Review: The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is a series I would recommend to literally every single person I've ever met, and after her standalone thriller Five Survive proved that she was more than a one-hit-wonder, I was super excited when I heard she was coming out with yet another YA thriller book. The Reappearance of Rachel Price was released on April 2nd, and you can bet I was ready to dive into the book right away.

The book follows eighteen-year-old Annabel 'Bel' Price, whose mother, Rachel, disappeared without a trace sixteen years earlier. The public consensus is that she was murdered, but no body has ever been found. The prime suspect in her murder? Bel's loving father, Charlie. Bel knows her father is innocent - after all, he has a rock solid alibi - and so years after he was aquitted for his wife's murder, the family has mostly returned to normal. But the Rachel Price case is still a hot topic among crime junkies, and the Price family has agreed to take part in a documentary about the mystery surrounding her disappearance.

Then - out of the blue - Rachel suddenly reappears. Thin, dirty and full of scrapes and scabs she tells an unbelieveable story about where she has been for the past sixteen years. The media is in a frenzy over her miraculous return, and Bel's quiet life is irrevocably turned upside down. Bel is in shock, as is the rest of her family. And then Rachel slips up. It's nothing big - just a few small inconsistencies - but it immediately makes Bel suspect that Rachel is not being completely honest. The more time Bel spends around her mother, the more she starts to doubt her story. But if Rachel is lying, where has she really been all this time? With the help of a ridiculously dressed British camera assistant (who she does not find cute whatsoever), Bel sets out to find out the truth about why Rachel Price really has come back from the dead.e

Holly Jackson has done it again! This YA mystery thriller is full of exciting twists and turns that keep you on your edge of your seat. I was so intrigued by where the story was going that I actually struggled to fall asleep when I put the book down for the night. My mind was running at a million miles a minute, going over every little hint and trying to work the mystery out for myself. If that is not a sign of a well-crafted mystery, I don't know what is! Luckily for me (and my sleep schedule), it only took me two days to finish the book.

The main protagonist, Bel, is an interesting choice for a protagonist, largely in due to the fact that she's not very likeable. She has grown up being known simply as Rachel Price's daughter - the toddler who was left behind alone in the car when Rachel vanished without a trace - and her not knowing if her mother left her voluntarily or not has obviously given her some major trust issues. Over the years she has pushed everyone away, and now she's left with only a single remaining friend: her fifteen-year-old cousin Carter. When Rachel reappears and obviously wants to bond with her daughter, Bel is extremely quick to distrust her. She's not even willing to give her mother the benefit of the doubt: Bel is so determined that Rachel is a liar that she actively sets out to prove it almost immediately following her return. She basically just wants her mother to go away again so that things can return to normal, which seems at bit harsh considering her mother claims to have been kidnapped and held captive for the past sixteen years.

Not that Rachel isn't suspicious. Not only does she conveniently reappear just when a documentary about her disappearance is being filmed, but there are also plenty of inconsistencies surrounding her story. She slips up on the details about her escape from captivity, she seems to know details of Bel's life that should be impossible for her to know and she snoops around not only the family home, but also the house of Bel's grandfather. There is clearly a lot more to the story of Rachel Price than we have initially been led to believe. Unraveling her story and her lies thread by thread is what makes this book such a compelling mystery thriller.

The reason this book is not getting a top score from me, is because of what happens in those last few chapters. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely satisfied with the conclusion of the main mystery (it's sooo good), but not how the events following the big reveal played out. I do think some characters were a bit quick in changing their loyalties, and the whole scenario reminded me a bit too much of the parts of As Good as Dead (the final book in the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy) that just didn't work for me. Holly Jackson has to learn that you don't necessarily have to use a crime to cover up another crime, especially not when just telling the truth would have worked just as well in this scenario. Sometimes it is more satisfying to see the bad guys having to actually face charges and jail time for their wrongdoings. Maybe it's just me, but I would prefer to leave innocent characters without the potential of suffering major emotional trauma and PTSD for the rest of their lives.

But all in all this is another solid mystery thriller from Holly Jackson! If this is a genre you're interested in, I highly recommend checking it out for yourself!