Rules for Vanishing

Written by Kate Alice Marshall

Narrated by Jesse Vilinsky, Robbie Daymond and Rob Shapiro

In the faux-documentary style of The Blair Witch Project comes the campfire story of a missing girl, a vengeful ghost, and the girl who is determined to find her sister--at all costs.

Once a year, a road appears in the forest. And at the end of it, the ghost of Lucy Gallows beckons. Lucy's game isn't for the faint of heart. If you win, you escape with your life. But if you lose....

Sara's sister disappeared one year ago--and only Sara knows where she is. Becca went to find the ghost of Lucy Gallows and is trapped on the road that leads to her. In the sleepy town of Briar Glen, Lucy's road is nothing more than local lore. But Sara knows it's real, and she's going to find it.

When Sara and her skeptical friends meet in the forest to search for Becca, the mysterious road unfurls before them. All they have to do is walk down it. But the path to Lucy is not of this world, and it has its own rules. Every mistake summons new horrors. Vengeful spirits and broken, angry creatures are waiting for them to slip, and no one is guaranteed safe passage. The only certainty is this: the road has a toll and it will be paid.

Sara knows that if she steps onto the road, she might not come back. But Becca needs her.

And Lucy is waiting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780593106075

Kate Alice Marshall

Kate Alice Marshall is the USA Today bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, A Killing Cold, and multiple novels for younger readers. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

Reviews for Rules for Vanishing

[danielle.desrochers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loooooooved this!
Super spooky, high stakes and has you continuously guessing!!!
My advice to anyone who wants to read this: pair the audiobook with the physical book. Great experience!

[lynnmpk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If I had to describe this book in one sentence it would be - A Demented Wizard of Oz -

The characters were a little underdeveloped but I didn't mind because this book is more plot driven than character driven. I loved the mystery and lore of the Road, along with the local legend of the missing girl, Lucy. It is creepy and gory in a way that books labeled 'YA' usually aren't. It was refreshing actually.
This could have been an adult novel if the main characters ages were changed, but I don't think it would have worked as well. Being teenagers, I felt that the characters had a better ability to just kinda roll with the fantastical things that were happening to them. If they were adults there would have been a whole lotta "This can't be happening!!1!" and the book is already long enough without all that extra stuff, although the format is probably the cause for the length. There are text conversations and interview transcripts interspersed with regular narration.
Initially, after finishing, I thought that I would have liked a little more clarity from the ending, but now I think the ending is a perfect mix of "Where are they now?" and mystery.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've got fairly mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it was a fun, fast read, and the plot pulled me along throughout. The middle of the book was fantastically creepy, and I loved every page. On the other hand...I wish there'd been more character development and that the voices of the different characters hadn't felt so interchangeable. This partly because there were so many (maybe more than the book needed), and partly because the plot moved so fast and they were so indistinct from each other in many ways. I also didn't particularly care about them as a result of the lack of character development, and normally that's the sort of thing that will make me lose interest in a book completely. Here, though, that didn't happen because the plot was so compelling.

The end did lessen the experience of the book for me, though. It's tough to talk about without giving it away, but I saw (one of) the major twist(s) coming, and the end in general was incredibly rushed. I also didn't like the way the author extended it in a way that made it feel like she was just aiming to drag new readers into her next book instead of just focusing on this one, which was essentially a stand-alone. So...I don't know. Mixed feelings, as I said.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Was complex and got a little confusing at times (lots of different people to remember) but I really liked it. Genuinely unsettling at times and I liked the little references to other horror stories and tropes as well as mythology and folklore. Very atmospheric.

Cw for mention of a suicide attempt and domestic abuse, which feels odd to warn for with a book that has several people violently sliced and diced but im guessing the average person is less likely to have encountered that irl so.

[oldandnewbooksmell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sara’s sister Becca disappeared a year ago. Everyone in town thought she just ran away with a boy, but Sara knows better. There’s a local ghost story of a girl named Lucy Gallows, who disappeared down the road in the wood decades ago. That’s where Becca went. The road only appears once a year and Sara knows if she follows it to find her sister, she might not come back. But she must try.
The story is told with a collection of interviews and cell phone video transcripts, text messages, and first-hand testimony from Sara. I loved the variety of storytelling this book had. It gave me pieces of information at a time, yet never really the full puzzle.
The book was spooky, but never horror. I did get confused in some parts and had to flip back a few pages to confirm what I thought happened, did happen, but most was intentional (that you later find out). I wouldn’t recommend walking away from it for a bit and then coming back. There were too many things and characters and jumps that you could easily get lost when you picked the book back up again.
The ending left me slightly unsatisfied. I get why the ending of the telling of the events on the road finished the way that they did, but the character wrap up just left me with questions that weren’t answered.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There is a legend in Briar Glen, MA that one day in 1953 Lucy Callows, age 12, ran away into the woods near her house, discovered a disappearing road and was seen walking down that road holding hands with an unidentified man. She was never seen again. It is now 2017 and Sara’s older sister, Becca, has been missing for a year. Becca had an overriding interest in Lucy and Sara thinks she attempted to find Lucy. When an email saying “Do you want to know where Lucy went? She went to play the game. You can play, too. Find a partner. Find a key. Find the road. You have two days.” is sent to the student population, Sara decides now is the time to find her sister, hoping their circle of friends will join her. All she surmises is that evil lurks down that road and the chances of coming back are slim.

Rules for Vanishing is mystery and supernatural combined. The story takes various forms: a narrative written by Sara, interviews with Sara conducted by an unknown Dr. Ashford, text messages among the group and phone videos taken along the journey. There are danger and surprises at virtually every step, challenging the lives of the group. The pace is fast, and although, it is hard sometimes to picture the locale and its inhabitants, it does not detract from the reader’s involvement in the story. Rules for Vanishing is a page turner for anyone who loves a mystery tinged with the occult.

[tbones-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was really lucky to win this super creepy book through the Goodreads Giveaway! Parts of this book made me think of Clive Barker and his twisted, spooky worlds, and then there were moments that made me think of Silent Hill. I really had no idea where this story was going and was really surprised by the ending. I enjoyed the set up of the story through different interviews, video footage, and emails between the characters. I really hope, at some point, this gets adapted for film.