The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson (review)

After Maggie’s mother loses her job, the family is forced to move from Chicago to a decrepit house they’ve inherited in Wisconsin. The day they move in, though, they hear about the first of several mysterious deaths of teen girls soon attributed to a serial killer. Maggie is less concerned about the killer, however, than with getting to know her neighbors Pauline and Liam. Rich and beautiful Pauline lost her faith in the future when her father died, but her manic pixie dream girl qualities render her irresistible to the far sturdier Liam and Maggie. When Pauline’s mother sends her away because of the serial killer, Maggie and Liam are drawn to each other with heartbreaking results. The narrative is punctuated throughout with the wonderings of a spirit who doesn’t know quite who or what she is or why she is connected to Maggie’s house, but her suggestions point to the certain knowledge that not everyone will survive the year. This is a book to be read twice through, once for the sweetly tragic love story and mystery, and a second time for the subtle imagery and metaphorical connections that counterpoise the fragility of first love and life itself with their paradoxical solidity and permanence. The three protagonists are all achingly lovable as they seek to act nobly and preserve kindness in an impossible situation; readers who saw the ineffable poignancy in Nova Ren Suma’s 17 & Gone (BCCB 3/13) will find similar satisfaction here.