All Things Cease to Appear- Book Review

This was my second selection from the Book of the Month Club from last month and it was another winner. If you would like to join Book of the Month, please use my code through this link- Book of the Month.

When I initially reviewed All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage on GoodReads, I had just finished the book and jotted down my initial thoughts. A few days later, I am rethinking some of my gushing praise, not because it is a bad book, but because there were parts that made me wonder later on.

The book opens with a scene that pulls one right in- George Clare is headed to his neighbor’s house with his daughter in tow. George’s wife has been brutally killed and his daughter was left in the house for hours alone with his dead wife. Bam!

With the above written, I will say this was a slow build that got rolling somewhere in the middle to the point that I didn’t want to put it down. It was such a slow roll that I almost stopped reading it. Initially the characters weren’t connecting with me, the story was slow, and not much happened.

Part of the was the description of the book I received. It was described as a ghost story with thrilling twists. There is a ghost, but the ghost doesn’t play any part whatsoever. It isn’t a horror story at all.

It does indeed have twists, but they begin somewhere in the middle. Before that, it is a look at a couple coming together who are not really in love with one another, but just enjoy the thrill of it.

It is also about a house where the couple will end up (not really a spoiler) and the history of the house. It is also about the several women that are in George’s life and their husbands.

I am going to leave the synopsis there because I don’t want to spoil the read too much.

All Things Cease to Appear is named well as this theme runs through the narrative and binds the women together as well as the story surrounding them. Things in life disappear. Things that were once great fade and things that were never there never appear.

The narrative is told from different perspectives and jump time periods, but not too terribly. Most of the narrative focuses on George, his wife Catherine, and their daughter Franny. The entire thing, until the end, is also told in flashback, since we know, ultimately what happens to Catherine- she will die (not a spoiler, it is the opening of the book). I will say that knowing this as a fact, I still felt a loss when she dies. I don’t know why either, since on page 1, we know.

After thinking about the book a few days, I will say there were activities in the book that just didn’t make sense and felt convenient to move the story forward. One involves a car chase where something happens and I thought- hold on, it can’t be that simple. The ending was also one of those moments. If I use an adjective to describe the ending, I might tip a hat, so I am going to leave it as a- hold on moment.

Overall, I did wind up enjoying the book quite a bit. The characters were well developed and George and Catherine are memorable characters, as are the supporting characters. One could feel the town they were in and the house’s presence. Keep in mind the title is very appropriate as you read through it. A solid 4 star book due to a few “hold on” moments that required flags on the play

Here is an Amazon link- All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage