Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

A Novel

De: Alison Espach

Narrado por: Jesse Vilinsky

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

I Can’t Believe I Made It To The End…ughhhh

This story lacks a lot… but has such potential which is why I stuck it out with hopes of a payoff. Spoiler, it never comes.
My advice is if you decide to listen to this, make it a drinking game every time the word “said” is used, you’ll be trashed in no time for a week straight!
The word “said” was obviously a conscious stylistic decision on the author’s part, it didn’t work.

Mom said, dad said, Billy said

The way the narrator reads the “…said” ruins the entire book. I couldn’t finish it

Too dark for me

Beautifully written but so enduringly sad. It was uncomfortable being in the depression and hurt for so much of the novel.

Good read

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

Muy buena novela!

La segunda novela de esta autora que leo y me sigue encantando. Historias profundas dentro de la cotidianidad. No se pueden parar de leer/oir.

kind of a weird turn

It was so good for a while, but once you get closer to the end the story takes a weird turn, that I was hoping it wouldn't. the prlerformance was good, but there were times that I think the inflection was misleading. Overall it was a alright book, but man that last minute turn really ruined it for me.

Excellent !!

The narrator was great. I didn’t want the story to end. The characters were so relatable.

Looooong

NOTES ON YOUR SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE, told from Sally’s second person point of view to her dead older sister (the you) grabbed me in the beginning, when the child Sally was trying to make sense of her family and the world while idolizing her sister Kathy. Enter Billy, the object of the sisters’ imagination and crushes. Kathy later became his girlfriend, though he always seemed more interested in Sally to me. As Sally ages, her immaturity, unkindness and selfishness turned me off.

Alison Espach’s writing is strongest in her creation of complex, layered characters, particularly the mother. I knew a lot of mothers just like her.

I listened to the audiobook of NOTES ON YOUR SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE, which was fairly depressing, with some comical coming-of-age moments. A lukewarm recommendation.

Excellent book, if you know what to expect

The vast number of reviews for this book on Audible are 1, 3, or 5 star ratings. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m glad I took a chance on this one.

Here’s the thing - this book’s blurb on Audible doesn’t adequately prepare the reader for the fact that it’s all a letter/journal/diary written to the narrator’s dead sister. (The fact of her death is revealed fairly early in the book, so why hide it in the book description??) Goodreads did a much better job setting expectations.

This “Dear Sister” story delivery is not a traditional style, so maybe it isn’t everyone. I didn’t see the narration as monotone. It flowed with the emotions Sally was experiencing (or masking) over the years. For people who complain about how often the word “said” appears… do you realize most audiobooks are read EXACTLY from the text as it was written?? The printed word doesn’t have different voices. The book has to TELL US who is talking. Get over it.

I appreciated the character complexity. I think the 4 main players exhibit interesting development as the book progresses (Sally, Billy, Mom, & Dad)

********* SPOILERS ***********

I feel the book accurately portrayed the way profound grief affects a person AND everyone around them (Mom). It showcased the way such a significant loss at the height of adolescence, combined with parents who were emotionally MIA, can stunt a person’s own emotional maturity (Sally). It shone a bright light on the two people who actually WITNESSED the tragic death, and who also shoulder an incredible amount of guilt for its occurrence (Sally & Billy). They were permanently bonded by that shared tragedy, which is a totally different layer of complex grief. The characters tried hiding their emotions, participating in harmful behaviors, inflicting physical pain on themselves, and even counting on outsiders to heal their grief.

While there were some fun nostalgic moments from the 90s and early 2000s, this wasn’t a fun or light-hearted read. It wasn’t a bubblegum story where everything works out in the end. But man, it sure does feel real. Sometimes that’s what we need a story to be.

The description on audible…

I liked the story, truly it was captivating for the most part. Sally’s character development was expertly executed and done so with a trauma and resilience based lens. I really liked this read but goodness. Goodness. The audible description does not even come close to giving the reader a fair and proper self care check in. Note to readers: this book may trigger you, especially if you are someone who has survived great loss.