Review: The Vanishing Game

The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



So, this book... I knew from the other reviews that this one was pretty controversial, especially as regards the ending. I didn't read any spoilers, though, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The basic premise is cool enough: Jocelyn and her brother, Jack, spent years living in a terrible foster home run by an abusive drug addict. Years later, after they've found themselves living in a stable, loving home, Jack dies in a car accident. Sad stuff. Then, a few weeks after his death, Jocelyn receives a letter that can only have come from Jack, which sends her on a clue hunting mission back to the foster home, now an abandoned, fire-damaged husk. Is Jack alive? If so, why is he hiding? What is he hiding? Jocelyn has to uncover and sort through the past to figure out the present.

For most of the book, this was pretty decent YA adventure stuff. There's danger and action and puzzles and teen romance and etc. Some of the prose is... well... not great. It's told from Jocelyn's POV, so I'm willing to excuse some of the clunkier prose as being "in character", I guess? Still, some of it is downright silly. At one point, Jocelyn's arm is injured, and has been bleeding off and on for several days. Noah makes her clean the wound and let him bandage it, which requires her to remove her sweater, since it's near her shoulder. Here, they're in a McDonalds bathroom, cleaning up:

To his credit he tried to be a gentleman and keep his eyes on my arm. I knew this wasn’t easy, since I was wearing a low-cut lavender sports bra. “Go ahead and look if you want,” I finally said.
“After all, the last time we were together I was flat as an ironing board.”
“Jocey …”
“What? It’s not every guy I let see me in my underwear.”
“I guess I’m just privileged then.”
He coated the wound with a heavy dose of antibacterial gel and covered it with gauze. “Hold this in place.” He tore off a piece of surgical tape.
After Noah finished bandaging my arm, I grabbed a blue shirt from my bag. As I pulled it on he said, “You do have a great body.”

And, cue making out. In the McDonalds bathroom.

The whole thing is awkward. Is a low-cut sports bra supposed to be sexy? Is "You do have a great body" not completely weird?

Anyway, clunky/awkward prose aside, I was actually really enjoying the mystery elements. The back stories of the characters were pretty interesting in a "Holy crap, they're all huge messes" kind of way. Is it cliché? Oh, definitely. "Mess up orphans suffer abuse" isn't exactly breaking new ground.

But the ending? Ugh.

Many people have remarked that the "twist" at the end bothered them or ruined the book. That should probably be twists. It's not just one, it's the combination of two. The big reveal about what is really going on with Jack I could deal with, but the big reveal about what Jocelyn can do? I'm just going to say it right now, giving Jocelyn psychic powers does not actually help the story. It's dumb. And other characters are just like "Oh, yeah, she's totally got TK. Cool, right? Yeah, we all knew about that." What? So stupid.

If it hadn't been for that, this would probably have been a 3.






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