The Other Side of Disappearing Book Review

Kate Clayborn is an author who I have come to love through her contemporary romance novels. So I was intrigued by this latest release because of its addition of mystery to the story. This story has it all. True crime, an unusual road trip, and a whole lot of family drama.

Keep reading for my full The Other Side of Disappearing book review.

What is The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn About?

From the acclaimed author of Georgie, All Along and Love Lettering, a pitch-perfect, radiantly transporting love story about an unexpected road trip, true crime obsessions, and hard won vulnerability…

Hairstylist Jess Greene has spent the last decade raising her younger half-sister, Tegan—and keeping a shocking secret. Ever since their reckless mother ran off with a boyfriend she’d known only a few months, Jess has been aware that he’s the same accomplished con man who was the subject of a wildly popular podcast, The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore.

Now thirty-one, Jess didn’t bargain on Tegan eventually piecing together the connection for herself. But Tegan plans to do exactly what Jess has always feared—leave their safe, stable home to search for their mother—and she’ll be accompanied by the prying podcast host and her watchful, handsome producer, Adam Hawkins. Unwilling to let the sister she’s spent so much of her life protecting go it alone, Jess reluctantly joins them.

Together, the four make their way across the country, unraveling the mystery of where the couple disappeared to and why. But soon Jess is discovering other things too. Like a renewed sense of vulnerability and curiosity, and a willingness to expand beyond the walls she’s so carefully built. And in Adam, she finds an unexpected connection she didn’t even know was missing, if only she can let go and let him in . . . (from Amazon.com)

My Initial Thoughts

The Other Side of Disappearing is a story of family drama and the complicated relationship between two sisters. It tells the story of Jess (or Jessie as her younger sister calls her) who is the sole guardian of her younger sister Tegan. It’s been 10 years of just the two of them, since their mom up and left with her boyfriend at the time.

Tegan has recently turned 18 and is heading off to college in the fall. But she has a big surprise for Jess before she goes. She’s contacted a true crime podcast because when their mother left them 10 years ago, she left with a man. A man who happened to be a serios con man, living under an alias.

Right off the bat I could tell that this was going to be an issue between the two sisters. I liked that they had different ideas of what should happen with the information about their mother. It makes sense. Jess was 21 when their mom left and Tegan was just a child. There’s a lot of information that Tegan doesn’t know about because she was so young, and that made for 2 interesting perspectives on the situation.

To Podcast, or Not to Podcast. That is the Question

While Tegan is eager to help out Salem and Adam with their latest podcasting project, Jess is not interesting. She’s very private about her life and doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. But she eventually agrees to go on a five state road trip with them, for the sake of Tegan. The love Jess has for Tegan is very evident in everything she does. Especially when she agrees to things that she doesn’t want to do.

I have to say, I really liked the idea of this story. True crime podcasts are very popular and I haven’t seen any other books that incorporate that into their story.

How did things turn out?

But with that being said, this story fell a little flat for me. I would have appreciated more background on Lynton Baltimore and his crimes. Being told that he’s bad is not the same as actually feeling and understanding why he is bad. With the information that we were given, everything felt very low stakes and I didn’t really care if they found him or not. Because even if he did, then what? It’s not like he would go to jail again.

Of course stealing and grifting is wrong, but I didn’t really care because it felt like it happened so long ago in the past. And no one seemed to know what happened to them.

Sister Power

Overall, the plot line about the podcast didn’t really work for me. But I did love the relationship that Tegan and Jess had. Because even though Jess had to jump into the mother role ten years ago, it’s clear that the two of them are best friends. And I loved how supportive they were of each other, no matter what.

But it’s a Kate Clayborn book. Is there romance?

Yes! While the podcast plotline didn’t really work for me, I was all about the budding relationship between Jess and Hawk. Although Hawk takes notice of Jess right away, it takes a while for her to open up. She hasn’t had time to focus on romantic relationships because she’s been busy taking care of her younger half-sister all these years. But maybe now is her time.

As I’ve said before, I enjoy Kate Clayborn’s writing style and love her contemporary romances, so the romantic aspect of this story was very sweet. I was rooting for Jess and Hawk and their slow but moving love story.

For fans of Kate Clayborn…

Prepare yourself for a more serious story this time than what you’re used to. This story has real emotional heft because it deals with a broken family. Both Jess and Tegan deal with their mother’s abandonment in different ways. Sometimes everything seems okay when it’s really not. But it’s all worth it in the end.

For those of you that are new to Kate Clayborn I would recommend her work for fans of Emily Henry, Tess Bailey, and Ali Hazelwood (the author of The Love Hypothesis). 

In Conclusion

Is The Other Side of Disappearing a genre-bending triumph? I’m not sure. While it was an interesting read, I felt like there were definitely areas where the author could have gone deeper and developed .

Thanks so much for checking out this book review. You can read my other Kate Clayborn book discussions here and here.