Vanishing Falls by Poppy Gee

August 7, 2020

Vanishing Falls by Poppy Gee

Celia Lily lives in the town of Vanishing Falls on the Australian island of Tasmania.  She has it all - she is rich, beautiful, is married to a doting husband, and lives in a mansion.  But then she disappears one evening after returning home from a charity event.  The town residents immediately suspect her husband, who has some expensive hobbies like orchids and art collecting, and at least one unsavory secret vice.  But just about everyone in this town has secrets that they would rather keep hidden.  Did Celia disappear of her own volition, or did someone else make her vanish?

Although the premise really appealed to me, it was a slog to finish this one.  Almost all of the main characters were unlikable, and the one that you were supposed to like was somewhere on the autism spectrum.  Nothing wrong with that, except that she didn't understand sarcasm, irony or other figures of speech, as well as not having a filter.  This is fine at first but her meltdowns and other actions start to wear on the reader.  The atmosphere was oppressive as well - it rained almost constantly, and when it wasn't raining, it was snowing.  I personally don't need to be hit over the head repeatedly about the setting and the rotten characters (didn't have to hear about the guy with the meth addiction scoring drugs and getting high quite so often).  I got bored about halfway through due to the repetitiousness and started skimming.  The solution to the mystery wasn't even all that interesting.  The only reason I read it was that I received an eARC from the publisher, so I felt obligated to finish it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in return for a review.