Customer Reviews

The Year of Disappearances A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In The Society of S we met a young girl, Ariella Montero, being raised by her brilliant, but most eccentric father. She discovers she is half human, half vampire. What part of her will be the dominant? Time will tell.
These are vampires who get their sustenance from tonics, and blood like flakes they put over their food.
There are also factions of Vampires that differ on this practice.
Ari is now with her mother and she sees a 'harbinger' - a a foreteller of what is to come - one of her father's talents - right after that, a new friend Ari met disappears. Ari is somehow suspected.
And begins Ari's 'coming of age' stage as she starts to experience what it is like to be a vampire in a human world, with feelings and reflects of both species.
Darker and more complex actions are at work in this book, but I will not spoil this - I found it most innovative and a touch of brilliance by Hubbard.
If you enjoyed S you will continue to be fascinated by Disappearances.
What comes for Ari and her family next, I hope Ms. Hubbard is hard at work figuring out.

We first met Ariella in Saratoga Springs NY with her vampire father. In this fast-moving sequel Ariella travels down the east coast and gets to know her mother while living with her in Homosassa Springs FL. Always mature and precocious, Ariella gets out of town and heads off to college when she is linked to a serious crime, but trouble follows her. This is a book of disappearances and reapparances--her missing father and new friends, among others.

I especially enjoyed the outdoor scenes--the sights, sounds, smells and tactile experiences of the southern swamps and rivers. This is a beautifully written and evocative book about place, adolescent friendship, and the relationships between parents and growing-up children. Highly recommended for both adults and high school readers.

"Love a saga all about vampires? The Year of Disappearances is the sequel to Hubbard's successful The Society of S which features Ariella Montero and the sexy vampire Raphael. This time Montero is home schooled in Florida where nothing is simple when mixing teenagers with vampires."

There is a secret society. They live in plain view. They seem very much like you and me. But, if you look very closely, you may notice that the person you're speaking to doesn't have a shadow.

There are vampires living amongst us. They are highly evolved; not at all like the vampires you've grown up with. They work and play in the daylight, they are friendly and educated, and a growing number of them have never tasted human blood and have no need for it.

Ariella Montero lives in the chasm between our two worlds. She is half-human, half-vampire and is struggling to find her place in both societies. She can read minds, hypnotize people, and make herself invisible. But can she establish real relationships in the human world and escape the dangers that threaten her in the vampire world?

Years ago Ari's best friend was murdered. Ari remembers the night. Her father was engaged in a battle with another man. And there was a fire.

Now, Ari is living a new life with her mother in Florida. But strange things are beginning to happen. It started when the honeybees began to die. Then Ari noticed a man in a van following her. A new friend was murdered and another friend disappeared. It is all too coincidental to ignore. Is Ari to blame or is she being preyed upon?

THE YEAR OF DISAPPEARANCES offers a unique concept of what it is like to be a vampire in modern society. It is a cleverly written story line that easily leaves the possibility for future books. Although this title follows THE SOCIETY OF S, it can easily stand alone. And, I can only hope that author Susan Hubbard decides to develop the story of Ari and her "kind" into a long-running series!

Reviewed by: JodiG.

The Year of Disappearances takes off where The Society of S left us. Ariella Montero faces many trials and mysteries in her quest to find out more about her family and where she belongs in this world.

Susan Hubbard has outdone herself in this latest book. Her characters are believable and have depth. The story is riveting, and in parts, quite chilling. She masters the technique of just telling enough and leaving the rest to the imagination so that the book stays with you.

I can't wait for the next book in this series! Pass the raw oysters, please.

I initially had mixed feelings about The Year of Disappearances after finishing the story until I discovered that this is a sequel novel to The Society of S. Having never read the original, I was still able to follow the "meandering" plot through to its conclusion without an understanding of preexisting events, but my curiosity about Ari's unusual family dynamics was never fully satisfied. The ending was somewhat of a disappointment with key issues resolved in an Epilogue rather than by narrative, which made for a slapdash conclusion to what was otherwise a uniquely engaging story.

Ari's perspective is that of a highly intelligent teenager whose primary education was taught by her father Raphael, presumably a brilliant scientist. Often, her voice sounds more like an adult than a young teen, and her viewpoints are much more mature, if a bit naïve due to a lack of socialization with popular culture.

The troublesome logic of the premise that a secret society of vampires lives in plain sight and interacts with humans breaks down upon closer examination: vampires cast no shadow and don't sweat; they are highly evolved beings who can read minds, hypnotize people, possess accelerated healing capabilities, and the ability to make themselves invisible. However, within the context of the Young Adult novel, the unlikely existence of the vampire society is a credible suspension of disbelief and well-written with likeable characters that draw the reader into Ari's mysterious world.

