Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance
Grade : A-

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is an eloquent meditation on grief, guilt, and how both can wreak, destroy, change and heal lives.

Sally Holt stands on the cusp of entering the eighth grade during an eventful summer that will change her life forever.  It seems to pass along lazily enough at first – she and her sister, high school senior Kathy, spend it with their parents, and they spend hours lying out by the town pool.  The object of Kathy’s affection and Sally’s curiosity is local legend and older teen Billy Barnes, who works at the pool’s concession stand.  Billy once jumped off the roof of the local elementary school when he was in fifth grade – he’s still a rebel and a daredevil, but he’s also the local darling due to his basketball skills.

During this magic summer, Kathy and Billy become boyfriend and girlfriend.  But Kathy’s romance with Billy will have a tragic end when, while all three are riding together in a car, Billy swerves to avoid hitting a deer and crashes into a telephone pole.  The accident kills Kathy, leaving Sally and Billy behind to deal with the ramifications.  They begin bonding, calling each other before they go to sleep, for instance, to deal with their grief.  As Sally grows up, she begins to fall in love with Billy while watching her mother deteriorate under the veil of her own grief.  And eventually, Sally tries to move on.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is about the crushing mantle of guilt.  It’s also a love story.  It takes Sally and Billy pages to get together and learn how to let go of Kathy, and in the meantime they try to discover who they are.  It might be a little uncomfortable for readers to watch this eighth grader grow up and develop a relationship with a boy she knew as a high school senior who dated her dead sister, but Espach handles the situation with sensitivity.

Sally’s relationship with her parents is complicated by their grief and guilt; her mother is nearly swallowed alive by her depression; her father tries to get on with life by being encouraging and chipper toward Sally.  They both disapprove of Billy and her friendship with him, blaming him for Kathy’s death.  Billy’s fine with it, as he blames himself, too.  The numbness, avoidant behavior, anger and tension are all written and well-produced. The narrator voice selected for Sally also works brilliantly.

Notes on your Sudden Disappearance is a story about love, sisterhood and the power of acceptance.  It’s a lovely novel, and if readers can ignore its small flaws, they will be in for a real treat.

Note to readers: the book is written in second-person PoV, which I know some find annoying.  If that’s you, then this book might not suit.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer

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Reviewed by Lisa Fernandes
Grade : A-
Book Type: Fiction

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : May 20, 2022

Publication Date: 05/2022

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Lisa Fernandes

Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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