A review by outsmartyourshelf
If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier

dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Sera Fleece loves true crime podcasts, especially one by a host named Rachel Bard. Rachel's podcasts are about women & girls who go missing, & when Rachel suddenly goes silent, Sera thinks she has disappeared too. Sera uproots her life & heads off to where Rachel lived/lives but when she reaches the nearest town, Happy Camp, the locals are unfriendly & try to warn her off going to the ranch. Rachel's parents, mother Addy & father Emmett, are strangely unconcerned about Rachel's whereabouts. They hire Sera to look after the horses & start getting the camp quarters into shape for summer visitors. In her free time & the evening, Sera tries to find out what happened to Rachel & why everyone is so tight-lipped about the women who have disappeared over the years. Can Sera find out what happened to Rachel before Sera disappears too?

Oh dear. This could have been great - fan of crime podcast investigates the disappearance of the host. Instead we mostly get Sera mooching around the ranch & mooning after Jed (the stock Texas cowboy stereotype). In fact Sera is the main problem with this book, she is just really annoying. Her idea of investigation is just blurting questions out without actually thinking things through, & her insistence that she knows Rachel better than anyone else just because she listened to her true crime podcast is just weird & stalkerish. Also her knowledge that she really shouldn't trust anyone but she decides to trust Jed just because she's attracted to him. I kept reading, hoping it was going to suddenly pick up, but no - even the ending is unsatisfactory. Very disappointing. 

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