Howdy! I’m currently on my couch, winding down after a weekend packed with holiday goodness. I went to some holiday markets (saw the best handmade goodies), enjoyed some sushi, sake, and yakitori (for the first time), bought and wrapped aaaallll of my gifts to donate to a nursing home (an annual tradition), and even stumbled upon the cutest brunch spot ever (where I ate aged meats and kale)!
Of course, I crammed some chores in there as well – I had to clean and get all of my laundry done in preparation for family arriving this week, and I went grocery shopping (x2) to get my fridge full for all the cooking and baking that’s about to commence!
But still, there’s a book from Blanche’s Book Club to be discussed! This week, we’re talking about “Watch Me Disappear” by Janelle Brown.
Who you want people to be makes you blind to who they really are.
It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan—a Berkeley mom with an enviable life—went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends.
But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive’s emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan?
Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth—about Billie, but also about themselves, learning, in the process, about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown’s insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page.
I was so, so excited to read this one – and had to wait awhile to pick it up at the library. It was a little eery at first, but it quickly becomes quite the page-turner as you’ll want to help solve the mystery of Billie’s location.
I loved it and am recommending it to my mystery and crime lovers – a very fresh take on the genre. The even MORE awesome part is that Janelle Brown has lots of other books to indulge in!
The next book we’ll be reading is “Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances” by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle.
PS. I know I’m going to be cooking and baking a ton over the weekend, so I used that as an excuse to buy only frozen dinners… excuse me while I go eat endless mac n’ cheese…
The Bitter Lemon 