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stepharina's review
2.0
I could not get on board with this book! It was torture for me and I struggled through it. I read the positive comments and just did not feel the same way the reviewers did. I read some 2 and 1 star reviews and agreed more with what they had to say. It to me didn't seem like a cohesive novel but more a book of short stories about the people who lived near the girls who were abducted. Often I wonder how they even related to the story as sometimes it just just a mere mention that if not paid close attention to you could miss. I didn't ever connect with the story or any characters and then the story would change and you were trying to learn a new character and figure out what was going on. For me a struggle as I said!
threegoodrats's review
5.0
As good as everyone said, and I fell into a rabbit hole of Google street viewing Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky. Each chapter is about a different character, which can sometimes result in an unsatisfying disjointed story, but which here only serves to paint a larger picture of this community and its inhabitants in the wake of the girls' disappearance. The main character of one chapter will show up again later so their story gets to continue. Every character and their story was interesting. Although on the surface the novel is about the disappearance of two young sisters - which is every-presenting throughout - it's more the story of this one community and their lives and struggles. It was just as much a story of Kamchatka as of the two sisters and their fate.
cjvphd's review
4.0
Almost a five star debut. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and Julia Phillips is exceptionally gifted. While introducing new characters up until the very end could have its pitfalls, Phillips managed to quickly draw me in at the beginning of every "month" and always left me wanting more by the end.
Oddly enough, I found the chapters either too connected or not connected enough. My preference would probably be to disconnect the chapters even more so I wasn't consciously trying so hard to remember how the characters related to one another (I fully admit my faults in this regard). Rather, each chapter would be a short story with a strong through-line, a bit like Lauren Groff's "Florida". Disappearing Earth was also very reminiscent of "There, There". In a good way!
Oddly enough, I found the chapters either too connected or not connected enough. My preference would probably be to disconnect the chapters even more so I wasn't consciously trying so hard to remember how the characters related to one another (I fully admit my faults in this regard). Rather, each chapter would be a short story with a strong through-line, a bit like Lauren Groff's "Florida". Disappearing Earth was also very reminiscent of "There, There". In a good way!
mitskacir's review against another edition
4.0
This book was not what I was expecting (which was a murder mystery). Really, it was a collection of short stories, tied together by the narrator's connection to a pair of young girls who were abducted. Sometimes the connection was strong (their mother) and other times the connection was distant (the doctor of a mother concerned about her own daughter's safety in light of the abduction). I enjoyed some narrators more than others, in the same way that I enjoy certain stories in a short story collection more than others. Overall though, this was a really interesting way to examine how people are interconnected and the systemic issues surrounding race and gender in a small Russian peninsula.
susiegarcia0708's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
kntaylor1216's review against another edition
4.0
Wow.
For this being Julia Phillip’s first novel, she has a very bright future, and I’ll be following her career.
This book is special in that it’s about the disappearance girls in Petrapovlovsk, but it’s not. It’s not about them. It’s about the women who are affected in some form or fashion: friends moms, the police chief’s wife, the girlfriend of a man who lived in a town where a girl went missing years before. I did not see how all these stories would eventually wind together, but they did so SO INCREDIBLY.
Russia is the main character, threading these women together to paint a devastating and beautiful and genuine picture of what these women endure on a daily basis. The contrast between apartments and cold tundra, of saunas and medical hallways, hot springs and flooded kitchens. Each aspect of the physicality really contributed to the feel of the book. I can’t say I wanted to visit Russia before reading this book, but I do now!
At first, I wanted the sequence of the book to lay out in order of how Phillip’s listed the families at the start of the book, and for it to be logical and obvious that the things that bound them together were so apparent. But as I continued reading, I found a greater appreciation for the fact that she didn’t do that. Yes, I had to keep flipping back to remind myself of who these side characters were, but I sped read through the last 2-3 chapter, anxious to see how it would play out.
As with every book, I want more. I wanted more of the after. There was so much of the before and the during. Not enough after.
For this being Julia Phillip’s first novel, she has a very bright future, and I’ll be following her career.
This book is special in that it’s about the disappearance girls in Petrapovlovsk, but it’s not. It’s not about them. It’s about the women who are affected in some form or fashion: friends moms, the police chief’s wife, the girlfriend of a man who lived in a town where a girl went missing years before. I did not see how all these stories would eventually wind together, but they did so SO INCREDIBLY.
Russia is the main character, threading these women together to paint a devastating and beautiful and genuine picture of what these women endure on a daily basis. The contrast between apartments and cold tundra, of saunas and medical hallways, hot springs and flooded kitchens. Each aspect of the physicality really contributed to the feel of the book. I can’t say I wanted to visit Russia before reading this book, but I do now!
At first, I wanted the sequence of the book to lay out in order of how Phillip’s listed the families at the start of the book, and for it to be logical and obvious that the things that bound them together were so apparent. But as I continued reading, I found a greater appreciation for the fact that she didn’t do that. Yes, I had to keep flipping back to remind myself of who these side characters were, but I sped read through the last 2-3 chapter, anxious to see how it would play out.
As with every book, I want more. I wanted more of the after. There was so much of the before and the during. Not enough after.
laura_corsi's review against another edition
2.0
This was a strange book. A juxtaposition between the literary genre with a few elements of a mystery thrown in here and there. We meet characters briefly and then they leave the novel never to be seen or heard from again. In the end, we are given a tantalizing glimpse into an ending but nothing is really resolved. I loved the setting but found there were too many characters thrown in to this with no reason. Towards the end when things are heading toward a collision one is just worn out by the tone to really take notice. I would have liked it to be more tightly woven and with the significant characters given more room to breathe on the page.