A child who ran from the forest, a woman who must return to it: The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin #bookreview #TheVanishingPlace #NetGalley

A shocking murder in the New Zealand bush—and the witness who looks all too familiar—draws a woman back to the very place she swore she’d never return to in this breakneck debut thriller.
Growing up with her younger siblings in the unforgiving New Zealand bush, Effie believed their parents had cut them off from civilization because they loved Nature. She never suspected that their reasons might be more menacing. After witnessing a terrifying episode of violence, she escaped the wilderness to forge a life for herself halfway across the globe.
Now, when she learns the only witness to a murder is a little girl who looks just like her, Effie is compelled to return to the scene of her troubled childhood, where the secrets of her upbringing and the terrors of her past come rushing back to the surface. In order to find out once and for all what became of her family—and possibly help this mysterious girl who could be her younger self—Effie must face her greatest fears once more.

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Hi and welcome to my review of The Vanishing Place!

I think this book might have been written especially for me. No kidding. I gathered from the blurb that it would probably be up my street but it was more than that, it was practically sitting down in my kitchen having a coffee with me.

I adore a good wilderness story, and it was the perfect base for this engrossing rollercoaster ride of a book, with its atmosphere, mystery and secrets galore. I didn’t feel it was particularly fast-paced nor extremely action-packed, yet it was absolutely thrilling. I was captivated from the start and it kept me guessing throughout. (For the record: most of those guesses proved to be wrong.)

Effie’s POV in a dual timeline worked perfectly. I often tend to prefer one timeline over another but both Effie’s past and present had me glued to the pages and I wanted to know it all.

I could waffle on but the long and the short of it is quite simple: I found The Vanishing Place a very impressive debut and Zoë Rankin is definitely one to watch! If you like your thrillers on the darker side and the wilderness speaks to you, go get yourself a copy of The Vanishing Place!

The Vanishing Place is out now in digital formats, audio and paperback.

Massive thanks to Viper Books and NetGalley for the DRC. All opinions are my own.