The Year of Disappearances by Susan Hubbard

Life seems to be getting back to normal for Ariella Montero—or at least as normal as it can be for a fourteen-year-old half human, half vampire. But trouble has a way of following Ari wherever she goes. Living at home with her mother Mãe, Ari relaxes into a routine of helping rebuild their home, going into town, and occasionally hanging out with her new friends. Everything is fine until one of her friends disappears. Suspicion points at Ari, whose friend Kathleen had been murdered. To escape this unwanted attention, precocious Ari enrolls in college, but trouble stirs up again with another of Ari’s friend is found dead. Ari has been trying to protect herself, but it isn’t enough. One by one, the people around Ari that she cares about are disappearing. Will she be next?

This second installment in the Ethical Vampire series shows all the intellect, adventure, and skilled writing that was introduced in The Society of S. It continues Ari’s story where it left off and takes the reader away on a winding, complicated, but addicting tale of everything from growing pains to vampire politics. And it works marvelously well. Hubbard really is a fantastic writer for being able to combine all these elements with her thoughtful style and still make the story interesting. I continue to love Hubbard’s superb characterization, particularly with protagonist Ari. Unfortunately, though, I was slightly irritated with the plot itself. Ari does experience a series of dangerous and intriguing ordeals, but for some reason, I was always waiting for something even bigger and more terrible to happen, which never did. This may be attributed to Hubbard’s style of writing, which is more sensible than emotional. Nonetheless, I enjoyed The Year of Disappearances very much and look forward to more of Ari’s story.

Readers who enjoyed The Society of S will want to pick this book up, as will fans of Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer.

Rating: 3.75

Review copy from publisher Simon & Schuster