How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

Four stars - for a YA book. Or: this is what I would have thought. Because I like books about conspiracies, and hidden truths, and Fate (capital F), and water-water-cold-and-deep. Oh, the so many layers and the tricks of memory and mind. But it gives the sense of trusting, finding family, fighting towards truth, & what you're going to sacrifice, what you won't ...
This is written and illustrated (in a comic-style) by women - hurray! - and all the elements combine. It works. It opens up possibilities and worlds-among-worlds, as books ought to do, as so few do outside the YA realm (goddamn it all).
-- Bought, on a whim, from Goodwill. Fate?

Twelve year-old Margaret and her seven year-old sister live on the Washington coast with their indifferent mother, their father having drown several years before. Life is dull as Mom wakes up from her naps only to go to work and do laundry. So a sudden trip to a nearby island to see a broken down house makes Margaret suspicious and sets her, along with new friend, Tina Louise, to solving the mystery of why the family owns a house she never knew about, why is it filled with so much junk, and how a reclusive comic book author knows so much about her dad.

This story is sad at first, with the mother's parenting being affected by depression, and Margaret filling in much of the mothering for her little sister, but the story becomes about show more Margaret's determination and courage. She meets Tina Louise, a girl whose mother is a therapist and who gives Margaret such encouragement to start her adventure that Margaret hears the other girl's voice offering advice throughout, like the Cheshire Cat. Included in the story are pages of of the comic book that a local boy, Boyd, collects about his hero, Ratt, which tend to predict the future and relay the past and an editor who occasionally butts in to clarify a few points. show less

I'm not at all sure how kids' books are classified these days, but I think you'd probably call this one a middle grade novel. The dust jacket seems to indicate it's recommended for fifth graders and up, and that seems about right to me.

The story features two girls whose father drowned four years ago under circumstance their depressed mother never talks about; a crumbling, spooky mansion their mom has apparently just inherited; and a mysterious hand-drawn comic book about a half-man/half-rat creature and a drowned ghost.

It's well-written, in a way that doesn't talk down to its young audience, the story's interesting and odd, and the snippets of the comic that are integrated into the story are very well-drawn. I kept going back and forth show more a bit on whether it was entirely working for me or not, though, I think mainly because I wasn't quite expecting some of the slightly surreal aspects of it. Well, that, and I'm not really in the book's target demographic these days. I suspect I would have really liked it when I was 12.

Rating: 3.5/5, but that's from jaded adult me. I would, in fact, recommend it to kids of the appropriate age, if they like slightly weird and off-kilter stories (and aren't too afraid of rats). show less

I may need to reread this book but from what I remember it really stood out to me and I liked it a lot. It has some horror undertones to it but isn't exactly a horror book. It has gothic fantasy elements to it given the dark nature and weird elements of the book. I'm happy to see that almost 700 people have this in their library too- I feel like it is an underappreciated book and not many people know about it. For me, Mystery genre is one of those that are either outstandingly good or mediocre at best- there is no in between.This one is on the 'outstanding' side. I'd recommend it to your kids if they like mystery or need a mild introduction into the horror genre outside of Goosebumps.

Found this young reader book at a thrift store. Have never seen it before so I was intrigued. A good mystery with some scary parts for kids who like that scared feeling. The use of comic books as clues was a neat idea. I loved the library that only housed books that were never published. Such a cool idea. This would be a good adventure story for boys or girls.

This is one of my favorite books ever! I've read it four times so far and will definitely read it again. It offers a very unique plot like nothing else I've read before and it didn't remind me of any other story. This story is told in a variety of narratives, including first person, third person, and comic strip, but flows nicely. It's a great mystery filled with twists and turns along the way. I think readers of any age will enjoy this book.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-10-Margaret Clairmont, 12, can barely remember her father or the last time her mother woke up long enough to take them somewhere beyond the grocery store and Laundromat. Their sudden unexpected visit to place a "For Sale by Owner" sign on a dilapidated mansion on an island in the Pacific Northwest is the basis of this interesting mystery. The resolution of a long-standing family tragedy is slowly pieced together in this novel that bears a strong resemblance to Margaret's little sister Sophie's favorite distraction, "THE HARDEST JIGSAW EVER MADE." Parts of the story are Margaret's, describing in a relatively straightforward fashion her secret return to the island to find an explanation for the comic she show more found in an unopened package addressed to her mother. Parts belong to Boyd, the boy who lives next door to the mansion physically but dwells emotionally within the comics that appear in the island's odd library. Underneath their story is that of an earlier unhappy teenager, who found himself growing physically repulsive as he matured. He became more and more reclusive, even ratlike, and grew to be a man who could never rid himself of his guilt over the death of his idolized older brother. Most of the story is told in prose, in first or third person, but some parts are revealed in the graphic form of the comic books. Even the narrator twists and turns, as the first-person storyteller's identity changes. The satisfying ending will reward readers who have made their way through this tangled tale, but all but the best will probably find themselves considerably confused along the way. show less