A Fun Little Documentary

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson: A Book Review

Genre: Thriller

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Jackson writes another interesting story with The Reappearance of Rachel Price. Reminding me a lot of her A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus, the novel surrounds the story about the disappearance of the main character’s mom. Famous in the true crime world for “disappearing twice”, Rachel Price (the main character’s mom) vanished without a trace leaving her 2 year old daughter (the main character) in the car. With no signs of foul play or missing money, the case is in all accounts cold – although that doesn’t stop the police from charging the husband/father. Flash forward sixteen years and the family is in desperate needs of money due to the father/grandfather’s failing health. Insert, documentary crew. Due to an online tip, an independent director reached out to the family to make a documentary about how the disappearance affected the family… only the disappeared reappears and throws everything into chaos.

Here, we queue in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and One of Us is Lying, as the main character doesn’t actually believe her mom just “vanished” and she doesn’t believe the story that she was held captive. Looking to find the truth, the main character pairs up with the camera assistant to document the process – only to find that the truth was a lot more different than she thought. End summary to withhold spoilers. All I will say is that the truth… the truth is shocking.

That said I did take a point away due to the writing. While the plot was entertaining, there were no obvious plot holes, no obvious grammar or tone mistakes, nothing like that – the main character also obviously suffers from abandonment issues and it is not mentioned, not called out, again nothing. If my family member vanished with their child still in the vehicle, I would be making sure that child was in therapy as they got older. Instead, the main character hates her mom because she sees her mom’s disappearance as her mom abandoning her; distances herself from everyone because “everyone leaves”; and will be nasty to anyone trying to be nice to her “because it is easier than them leaving”. Those things aren’t quirks – they are behavioral problems due to an attachment disorder. This attachment disorder is also clear in her reaction to father then disappearing and her family members “not being on her side” as they are happy Rachel is home. I did have a nice laugh at the main character’s toast to her “dysfunctional family”, but still! Obvious attachment disorder. Therapy needed. Enough said.

That said, it was strange of how quickly the main character switched “sides” at the end of the novel. I put it down to the fact that 1: throughout the work, it is continuously shown how smart the main character is – when presented with both sides/ all the facts, it would make sense that she put everything together and 2: the attachment disorder, which stems from her mother disappearing, caused her to latch on to any sort of idea that her mother did not want nor mean to abandon her. Either one, or both, work to show the main character’s action at the stage as believable.

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Who would most enjoy the work and who should stay clear (if necessary):

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Other books like the one reviewed:

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

How to Survive Your Own Murder by Danielle Valentine

Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets by Chelsea Ishaso

They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Suddenly a Murder by Lauren Munoz

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Plot:	10 / 10
Characters:	10 / 10
Writing:	9 / 10
Editor:	10 / 10
Total	39 / 40

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Title: The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Author: Holly Jackson

Edition: print/ hardcover

Published: 2024

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 9780593897263

If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble