Rules for Vanishing

Described as a faux documentary in the style of The Blair Witch Project, this one is an interesting take on the horror genre. Interviews, descriptions of crime-related exhibits, and written testimonies all come together to make the book feel both investigative and more than a little fractured. It’s an uncomfortable combination that helps create a nice sense of fear for readers.

It’s been a year since Sara’s sister played “the game” and went missing, vanished down the forest road—a mysterious path that appears only once a year like a mirage in the desert. Sara is consumed with the mystery of her sister, convinced that she will never know what really happened. Until an anonymous text message pings onto her phone, inviting her and her estranged friends to play “the game” for themselves and seek out local ghost legend, Lucy Gallows. Sara is convinced that following the road is the only way to get Becca back, but she can’t predict how changed… show more.

Vivid, original, and rivetingly creepy, this book mixes urban legend and little-known mythology into a nightmarish vision all its own. Not content just to mess with the characters’ heads, the book messes with the reader’s head, too – it had me flipping back to re-read sections because I doubted my own memory.

Another faux-documentary horror novel Rules for Vanishing expertly combines such elements as ‘found’ footage and interview transcripts as it stitches together a fractured narrative of a terrifying urban legend coming to life. If you were ever a fan of The Blair Witch Project, chances are you will appreciate the twisted scares of Rules for Vanishing.