Title: The Reappearance of Rachel Price
Author: Holly Jackson
Publication: April 2, 2024
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: Teens, YA Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 448
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Lights. Camera. Lies.
Eighteen-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.
But the case is dredged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.
Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And—could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
As a big fan of Holly Jackson’s “A Good Girl’s Guide the Murder” series, I was very excited to read another piece of work from Jackson. I already knew how twisty her books could be, but was curious to see if she could hold that power of suspense on to the next book and she definitely did.
This book follows the reappearance of Rachel Price after going missing years before and her daughter being completely sketchy about said reappearance. Honestly, I related to Bel. Even as a full-fledged adult, I was suspicious from the beginning and if I were in Bel’s shoes, my spidey senses would have been tingling just as fierce. I loved Bel’s personality and her way of trying to keep the peace, but also remaining true to herself and her feelings. There weren’t a ton of side characters, but the camera man was definitely my favorite and I was cheering for that to become something… best friends, lovers, I don’t know. I just loved the dynamic Jackson wrote between the two. Jackson is always really good at building relationships between individuals, platonic and romantic, that dig into your chest and settle.
I think my biggest issue with this book was that it was almost too unbelievable. I felt the police aspect of it was very underdone. I would be shocked if a woman reappeared in her state after all that time and didn’t get questioned more than she did. The cops didn’t even think twice or check out anything about her. It seemed odd that the only person asking questions was the child in the story. I like my suspense novels to be believable and this one just really had me struggling with whether this could really happen this way or not.
With that said, the ending really redeemed some of the points for me because it was so shocking. I did NOT see the twists (Yes, you heard me. Twists. Plural!) coming. I think I audibly gasped a few times. While the relative believability of the story was low, it definitely kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next and needing to know how it was going to wrap up. I will definitely be picking up the next Holly Jackson book to see what twisty tale she comes up with next. The Reappearance of Rachel Price is a page-turner you will reading with your jaw dropped until the very end.
