If you hear someone say the words, “young adult murder mystery,” then what novel comes to mind? Is it Holly Jackson’s “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder?” Published in May 2019, the novel became an instant hit among teenage readers, with three sequels coming out shortly after. It was even adapted into a TV show on Netflix, released last August, which allowed readers to watch the plot unfold on screen.
But now that you’ve read and watched the whole series, you may be on the lookout for something new. But will you ever find another novel that can compare to this one, or is it time to set aside the mystery genre for a while?
No need to keep wondering because Holly Jackson’s recently published novel, “The Reappearance of Rachel Price,” will keep readers’ sleuthing skills sharp.
This young adult novel follows the tortured life of 18-year-old Bel as she participates in a documentary about the disappearance of her mother, Rachel, who vanished from the public eye 16 years ago. Though Bel was only an infant when her mom disappeared, she was the last person to see Rachel on the day of her disappearance, as they were on an outing at the mall. However, baby Bel was later found alone and crying for help, in the backseat of the running car, left on the side of a snowy road in winter.
People speculated wildly about what happened to Rachel that day. How did she evade mall security cameras the morning before? Why did she take a different route home that day? Why did she leave her innocent infant alone inside a running car?
This documentary seeks to uncover the answers to all these pressing questions, but Bel is not the heartfelt key witness everyone expects her to be. She was too young to remember the face of the man who took her mother or whether her mother elected to leave the car herself.
Not to mention, her dad, Charlie, a hard-working man who had to raise Bel on his own, was the first to be accused of Rachel’s disappearance and possible murder. He was kept in jail for a while and went through a lengthy trial, even though he had an alibi. When he was released, Bel never wanted to be attached to the case again. Her mother’s whereabouts became legend to the rest of the world, but Bel was okay to move on with her life, living in relative peace with her dad.
That is, until director Ramsey offered her and her dad a boatload of money to film a documentary with him and his crew, which was money they sorely needed to take care of Charlie’s ailing father. Now Bel must dig up the details of her mother’s disappearance while clearing her father’s name once and for all.
But, just as the filming of the documentary is ending, the impossible happens; Rachel reappears. Bel and her father are caught completely off guard after 16 years, but while everyone else is overjoyed to see her, Bel is suspicious. Now, she must enlist the help of camera assistant Ash, an awkward boy with a unique sense of style, to reveal where Rachel has truly been for the past 16 years, and document it on camera for the world to see. The question is, why does Rachel’s story keep changing, and why does Bel’s family seem unhappy to see her?
I would give this book four out of five stars. It may seem like a predictable, mild mystery for the first half, but it has some insane plot twists toward the end that help the seemingly random plotlines come together. Bel has a lot of voices in her ear telling her different stories, but only she can decide the truth. I recommend this book for anyone who loves a good whodunnit, and it has a sense of modernity that I have not yet seen in many other recently published books.
