The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Holly Jackson

Electric Monkey

Review: Lauren O’Connor-May

This book is a mind f*** and I’m concerned that of all the young adult review books that have made their way through our home over the years, my 14-year-old daughter took a distinct liking to this one.

Holly Jackson rose to Tiktok fame with her book A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Since then she has written several more young adult psychological mystery thrillers including Five Survive, which my teens read but were not crazy about, though I enjoyed it.

This one however left me reeling and worrying for my daughter’s sanity.

The story is about 17-year-old Bel, who was two years old when her mother, Rachel Price, mysteriously disappeared.

The details of the disappearance has had people scratching their heads for years and has given Bel an infamy that she resents.

Rachel suddenly reappears, as the title suggests, while the family are filming a documentary about her vanishing. It is not the happy reunion that people have hoped for. If anything, it has deepened the mystery and has caused Bel to re-examine everything that she thought was certain.

The plot of this book is interesting and engaging and takes the reader on a loopy thrill ride. I think I would have enjoyed this more had so many of the characters not been so unlikeable.

I found the calculating coldness with which the heroines executed their cruel and ruthless vengeance very disturbing and wondered what kind of influence this would have on young minds.