Title: THE VANISHING OF AUDREY WILDE
Author: Eve Chase
Read: February 2022
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
Four sisters. One summer. A lifetime
of secrets.
When fifteen-year-old Margot and her three sisters arrive at Applecote Manor in
June 1959, they expect a quiet English country summer. Instead, they find their
aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter, Audrey,
five years before. As the sisters become divided by new tensions when two
handsome neighbors drop by, Margot finds herself drawn into the life Audrey
left behind. When the summer takes a deadly turn, the girls must unite behind
an unthinkable choice or find themselves torn apart forever.
Fifty years later, Jesse is desperate to move her family out of their London
home, where signs of her widower husband’s previous wife are around every
corner. Gorgeous Applecote Manor, nestled in the English countryside, seems the
perfect solution. But Jesse finds herself increasingly isolated in their new
sprawling home, at odds with her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, and haunted by
the strange rumors that surround the manor.
My musings:
Oh how I loved these characters! The Wilde sisters
(or “Wildlings”) make for a very colourful and compelling bunch to lead you
into their world, and paired with the atmospheric setting of Applecote Manor,
it contained everything I love in a book.
Rolling out in two timelines, one in
1959 and one in the present, Applecote Manor is the one constant that bridges
the separate tales. In 1959, the four Wilde sisters are sent to the English
countryside to live with their aunt and uncle for the summer whilst their
bohemian mother runs off to Cairo to take on a bookkeeping position. How I
would love to meet every single one of these characters in real life! The
sisters are a delightful bunch, close-knit and full of life and the product of
a rather unconventional upbringing. Soon they restore some joy into the old
household, which has been in mourning ever since their cousin Audrey vanished
without a trace five years previously.
The second timeline features Jesse,
a young mother and stepmother, who has fallen in love with Applecote Manor and
is trying to make it into a home for her family. Though I was afraid that I
would not love the present timeline as much as the sisters’, I was soon won
over by this young family, who were (almost) as compelling and interesting as
the Wilde sisters. Of course the house is a bit reluctant to give up its
secrets, revealing them slowly and gradually, until we finally find out what
happened to Audrey all those years ago.
THE VANISHING OF AUDREY WILDE is one
of those delicious treats that you want to savour as long as possible and miss
when the last page has been turned. Beautifully written, astutely observed and
with told with insight and compassion, it gave me joy every time I was able to
steal a moment and get lost in its pages. I also loved the Gothic undertones of
the old manor house, which was the type of atmospheric setting that almost
features as a character itself. The mystery itself was secondary to the story
and yet very compelling, just as the story told of innocence lost and the
coming of age of the sisters. A truly wonderful book! I look forward to reading
more from this author in future.
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