Title: HOW TO DISAPPEAR
Author: Gillian McAllister
Read: September 2021
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
Lauren's daughter Zara witnessed a
terrible crime. But speaking up comes with a price, and when Zara's identity is
revealed online, it puts a target on her back.
The only choice is to disappear.
From their family, their friends, even from Lauren's husband.
No goodbyes. Just new names, new home, new lives.
One mistake - a text, an Instagram like - could bring their old lives crashing
into the new.
As Lauren will learn, disappearing is easy.
Staying hidden is much harder . . .
My musings:
How would you feel if you had to pack a bag right
now and leave your old life behind forever to save your daughter’s life?
Knowing that you could never get in touch with your loved ones again without
putting yourself in danger. Having to watch that no picture of your face ever
makes it onto the web or the people chasing you will be able to hunt you down.
This is the situation Lauren finds
herself in after her teenage daughter Zara witnesses the coldblooded murder of
a homeless man and agrees to give evidence in court against two popular
football stars. Now both Lauren and Zara are in witness protection, with new
identities and strict instructions to leave their old lives behind. Laura’s
husband Aiden, who has a daughter from his first marriage, has to stay behind.
Will they ever see one another again?
In HOW TO DISAPPEAR, Gillian
McAllister explores the heartbreaking topic of people on the run after having
been caught up in a situation that now threatens their own lives. I tried to
imagine how it would feel to be in Lauren’s place, but it was difficult to
fathom the implications of leaving behind everyone and everything you love and
live like a fugitive. Would you do this for your child? Of course you would,
but what a terrible price to pay!
In the author’s notes, McAllister
writes how difficult it was to get any information about witness protection,
which meant that she had to use a huge amount of artistic license to make up
most of it. And whilst she did an excellent job and the book works well as a
work of fiction that revolves primarily about the sacrifices the characters are
having to make, this was probably my only disappointment with the story. A few
things seemed quite farfetched and unlikely to me, but for obvious reasons
little is known about the true processes of witness protection, so who knows? I
enjoyed the way the author includes not only the POVs of her characters in
hiding but also those of the people left behind, which added depth to the
story. However, I did struggle with some of the characters’ decision making processes,
especially those in a professional capacity, whose actions did not always ring
true to me.
Summary:
All in all, HOW TO DISAPPEAR is a novel about the sacrifices
we make for our children, and how the life we take for granted can be taken
away in a heartbeat. It was interesting to reflect on how our social media and
online presence can put us in danger and how difficult it is to ever truly stay
hidden in our modern world. Despite some inconsistencies in the plot and
characters’ actions, this was an intriguing and well written mystery that kept
me turning the pages.
No comments:
Post a Comment