REVIEW: "And Then She Vanished" by Nick Jones
I generally have very little interest in doing adventurous things.
Even as a child, I was never attracted to high-risk occupations or pastimes. I never wanted to be an astronaut. I never wanted to fight fires. I never wanted to tape cardboard wings onto my arms and jump off the roof in an ill-fated bid to fly.
It’s all too risky.
Too scary.
Too full of uncertainty.
For as long as I can remember, I have preferred the safety associated with certainty.
The comfort of defined expectations.
Given my reluctance to take risks, I suspect that — was it a real possibility — time travel would also hold no appeal to me.
I do acknowledge, though, that this reticence to even consider whipping my way through time is likely due, at least in part, to the fact that there is nothing in the past that I feel compelled to right. There was no horrible incident I would want to prevent. No tragedy I would want to play a part in averting.
Such is not the case for the protagonist of And Then She Vanished by Nick Jones.
In this novel, our protagonist, Joe, has a very compelling reason to want to venture into the past. And so, when the opportunity quite unexpectedly presents itself, he latches on to it despite the uncertainty and danger.
For Joe, life can be divided into two parts. A before, and an after.
The critical incident separating these two halves is the disappearance of his sister, Amy.
When Joe was a teenager, he was tasked with taking his sister, then seven, to a carnival on the outskirts of town. It was at this carnival that Amy disappeared. And because it was Joe and Joe alone who was responsible for her safety at this outing, he has spent the 23 years since mired in guilt.
As tragedies like this have a way of doing, Amy’s disappearance completely obliterated the happy family of which Joe had previously been a part. So now, all these years later, it’s just Joe. Dissatisfied, disengaged, dispassionate about life in general.
In a bid to better Joe’s existence, his friend, Mark, connects him with a hypnotherapist. Though Joe is initially reluctant to participate in this type of therapeutic practice, he does agree to go. And it is as a result of this reluctant agreement that he discovers that he is capable of traveling through time.
Though some might be horrified by this new-found ability, Joe is delighted.
He immediately knows what he will do with this power.
He will save Amy.
And, in saving her, he will save his family.
This novel, a beautiful blend of thriller and science fiction, was a solid winner.
I am an infrequent reader of science fiction because I am commonly frustrated by how far into the weeds some authors go, describing in detail these quasi-fictional processes and techniques about which I honestly don't care. This book avoided this misstep.
In place of these deep dives, Jones provided some vague exploration of the supposed science behind the protagonist’s ability to move back-and-forth through time with abandon. He provided just enough to satisfy hardcore fans of science fiction, but not so much to turn off readers who seek a novel, not a physics textbook.
While the science fiction piece was absolutely central to the plot of this book, the science of time travel wasn’t really what it was about. Ultimately it was about this man who has been irrevocably damaged by a tragic event from his youth. It was about his search for redemption. Really, the only thing that separated the story from a typical redemption tale was that Joe had the tool of time travel to use in his quest.
Given that the crux of this story was a hunt for redemption, Jones made some wonderful choices in how he elected to structure this novel.
Throughout the book, Jones peppered in flashbacks. He led sections with scenes in which our protagonist, Joe, and his long-missing sister, Amy, engaged in normal, everyday activities. They were participating in the kind of minutia that we don't usually pay attention to in the moment, but that, upon reflection, we come to realize made up the best parts of our lives.
By interspersing these scenes throughout the book, Jones encouraged his readers to become increasingly connected to Amy and, by connection, invested in Joe’s ultimate success.
As I slowly closed the back cover of this novel and tried to really absorb what I had read, I was left thinking about the element of choice.
My whole life, I have assumed that my resolute disinterest in engaging in dangerous activities — like space or time travel — would prevent me from having to take such risks. But now I’m wondering whether that foundational belief is true.
As I move on from this book, I will almost certainly think back on it. And I suspect that I will continue to wonder how much control we really have over our lives. I will reflect upon how much we can really selectively limit our participation in high-risk activities.
Maybe the belief that we are in control of our lives is just something we cloak ourselves in, like a fresh-from-the-dryer blanket right after an unwisely lengthy outing at a sledding hill. It makes us feel good, but it doesn’t really protect us from anything. Maybe we, like Joe, are really at the whim of forces we cannot fully understand.
And while I likely won’t reach an answer, no matter how much I ponder this paradox, I do look forward to future novels in this series as I am desperate to see where these winds of fate next take this protagonist to whom I have become so attached.
Ultimately, there is nothing about this novel which I would change — and you all know how rarely I say that.
And Then She Vanished is the heartbreaking, unputdownable read you need right now. It earns 5 out of 5 cocktails.
If you could time travel, would you want to? Tell me about it in the comments, below.
Damn, I’m on a streak of good books. Fingers crossed that the next one continues the streak. Want to see what I pick up next? Subscribe to updates in the sidebar and follow me on Goodreads.
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*I was provided a gifted copy of this title by the publisher*
