Vanish Me by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Release: February 10th, 2022
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Wise Wolf Books
Source: Suzyapproved Book Tours
Find it at Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N

When former singer Nico Sullivan goes missing, her estranged daughter, Love, finds her mom’s old diary. Using each entry as a clue to her mother’s whereabouts, Love takes a trip to L.A. with her best friends Frankie and Caden and discovers that her feelings for Frankie may run deeper than she’s willing to let on.

While diving deeper into her mother’s old life, Love struggles with her own social insecurities and abandonment issues. But as she’s searching for lost parts of herself, Love also discovers something unexpected. A deep-rooted and shared love of 90s grunge music with that of her missing mother.

At turns heartbreaking, inspiring, and mysterious, Vanish Me is a portrait of a teenage girl desperate to find herself among the cracks her mother left behind.

About the Author:

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of eight novels including THE ANCESTOR and THE MENTOR, currently in development as a film off his original script, and the YA series RUNAWAY TRAIN. He was a nominee for the Prix du Polar. STALKER STALKED will be out in Fall ’21.

After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared as a contributor in Pipeline Artists, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, Necessary Fiction, Hypertext, If My Book, Past Ten, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.

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Vanish Me Review:

I have been following the “Runaway Train” Series from the beginning, and I must say that each book is exciting as the previous. In “Vanish Me,” the third installment, the author does not disappoint and shines with character development as Love grows up and learns many lessons.

To begin with, I loved how the author toggled between the past and the present, as we see Love going on her journey with Frankie and Caden and flashback to Nico’s diary entries as she struggles with motherhood. The author does not shy away from the emotions, and I loved how realistic he portrayed the characters. Nico is not someone I particularly liked, but I did understand her mindset. Similarly, I adored Love and how she yearns for her mother’s Love.

Moreover, the author also touches on the friendship dynamics, as Love struggles with her friendship with Frankie and Caden. While I loved the trio and their Love for 90210 and the 90s, it was exciting to see if their friendship would survive the journey or not. Even the supporting characters like Evan, Marjorie, Winter, and Delilah were memorable.

Also, I enjoyed the mystery element that the author adds where Nico sees an eerie shadow that chases her. I found the plot intriguing and wondered who it could be. However, the book fell a little short of five stars because I felt we did not get closure on this storyline. On a side note, I did enjoy the scenes where Nico goes to see Davina.

Overall, while I feel this may be the last book in the series, I hope the author continues to write more with these characters, as having read them for so long, I am not ready to let go of them yet.