Rules for Vanishing is, hands down, my favorite book this year. There I said it. This story was just so darn spooktacularly fantastic!
Once a year a mysteriously creepy road appears in the forests of Briar Glen, MA and the ghost of Lucy Gallows beckons. Last year Sara’s sister Becca decided to follow the road and find Lucy and she’s been gone ever since.
After a mysterious text message goes out to the high schoolers of Briar Glen, Sara and her ragtag team of friends decide to find the road and find Becca. Among them are true believers and skeptics, but everything changes once the road reveals itself.
The rules are simple. Don’t leave the road. When it’s dark, don’t let go and there will be other roads, do not follow them. But rules were made to be broken and broken rules bring consequences.
Marshall’s writing is transportive and honestly it’s nightmare inducing. I could not stop thinking about the road for days after I finished reading. This book was unexpected and original and I loved every spooky second of it!
Rules for Vanishing is a faux-documentary style novel told primarily from the perspective of Sara Donoghue. Throughout Sara’s re-telling the reader is given transcripts of calls and text messages, and video evidence, that begins to make you question if what you’re being told is the truth and if what happened on road was real.