The novel begins with a Prologue detailing a dream sequence about a fire that nearly killed Ari and her father that I later realized was a memory from an event that occurred in the first novel. Having no experience with the first story, I assumed the dream had some significance to the plot, but read as a whole, the Prologue serves no purpose other than to reacquaint readers with the original story.

Arianna Montero is a 14-year-old vampire living in Homosassa Springs, Florida, with her mother (aka Mãe, the Jamaican word for "mother" which Ari calls her) and her mother's friend Dashay, a lively Jamaican woman with a talent for removing "sasas" or demons from people's souls. Her father Raphael is absent for most of the story, apparently on a research trip in Ireland, and communicates sporadically through letters to his wife and daughter until a troubling letter from Ari brings him home near the last quarter of the story.

The phenomenon of honeybees disappearing around the world due to human interference with nature is a paradigm for the plot with its subtext of vampire-human relations. When Ari's friend Mysti turns up missing, her mother decides Ari should enroll in college to escape police scrutiny. Quickly cleared of suspicion, Ari begins dating and meeting new friends at college, learning more about the difference between human and vampire culture through her experiences. When her friend Autumn visits her on campus and winds up murdered, Ari is once again the victim of unwelcome public spotlight. While no serious threat of exposure to the vampire society is ever suggested, Ari feels alienated by fellow classmates as her American Politics class prepared for a field trip in Savannah, GA. On the trip she meets Nicholas Cameron, a senator and key-note speaker for a fringe political party at a convention her class is attending. There is some indication of a future romance between Ari and this thirtysomething senator, which is somewhat creepy considering Ari is 14 years old! Mainly, this is where the plot finally begins to sew up as Ari runs into her father's nemesis who "confesses" the dastardly world-domination plot dreamt up by a sect of vampires responsible for the missing and murdered teens.

The ending felt rushed, and did not predispose me to read the next novel in this series, though I found Ari's voice engaging and enjoyed the unique take on vampire "logic" in this world. The "Disneyland" innocence of this novel may be less appealing to older readers after Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" sensation, which shares similar themes.

After reading the "Society of S" I was left with some very important questions unanswered and "The Year of Disappearances" answered most of them. This was an EXCELLENT sequel and well worth reading. I finished it almost as quickly as the first book (48 -vs- 24 hours), but to be fair I was on vacation when I read the first book and working when I got this one. I'd like to see more books with these characters. I felt as if I knew them and they were good friends. Well worth the cost of the book. All in all a very good read.

This is an incredible sequel to The Society of S--the first novel to introduce Ari--an amazing, young heroine who's part-human/ part-vampire. If you love Stephenie Meyer's books, then you will love The Society of S and The Year of Disappearances. They are beautifully written, fast-paced, and hard to put down! These are must buy novels!

Plot Summary: Ari is a fourteen-year-old girl living in Florida with her mother and her mother's friend, Dashay. Apparently Florida is popular with vampires, and the human locals don't even realize the subtle segregation that the vampires impose. Ari is half-human half-vampire, and she's been home schooled by her now absent father. Despite Ari's isolation from human teenagers, she makes a few friends back home, and one by one, the girls start to disappear. To escape the ugly rumors about her connection to the missing girls, Ari begins attending a private college where a troublesome drug is turning the teens into mental zombies.

Alas, I did not realize that this was the second book in a series until after I had read it. I was inspired to pick this one up at the bookstore based on the eye-popping cover art and the subtitle which reads "An Ethical Vampire Novel." I consider myself a connoisseur of vampire stories, and seeing the words `ethical' and `vampire' in the same sentence intrigued me. After reading the story I hesitate to label it as either good or bad. I feel much more comfortable calling it strange. It's a vampire novel unlike any other I've read, and I won't fit into any of the standard categories. It's not a romance, a fantasy, or a horror novel.

It's a weird blend of an adolescent coming of age story, a philosophical exploration of human-vampire relations, and finally, a book about environmentalism. Believe it or not, it actually comes together quite well. Susan Hubbard's writing style has been described as `spare,' but I'm more inclined to think of it as `barebones.' I kept wishing there was more to grab onto, but her style is undeniably approachable. Anyone who hates dense, intricate, overly complex prose should give Hubbard a try. They'd probably find a kindred spirit.

For myself, I found the story interesting, but it's not really a style of vampire fiction that appeals to me. The voice of the book had me picturing a serious scholar who wrote an earnest story about vampirism as if it really exists. The elements that are normally present in vampire fiction -- sex, danger, action, and biting -- were absent here, and while it makes for a unique story, it's one that doesn't speak to my reading appetites.

First of all, I must say there's something smooth about Susan Hubbard's writing that makes her books addictive; once you start reading, it's very difficult to stop! However, as with the first book of the series, I felt The Year of Disappearances lacked tangible action. This one also had a rather abrupt and incomplete ending. I wanted at least another 50 pages!