better to describe it. And it annoyed me anyhow.
So, it follows that they would get together too early for me, too, and that they did! It was somewhere in the region of 45% through the book and, as I like to say, I prefer slow-burning romances where they don’t get together for at least two-thirds of the book.
I want the tension! I want the will-they, won’t-they! Well here they definitely will, it’s just a question of which of the myriad traumas Jess has after her mother’s abandonment will push them apart first (okay, that’s tongue-in-cheek of me. I do apologise. I did actually quite like how Clayborn set up and dealt with the inevitable third act breakup even if I am, otherwise, almost entirely opposed to such things).
See, I told you it’d sound like I didn’t like the book! To counteract that, let me close by emphasizing that I did like this still. The characters were good, the writing too, and the emotions did, at points, Get To Me (as intended). And I think, if I had gone in with more reasonable expectations (i.e. remembered that my average Kate Clayborn rating outside of Georgie was 3.67 — that is, closer to 3 than 5), I would have liked it a lot more.
Book Length —432 pages.
Paperback Price — $16.16 (Amazon)
