When We Vanished

At first he was in frequent contact, but as time goes on he stops responding, and Andi overhears details about harmful research her dad is involved in. She begins to worry. With unlikely new friends, Andi sets out to uncover the truth. But everything goes wrong when they’re caught. Their search takes them to a confidential research facility where they learn that there’s more to the truth then they could have imagined.

When We Vanished is a search for the truth, not just in a fictional world, but ours as well. The characters are each unique with their own voices. Eight-year-old Roya gets her own time to tell the story in a way that’s believable because she’s telling it from the point-of-view of a child. The three siblings are Middle Eastern, and Andi is part Taiwanese; we’re given little glances into their cultures and how other people treat them. I love the crows, except it felt like they were a lazy way out of some things, but because of the way it’s written, it’s hard to imagine it differently. There is heavy cussing throughout.