The Night I Disappeared [Mass Market Paperback]

Julie Reece Deaver (Author)

Book Description

HELD HOSTAGE BY AN INNER WORLD

Something scary is happening to seventeen-year-old Jamie Tessman. Ever since she and her mother arrived in Chicago, she's been plagued by freaky mind-slips and vivid daydreams about her sort-of boyfriend, Webb. When Jamie's inner world starts taking her hostage and keeping her imprisoned for longer periods of time, she becomes terrified that she is slowly losing her mind.

Jamie's mom doesn't seem to notice anything is wrong. No one does -- until Jamie meets Morgan, a new friend who's had her own "brush with nuttiness." When Jamie disappears into her inner world one night and can't find her way out, Morgan sees to it that Jamie finally gets help. Morgan's aunt, a psychiatrist, breaks through Jamie's paralyzing fear and helps her unravel a tangle of long-forgotten, horrifying secrets in her past....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Admirers of Deaver's Say Goodnight, Gracie may welcome the return of two of that book's protagonists but are likely to end up disappointed: the characterizations here are thin and the plotting will seem obvious to anyone at all familiar with YA problem novels. Jamie Tessman, underachieving daughter of a high-profile attorney mother (Jamie's father died when she was three), has only one friend, Webb, and she has seen him every day since meeting him when she was nine. But this summer they part: Webb backpacks through Europe, and Jamie accompanies her mother to Chicago, where Ms. Tessman is defending a girl in a sensational court case. Her mother works so hard that Jamie is able to conceal the problem that terrifies hershe loses herself in seemingly real fantasies of being with Webb. An accident resulting from one such lapse brings about a trip to the emergency room, where she meets Morgan (fully recovered from the grief and depression that beset her in Gracie) and Morgan's psychiatrist aunt. Deaver plants somewhat clunky clues to Jamie's condition, and not many readers will be surprised when, midway through, Webb turns out to be imaginary, nor when Jamie, in treatment with Morgan's aunt, recovers the memory of the trauma that gave birth to him. The ease of Jamie's recovery equals the superficiality of the setup; this is escapist fare, short on emotional truth. Ages 11-up. (May)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up-Jamie Tessman's widowed mother is a powerful attorney, currently working to defend a young woman accused of killing her stepfather. The Tessmans live in Monterey, CA, but the case and trial are in Chicago, so they move there for the summer. Jamie is distraught at having to say good-bye to her dearest friend, Webb, a young man who seems always to be there for her. In Chicago, Jamie is shocked to find herself in a bike accident that was caused, apparently, by nothing except her own lack of awareness of her surroundings. In the emergency room, where she needs only minor patching, she meets Morgan, a girl a year older than herself, and, in the following days, Jamie develops the first friendship she remembers having with someone other than Webb. However, her states of clouded awareness become supplemented by panic attacks and soon her mother acquires psychiatric intervention for her. The psychiatrist is Morgan's aunt, a warm but efficient clinician who, very quickly, is able to establish the truth about Webb's existence and the terrifying trauma at the root of Jamie's emotional distress. Deaver has plotted this tale tightly and there are details to appeal to many reader interests-some suspense, some female bonding, even gourmet food. The psychiatric treatment is incredibly facile and speedy and Jamie's mother runs hot and cold by turns. However, this story goes beyond simplistic light reading to offer glimpses at such issues as how emotions can protect us and how we grow through different stages of recognizing truths in appearances.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse; Reprint edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743439791
• ISBN-13: 978-0743439794
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,023,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Readers, thanks for stopping by! For information about my books, please visit my website at www.JulieDeaver.com. You can also contact me at [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A suspenseful, realistic, psychological novel., July 7, 2004

By 

A Customer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night I Disappeared (Mass Market Paperback)

Jamie has been friends with Webb for eight years, since she was nine. He understands her better than anybody else does. He even saved her life, which is how they first met.

Now Webb is back-packing through Europe, and Jamie has to spend the summer in Chicago with her mother, who is the defense attorney for a girl accused of killing a child molestor. Jamie misses Webb very much, and the case her mother is working on troubles her in ways she doesn't understand. She starts doing weird things. For example, she daydreams about Webb a lot, losing track of where she is, and runs her bike into a parked car before she comes back to reality. Her mom has to leave the case she's working on to go to the emergency room.

Jamie's mom is worried about her, but Jamie says she's fine. Her mother seems to believe this more than Jamie does and Jamie is getting scared. Sometimes she can't help daydreaming about Webb, as if she gets lost in her own mind. And then she discovers that when she's daydreaming about him, she's talking out loud to him --- pretty humiliating when she's in public!

While she's in the emergency room Jamie meets Morgan, a girl her own age, and for the first time she has another friend besides Webb. Morgan thinks Jamie should talk to her aunt, who is a psychiatrist. Jamie knows she has a little problem, but believes she's handling it and doesn't need a shrink. Then circumstances get beyond her control, and she ends up not only talking to Morgan's aunt, but strapped to a bed in a psychiatric ward.

This book is not spooky science fiction about mind-controlling computers or aliens. It's a suspenseful, realistic, psychological novel with touches of genuine humor about the mind's ability to protect itself from things too terrible to remember. Jamie is a spunky, intelligent, and mature young girl who, on the threshold of the rest of her life, has been rendered incapable of living it until she can deal with her past. Read this book to unravel the mystery of a day that splintered Jamie's world, to learn who Webb is, and to find out how Jamie gets on with her life.

---(...)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I have ever read, April 13, 2004

By 

Kayla (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night I Disappeared (Mass Market Paperback)

The book "The Night I Disappeared" is a great book. When Jamie Tessman moves to Chicago with her mom for the summer she finds herself seeing her friend Web, who lives back in California, everywhere she goes and in everything she does. Pretty soon she finds herself trapped in an inner world that is beginning to take over the other aspects of her life. The book has many unexpected twists and Julie Reece Deaver does a wonderful job of making you feel like you are with Jamie as this is happening. This is definitely one of the best books I have ever read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A spellbinding psychological mystery, June 29, 2011

By 

Aletheia Knights - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night I Disappeared (Mass Market Paperback)

Bestselling thriller author Jeffery Deaver isn't the only writer in the family. His sister Julie is quite talented in her own right, as "The Night I Disappeared" makes abundantly clear.

This is the story of Jamie Tessman, the daughter of a well-known defense attorney. Jamie isn't thrilled at the prospect of spending the summer in Chicago, where her mother is working on a high-profile case. She'd rather stay back in California with her best friend, Webb. Unfortunately, Webb has other plans for the summer as well, and in light of Jamie's recent problems in school, her mother isn't particularly inclined to leave her to her own devices. In Chicago, Jamie finds herself facing a worse problem than a dull, lonely summer: she finds herself swept up in hallucinatory daydreams about Webb. Jamie's new friend Morgan sees how Jamie is getting more and more lost in her own inner world, and it is Morgan who calls the hospital one night when Jamie lapses into an extended trance. After that, Jamie begins therapy with Morgan's aunt, a psychiatrist, and soon finds herself coming face-to-face with the secret she has kept buried deep within herself for eight years. . . .

Jamie is a delightful and sympathetic character who will have readers rooting for her every step of the way. The suspense is unrelenting, and the story is peppered with tantalizing clues that will keep readers guessing - and turning the pages. The conclusion is thoroughly satisfying, promising hope and happiness without trying to have us believe that everything's going to get better overnight. Thoughtful young readers who enjoy a good mystery should devour this one.