Sloane Sullivan has been nineteen different people in nineteen different places in the span of six years, so starting at a new high school nine weeks before the end of senior year shouldn’t be a problem… right? Except this time, it’s different. Ever since she entered WITSEC as a child after both her parents died, it has just been Sloane (at least, that’s what she’s called now) and Mark, her agent and might-as-well-be older brother, on the run from her past. No one really seems to know exactly what happened to trigger this turn of events, and even Sloane doesn’t remember it. All she knows are the countless survival and self-protection skills Mark has taught her over the years. Because all is not always as it seems, and Sloane may have to face the possibility that the life she’s been living for the past six years just might be a lie. As everything she thought she knew is questioned, Sloane must find a way to uncover the truth… and stay alive.
I picked this book up hoping for a good mystery, and it absolutely blew me away! The Disappearance of Sloane Sullivan is Gia Cribbs’s first and only novel, and it is everything you’re expecting and more! The author has a fantastic writing style, with flawlessly executed twists and turns, a fast-paced story line, and just the right amount of description. The characters are all thoroughly developed, and she captures them well. Cribbs also writes with such emotion that we want to cry and laugh with the characters themselves! There were a number of \unexplained questions throughout the book, but the author did a nice job of rounding it all out in the resolution. Although, there was never a lack of heart-stopping surprises and bewildering discoveries.
I loved the way the author seamlessly intertwined a familiar high school coming-of-age story with a mystery of this magnitude. With just a touch of romance, humor, and more then a little excitement and danger, she delivered a realistic novel that surpasses any other thriller I’ve read!
Reviewed by Sanjana Murugavel, Grade 9, Twin Hickory Area Library
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