[Review] The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston

Ashley Elston: The Rules for Disappearing
[YA mystery/thriller]
Disney Hyperion
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6897-3
312 pages

You can buy it here:
The Rules for Disappearing

Summary: (from Goodreads.com)
She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.

Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself.

But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

My thoughts:
My thoughts about this book may be quite choppy, but I will try my best.

I have seen various shows and movies and read books about the witness protection system. Usually it is either portrayed as a flawed system that has problems keeping the people brought in safe and you can see the problems the witnesses have with their life, but hardly ever do we get to see a book from the point of view of a minor in the system (off the top of my head, I vaguely remember one other book from long, long ago, but there the premise was entirely different). Ashley Elston instead concentrates on Meg, the minor who is in the witness protection program, and through her eyes shows the trials and tribulations Meg's entire family goes through. It is not easy for either of her family members, and we see it all. Elston does not sugarcoat anything. The many changes of lives in the family due to possibly being found out, the small mistakes that can cause a change of address (and name) for Meg's family - through flashbacks and Meg's memories, we find out what happened in her previous locations.

The one thing we are kept in the dark about is the why. Why is Meg's family in the program? What happened that made them have to disappear, to fear for their lives? Slowly, almost at the same time as Meg do we uncover bits and pieces of what happened, what got them in the situation.

The suspense and tension kept me aboard throughout the book and the more light-hearted moments kept a nice balance. I enjoyed that many of the fun moments included Ethan and that he was a loyal friend to Meg no matter what. In fact, the loyalty the teenagers in this book showed was impressive and I believe it is a step into the right direction, even though they sometimes went a bit overboard.

Nonetheless, I think the suspense could have been kept up a bit longer. My main issue was the quick resolve of the family's place in the witness protection program.

If you are looking for a good young adult novel where the parents are finally not only not absent, but also try to do the best for their children, this book should please you. They have problems of their own and try to deal with them as best as they can, but they are also there for the children in their own way. Not everyone may agree with their ideas of how to deal with certain situations, but the situation is an extreme one and with the issues that are later revealed, I can in part understand and sympathize with the parents' actions.

Rating:
4/5

FTC: I received an e-galley from the publisher through Netgalley and I bought a hardcover copy with my own money.