Media Geeks Unite: Book Review: The Rules for Disappearing

Book Review:

The Rules for Disappearing

By: Ashley Elston

General Information:

Title – The Rules for Disappearing

Author – Ashley Elston

Copyright Date - 2013

Genre – Young Adult

Pages - 320

Price - $16.99

ISBN – 9781423168973

Synopsis – “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”

Cover – This cover was amazing! I really think it went perfectly with the book; even before you read it. One of the biggest draws that I loved is that they don’t show her face – Foreshadows a lot!

Theme – The theme is that you need to keep close to who you are. At the end of the day all you have is yourself.

Point of View – This is written by the point of view of the main character which is Meg. She is very brave and always puts others before herself.

Intended Audience- Young adults

Author style – I feel like the author liked to build up emotion and then bring out a new twist but the way she did it was the best I’ve read in a while. She didn’t take forever to show something so the shock was fresh every time.

Characters – The main character was Meg- she was a teenager that was in witness protection. Like I said before she was such a genuine person that put everyone she cared about before her. Her mother was a drunk; it seemed like she was trying to let things go but some things she just couldn’t get away from. Her father was like the stereotypical father- the protective guy that likes to show how strong he is and put up a front to help everyone else. Ethan was the ‘love interest’ and he was my personal favorite character! He was also such a genuine person which is why I think they were perfect together. One of his biggest and best personality traits was how trustworthy he was.

Plot – The plot was really exciting. Yes there were some things that I thought they should have either talked about it less or took it and made it into something more. Most books have the twist at the end that most people always see coming but there were many things that the reader really didn’t see. This ending even made you see and realize some things that happened within the story that people didn’t really see. The characters seemed to make the setting and plot come alive. The author has a real talent to make everything in the book connect and actually seem like you were right there within it.

Setting – Set in Natchitoches, Louisiana; a small but close town.

My opinion – This book was the first witness protection book I have read and I really loved it. I had never read anything by this author and I can’t wait to read something else. Like I had said before I liked how everything interacted with everything else – everything seemed to bounce off of all the different walls within the book. The other thing that I really loved was that after some of the twists were shown the author proceeded to go into the ‘past’ of the book and tell how they got there and all the details that the reader wanted to know.

Qoutes – “To say it was a bad day would be like saying the Titanic had a little accident” – Ashley Elston; The Rules for Disappearing

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