After witnessing a murder and believing her own life is in danger, 16-year-old Nicolette runs away from Ohio, involving herself in a series of identity-changing tactics including changing her name, backtracking along various interstate bus routes, and gaining weight, all in an effort to disappear from the killer’s radar. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Jack, a standup guy from Nevada who hates that he’s from a gangster family, is blackmailed by his brother into hunting down Nicolette and taking her out in a contract killing. In alternating chapters that maintain distinct voices and personalities, these two smart and damaged teens separately maneuver their new on-the-run realities, until they end up meeting, falling in love, and joining forces against the threats they face. Rapid pacing and intricate plotting unfold with lots of ready wit, dry humor, and sensitivity, and Stampler’s people, places, and cultures are genuine, making relationships and motivations authentic and vivid. This attractive mashup of suspense, road trip, romance, and psychological drama maintains its energy and credibility right through its emotionally honest and un-fairy-tale-like ending. — Francisca Goldsmith
What a thrill ride! HOW TO DISAPPEAR sucks you in from the very first page and never lets you come up for air. It’s a game of cat and mouse with an end that will leave you gasping.
"HOW TO DISAPPEAR is a funny, sexy thrill of a book, with two characters who crackle and sparkle on the page, as they struggle to outrun danger and resist their growing attraction. Nicolette and Jack are street-wise yet vulnerable, tough yet broken, old for their years yet entirely teenaged in their sensibilities. A delight to read!"
A deliciously gritty dive into the dark side of human nature! This book pretty much defines #MorallyComplicatedYA in a beautifully-written but fast-paced read that’s both twisted and thought-provoking.”
"A high-intensity, cross-country thrill ride that will have you breathlessly turning pages until the very end."
Jack’s father was a hitman, and his brother has the same shady associates, but Jack has always tried to stay on the straight-and-narrow. Now, however, his brother has summoned him to prison and told him, in no uncertain terms, that he needs to find a girl who has disappeared—a girl who has murdered one of his associates—and murder her—or else both Jack’s brother and their mother may be in danger. Nicolette is the girl Jack is chasing. She is definitely running from something, although perhaps not what Jack thinks she is running from. Jack and Nicolette tell the stories in alternating chapters. Nicolette is desperate, changing her name, changing her appearance, working whenever she can, always on the lookout for her chasers. Jack is methodical, tracking Nicolette, and always trying to figure out how he can get rid of her without, you know, actually killing her. Inevitably, the two meet up, but things do not proceed as either of them expects.
This fast-paced novel is an amalgam of thriller, romance, mystery, and road-trip. The characters—including minor characters—are nicely drawn and the whole thing will keep readers turning the pages to find out what happens.
After witnessing a murder and believing her own life is in danger, 16-year-old Nicolette runs away from Ohio, involving herself in a series of identity-changing tactics including changing her name, backtracking along various interstate bus routes, and gaining weight, all in an effort to disappear from the killer’s radar. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Jack, a standup guy from Nevada who hates that he’s from a gangster family, is blackmailed by his brother into hunting down Nicolette and taking her out in a contract killing. In alternating chapters that maintain distinct voices and personalities, these two smart and damaged teens separately maneuver their new on-the-run realities, until they end up meeting, falling in love, and joining forces against the threats they face. Rapid pacing and intricate plotting unfold with lots of ready wit, dry humor, and sensitivity, and Stampler’s people, places, and cultures are genuine, making relationships and motivations authentic and vivid. This attractive mashup of suspense, road trip, romance, and psychological drama maintains its energy and credibility right through its emotionally honest and un-fairy-tale-like ending. — Francisca Goldsmith
2016-05-04
Two teens are set on a collision course with sexy results.Nicolette Holland is on the run. She's changed her name and her hair and fully intends to disappear as fast as possible. Jack Manx, son of a mob big shot, is blackmailed into finding Nicolette and making sure no one else does. The circumstances revolving around Nicolette's importance are a bit blurry: Jack is told she murdered a girl connected to a powerful crime boss, but Nicolette doesn't act like a murderer, and the police aren't on her tail. The story unfolds with alternating chapters switching between Jack's and Nicolette's present-tense accounts, but the different perspectives offer little to the narrative. There are no tense cat-and-mouse sequences here; Jack just finds his mark with little trouble. When the pair cross paths there's a sexual attraction that promises to give emotional texture to the mob drama, but each character is so guarded that little genuine heat arises. Jack and Nicolette are manic in their moods, going from loving to hating and back to loving each other, sometimes within the span of one or two pages. Neither character is particularly engaging: Jack is a stereotypical bad boy with a heart of gold, and the mysterious nature of Nicolette's past crime keeps her at arm's length.It's hard to get invested in a love story when one of the partners is an unknowable black hole. (Thriller. 14-16)
