When A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson was released, I jumped on the bandwagon and read it. However, I found myself not really enjoying said book because it’s highly inaccessible for me due to its format. I could read the prose, but I was not able to make out the other stuff that was inmportant for this book. I think other visually impaired readers struggled with this all the same. I didn’t listen to the audiobook because I had no access to it. After this reading experience, I only read the sequel and no other book by this author. Until now, when I found The Reappearance of Rachel Price on Storytel. Did I enjoy this mystery or was it to easy for me?

About the book

The Reapppearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Published by Delacorte Press on April 2, 2024
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9780593374207
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller, Young adult

A new true-crime fueled mystery thriller about a girl determined to uncover the shocking truth about her missing mother while filming a documentary on the unsolved case.

Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-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 dragged up from the past when the Price family agree 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 . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.

My review

My reading experiences were non-existent before diving into this book. I know this author is really popular, but I haven’t read a mystery in ages, let alone a young adult mystery. However, I was wondering whether Jackson stuck with the same format as with her debut series. I therefore was glad to have found the audiobook, so I could safely enjoy it without worrying about its accessibility. Well, this book is very different from AGGGTM since this is all written in prose.

Bel is our main character. She lost her mom when she was just a toddler, she just… disappeared. The case remains a mystery sixteen years later, which is all the reason for a group of British film makers to create a documentary on it. And then, Rachel mysteriously reappeared. What happened? Bel both does and doesn’t want to know. I had a hard time liking her, she is really rude. She pushes people away and kept her guard up. Her moms disappearance did much more with her than she’s probably willing to accept, but definitely willing to admit. She finally grew into some normality, ut then Rachel’s reappearance tunrs her world upside down once again. She becomes quite obsessed with finding answers, what I totally understand. However, you barely get to know Bel. There is a hint of romance involved, but I didn’t feel it at all. Like, it wasn’t even neede.

The book is written well. I’m not that familiar with Jacksons writing style, so I can’t really judge whether its better than the other books or not. That doesn’t take away the fact that, after kind of a rough start, I was invested in this story. The writing drew me in, so did the length of the chapters. They aren’t too short or too long. I had to get used to the single POV narration since I have read so many books with multiple POVs lately. It does fit the story though.

Something else I had to get used to again is the book being plot driven. Lately, I pick up many character driven books, because I tend to enjoy these more. However, this novel wouldn’t have worked the way it did if it wasn’t plot driven. There is a lot of mystery to Bel and her family. Why did Rachel disappear and reappear sixteen years later? We unravel this bit by bit, but come across more twists and revlations along the way. This kept me intrigued the entire time. This book isn’t that tense regarding action for me, but Bel uncovering all the secrets is something I just wanted to keep following. If you are someone who loves quite slow mysteries with a lot of twists and are okay with very little action, this book is for you.

Overall, I was positively surprised by The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson. I barely read YA these days and definitely no YA mysteries. For me this worked well as audiobook. I had a rough start with it because I was doubting whether I would be in the mood for it, but once the book progressed, I was enjoying it a lot. I wanted to find out all the secrets! However, this book is not action-packed and therfore not so tense for me. If you are willing to unravel lots of secrets and don’t mind little to no action, then this book is very suitable for you.