Book Review #149: The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

 

Bel has always lived in the shadow of her mother Rachel's disappearance. When her family agrees to take part in a true crime documentary about the incident, it brings up feelings that Bel has been avoiding for years - she just wants it to end. But when the impossible happens, and Rachel reappears, Bel finds that the mystery is even more complicated than ever. Why doesn't Rachel's story make sense? Where has she been for 16 years? Why did she really come back? Can Bel uncover the truth behind Rachel's disappearance before it's too late?

I tend to really like Holly Jackson's books, so this was one that I was looking forward to, especially because the premise was quite interesting.

I liked this book, but I definitely had a few problems with it too.

From the beginning, the thing that drew me in was the characters. They were described really well, you could clearly see them, and it didn't take long to get to know them.

I don't have a problem with reading books in either first or third person, and it usually doesn't matter to me which perspective a story is told from. But with this one, it really felt like it needed to be first person. I needed to be in Bel's head to really understand her, and to understand how the events of the book truly affected her.

But because it was third person, and because Bel was probably the least likeable person in the story, I did find myself feeling distant from her.

I also felt like the story needed a few more characters, because the reader of this story is Bel's best friend, and being Bel's best friend is exhausting.

But in saying that, the characters that were actually in the story weren't developed. Knowing more about them, really being in the story with them, would have made the events towards the end a lot more exciting and shocking.

The story and the mystery get more interesting as you continue, but when I got to 250 pages I realised I could put it down and not pick it up again because I just didn't care that much.

Thankfully, the reveal was one of the better parts of the story, which is how a mystery should be. But because the book hasn't done important work beforehand, I didn't care about anything as much as I needed to. I enjoyed the direction it went down, but I wasn't invested.

I did love the ending though.

The main flaw of the story is that the relationships that needed development didn't get it. Particularly the barely-there romance subplot that really didn't need to be included.

Overall, there was probably more I disliked about this book than I liked, but the reveal definitely made up for it. All in all it's a great mystery, it just needed better character development (and a slightly more likeable protagonist).

3/5