Vanishing Girls

I enjoyed this book but not as much as I'd hoped. It took me a while to get a real feel for the characters and I felt the first three quarters of the book moved quite slowly. The last quarter of the book really picked up and from here I couldn't put it down. I'm interested to read more of Lauren Oliver's books as there were elements of this book that I really enjoyed but not enough to make it to 4 or 5 stars for me.

before I read this I read some GoodReads reviews b/c I was trying to figure out if it was a “sad” book (I had to read a “sad” book for our monthly Reading Wildly challenge at work), and all the reviews were like “ugh the twist ending is so predictable!” I was like whatever, I'll read it anyway, I can never guess twist endings. Also, I feel like the bar is different for YA literature–if you're an adult reading it and you guess the twist, good for you, but a lot of teens prob won't because they haven't already read a bunch of books with that same twist. Because they have fewer years on this earth. Anywho: no, I did not ~guess the twist~ although it was obvious that something was afoot. Also I gotta say: I sort of question if this twist is actually medically possible?! seems like a very plot-convenient mental illness to me.I thought the ~found photo~ and diary entries were cool–kinda wished it had more photos, but okay. I dunno–for me this doesn't compare to Lauren Oliver's earlier books, which I ADORE, but also I liked it more than I liked [b:Panic 17565845 Panic Lauren Oliver https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374066076s/17565845.jpg 24500875]. BUT I think this kinda thriller is very appealing to a lot of teens and they'll like it. Also heads up that there is a subplot about underage girls being coerced into child pornography?? It's not very explicit exactly but...it's there...so maybe recommended for high school and up.