How to Disappear

by Ann Redisch Stampler

Overview

This electric cross-country thriller follows the game of cat and mouse between a girl on the run from a murder she witnessed—or committed?—and the boy who’s sent to kill her.

Nicolette Holland is the girl everyone likes. Up for adventure. Loyal to a fault. And she’s pretty sure she can get away with anything...until a young woman is brutally murdered in the woods near Nicolette’s house. Which is why she has to disappear.

Jack Manx has always been the stand-up guy with the killer last name. But straight A’s and athletic trophies can’t make people forget that his father was a hit man and his brother is doing time for armed assault. Just when Jack is about to graduate from his Las Vegas high school and head east for college, his brother pulls him into the family business with inescapable instructions: find this ruthless Nicolette Holland and get rid of her. Or else Jack and everyone he loves will pay the price.

As Nicolette and Jack race to outsmart each other, tensions—and attractions—run high. Told in alternating voices, this tightly plotted mystery and tense love story challenges our assumptions about right and wrong, guilt and innocence, truth and lies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481443937
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	06/14/2016
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.40(d)
Lexile:	HL700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Ann Redisch Stampler is the author of the young adult novels Afterparty and Where It Began as well as half a dozen picture books. Her work has garnered an Aesop accolade, the National Jewish Book Award, Sydney Taylor honors, the Middle East Book Award, and Bank Street Best Books of the Year mentions. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Rick.

Read an Excerpt

How to Disappear
I’m not Catherine Davis.

My hair isn’t brown.

And I have never lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve never even seen the state of Oklahoma, despite what this convincing but completely fake ID says.

Or, technically, not fake.

Just not mine.

Cat Davis.

Born in Oklahoma City (where I wasn’t born).

Got so drunk, she didn’t even notice when her license was stolen right out of her bag nineteen years later. At a frat party (where I shouldn’t have been) in Galkey, Texas (where I didn’t want to be).

Stolen by me.

Morally speaking, this wasn’t my most glittering moment. But it definitely answered that Sunday School question of whether I’d steal bread if it would keep me from starving.

Yes.

I would.

The license just seemed like one more untrue thing to stuff between me and my past. A tiny piece of laminated plastic I actually thought of as my ticket out of the obituary column.

One more little thing I needed to make it to the age of seventeen alive.

That, and a different-looking face and a different-shaped body and bulletproof skin.

That, and a heart of stone.

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2016
A girl on the run and the boy sent to kill her are on an inevitable collision course in an adrenaline-soaked thriller that veers into melodrama. Sixteen-year-old Nicolette Holland, a popular but rebellious cheerleader, witnesses a gruesome crime in the woods near her Ohio home and runs away. She constantly changes her appearance and her name, and she never stays in one place long. Whereas Nicolette gleans her knowledge of criminal behavior from Law & Order, 18-year-old Jack Manx needs to look no further than his corrupt family: his brother, Don, is incarcerated and their crime boss father is dead. Jack’s hopes of staying clean evaporate when Don forces him to track down and kill Nicolette, whom Don says is a murderer. She’s no easy prey, and he isn’t the best hunter, but when the two finally meet, sparks fly, diluting the tough, independent persona Stampler (Afterparty) had built up for Nicolette. The premise requires more than a little suspension of disbelief, though the teens’ alternating narratives sustain tension throughout. Ages 14–up. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (June)

Publishers Weekly

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

May 1, 2016 - Booklist

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

May 1, 2016 - Booklist

05/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Jack Manx, son of an infamous Vegas hitman, has always fought against the assumption that he would follow in his father's footsteps. A month before his high school graduation, straight-A student Jack visits his brother in jail and is met with an impossible ultimatum: find and kill a young woman named Nicolette, or watch his mom die. Implausibly, Jack agrees to this, rather than going to the police, and begins researching the young woman who's run away from her home in Ohio. Meanwhile, halfway across the country, a girl named Cat is desperately trying to outrun her past, change her physical appearance, and disappear into anonymity. Jack tracks Cat's movements across the country, but even attentive readers will be mystified by the hazy geography. Most of the events take place in Las Vegas or Ohio, but it isn't always clear what is supposed to be happening where in the time line. Plus, many rushed or missing transitions make comprehension a real challenge. For example, in one scene, Cat is thinking about going to pick up some essential items for life on the run. Suddenly, she is at the Goodwill, picking out dresses without even hinting at a change of scene or action. The plot does, however, pick up speed when the protagonists finally meet. The tension between them is well written, steamy, and fun to read. VERDICT This romantic psychological thriller would appeal to reluctant readers, but its flaws and length might make it a hard sell.—Leighanne Law, Scriber Lake High School, WA

School Library Journal

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)

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Martina Boone

"Readers need to buckle up for action packed suspense that will keep them reading well past their bedtimes."

School Library Connection

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.

April Henry

"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!"

Carrie Mesrobian

"A high-intensity, cross-country thrill ride that will have you breathlessly turning pages until the very end."

Gretchen McNeil

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