Rating: 4 stars

A teen girl and her family return to her mother’s childhood home, only to discover that the house’s strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.

The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That’s what Libby’s mom said. And after Libby’s recent bipolar III diagnosis and the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows she and her family need to find a new normal.

But Libby’s new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt its winding halls, towering stained-glass windows feature strange, insectile designs, and the garden teems with impossibly blue roses. And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to the house, stretching back over a century to its first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds.

Libby’s mom refuses to hear anything that could derail their family’s perfect new beginning, but Libby knows better. The house is keeping secrets from her, and something tells her that the key to unlocking them lies in the eerie, bug-shaped masks hidden throughout the property.

We all wear masks—to hide our imperfections, to make us stronger and braver. But if Libby keeps hers on for too long, she might just lose herself—and everyone she loves.

This book was an interesting read to me as I wasn’t expecting this story to get as dark as it does. A Place for Vanishing has a lot of unique aspects to its story. There’s the house, which has a very dark history with the mystery of why people who live in the home never come out. The story behind these disappearances is very grim, not for the faint of heart and Ann Fraistat does a wonderful job painting a picture in intricate detail behind the history of the house. There’s also the characters in the story, from Libby with her bipolar III diagnosis, her younger sister Vivi and a neighbor a few houses down named Flynn who has a surprising connection to the house in more ways than one. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the characters in the story. But as I kept reading, I found I enjoyed learning more about them as they explored the house and investigated the mystery behind the masks.  

When I initially started reading this book, I struggled as the beginning is very slow moving with building the plot and story. But as the story continues, it goes from slow moving to the plot picking up in ways I didn’t expect. I found this slow build in A Place for Vanishing I actually didn’t mind as the many twists and turns that occurred made up for the slow start. I think what helped was the horror elements throughout. Even though I don’t get scared easily, I found myself at times horrified by the turn of events in this book and continued reading to find out if things would get better. I’m not scared of bugs in the least but believe that if I had the experiences the characters had in this book, I definitely would become scared of them. And the house itself had enough intrigue that made me continue reading to find out what secrets this house had to hide.

Another aspect of A Place for Vanishing I enjoyed was seeing Libby’s character development. She goes from being the character in the story where her mother and sister Vivi had to be careful around because of her condition and the events that lead to them moving into the house to being the person who saves them all from a terrible fate. She goes through so much development in this book, and I enjoyed the way her personal struggles with her health were portrayed. While I don’t personally know anyone with bipolar III, it was great to see mental health representation in this book while everyone in the story is going through a terribly traumatic ordeal. And I love that she’s the one who ends up saving everyone in the story. I also enjoyed seeing the beginning of her relationship with Flynn and that this book didn’t heavily focus on as much as what was going on in the house.

Overall I enjoyed reading A Place for Vanishing as the author did a wonderful job setting the scene for the horrific events to come. While the story started off with a really slow start, once it picked up I had a hard time putting this one down. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys reading horror as this book will give you some chills. However, anyone who doesn’t enjoy reading about characters dealing with mental health issues and books that mention suicide, doesn’t like horror, and is very easily creeped out by bugs, I would highly steer clear of this book as you more than likely won’t enjoy it quite as much.

Thank you so much for reading my review of A Place for Vanishing! If you liked this post, please check out other posts on my blog and leave your thoughts in the comments below.