The vanishing place by Zoe Rankin

Effie lives and works in Scotland. She has tried to leave her traumatic childhood behind, but one phone call from her old friend Lewis has her uprooting her life to return to a community near the isolated place in New Zealand where she grew up. A small scruffy child has turned up in the town who reminds everyone of Effie, and Effie fears for her family members who she left behind in isolated wilderness in New Zealand. Lewis was Effie’s trusted friend and is now a police officer, but she left him and her past life behind. But now they both are afraid of what they might find back in the place that Effie had to leave. Effie is not willing to leave the young child without security and must face the past. Trauma is dripping from the child’s silence, something Effie remembers too well, but there are others to be considered. Can she face the darkness again and uncover painful secrets? 

This is a multi-generational tale of abuse, distressing beyond measure, and it is heart-breaking. The complication of a warped religious sect and a twisted family structure have wreaked havoc on the lives of the young children living in desperate circumstances in the dense wilderness in New Zealand. Effie’s current situation, as a carer for her niece, is woven with her own childhood history and occasionally with her father’s story. In all the generations there is a discomfiting heaviness, so this book is not for the faint-hearted and perhaps is not for anyone who has lived through abuse. Despite that, there is a rediscovery of love, some wonderful friends, and a possible restoration for Effie and Lewis that lifts the book from its tension and the pall of fear that readers will encounter on almost every page. I loved the atmospheric grip of this story; at every turn of the page I hoped for a better outcome for the characters, but first there was the agonising tension and hopelessness and neglect to endure. This is definitely a book for mature readers as the violence, abuse and psychological trauma do not sit comfortably, but the book will trap you and make you want to read more.

Themes: Isolation, abuse, sects, deprivation of liberty, family, romance, trust.

Carolyn Hull