Sneaking out to disappear

6. Rules for Vanishing – Kate Alice Marshall

The local legend is that Lucy Gallows (great name) vanished in the woods and if you go in the woods during the time of year that the road appears, you will probably vanish too. So of course, after Sara’s sister Becca joined the ranks of the lost one year earlier, a group of kids including Sara will go in after her. Apparently, this Lucy person has a “game” or “the game” and this year a mysterious text has invited everyone in school to play. Thankfully, not everyone in the entire school is a joiner, so we are able to narrow down characters although there are many characters. Fodder, even.

This is presented like a case with interviews and exhibits, so, you know someone got to investigating and the comparisons to the Blair Witch Project are kind of obvious (woods, being missing, video evidence) and also not really very apt. I definitely thought the Blair Witch Project was very scary when I saw it in the theater. Rules for Vanishing is not as scary. Some parts read more like a novelization of a video game and while it can be disorienting and scary to an extent, it’s not terrifying or bone chilling (at least, not to me) in part because it’s not as real as messing up because Mike threw the map in the creek because he was mad you’re all lost. Rules for Vanishing has some light brutality, is fun and fantastical, and there’s some good characterization for the group of teens trying to find their way through and out.

 

Some guinea pigs are neither joiners, nor outdoors pigs; like Snuffy, seen here napping in the hanging wicker bed instead of lost.