Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

A Novel

By: Alison Espach

Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

2022 NPR Best Book of the Year, Long-listed

“Once I began listening to Jesse Vilinksy's excellent narration I was immediately swept up in the story.” – Anne Bogel, Modern Ms. Darcy

From Alison Espach, author of the New York Times Editor’s Choice novel The Adults, comes a dazzlingly unconventional love story for listeners of Ask Again, Yes and Tell the Wolves I’m Home.

For much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally’s questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy—until a tragedy leaves Sally’s life forever intertwined with his.

Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

©2022 Alison Espach (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Grief Changes Everything

The writer understands greif and how it changes who you are, changes the family dynamic and writes about the feelings in a visceral way. I loved this probably because of personal experience.

Good read

Good story line making listening enjoyable. Would have been nice to have different voices rather than just one.

Awful Narration

Narrator consistently refers to who she’s reading as; dad said, Billy said, Sally said. SO incredibly annoying! When you change your voice inflection we know who you’re talking as. Story fine but had to keep pausing because narration was so annoying

Never Judge a Book By Its Narrator

I both read and listen to the books I’m reading, depending on what I’m doing at the moment. I know most people don’t or can’t do that, but the one thing I’ve discovered from doing this is how much a narrator can make or break the experience of the story. I personally didn’t have an issue with this narrator as others have, but I’ve loathed others. It’s unfortunate because it can negatively impact the impression a story leaves on you. This story was heartfelt, sad, and fairly accurate depicting the way a family comes undone after the loss of a child, and how it effects family members on a spectrum of behavior and emotions.

I didn’t enjoy it

I didn’t like the narration and the story was slow. I do not recommend listening to this book.

Very sad, but very well written

Alison Espach knows how to write about death. This I know from her Audible series, In Depth Market Research with Dead People (which is an absolute gem that I would recommend to anyone). Notes on your sudden disappearance was never fast paced or exciting. It isn’t, as the title would have you believe, a thriller or mystery. It is a book about a girl trying to find her way after losing her sister. It’s about a family torn apart by tragedy. It’s kind of a love story. It is beautiful. It is also very very depressing and probably wouldn’t be a good read for parents who have lost a child, and certainly not for anyone looking for a light read. Still, I recommend it for most others. It was very very very well done.

8/10

Voices are distracting

This meandering story was tough to stick with. I made it through the whole book despite the many distracting voices the narrator used for all the characters. Painful. overall I found the story to be self-important and slow. the main characters growth from spectrum kid to actualities adult felt unbelievable.

Didn’t Care for this Book

I wanted to like this book but struggled to finish it. The narration was terrible, so slow and the ‘he said, dad said, I said, you said’ drove me crazy. I only finished it because we are discussing it in my book club, had it not been for that I probably would have returned it 30 min into it.

Don’t bother

I don’t know if it was just how it was read on audible, but I truly feel this book was a waste of my time to have listened to, I don’t get how it got good reviews!!!

Tedious

Unless you are 14 and want to learn about teenage sex, this is not your book. The format has a beginning, followed by a tedious and uninteresting monolog by a cynical teenager devoid of empathy.