Sophia Tobin's "The Vanishing" elicits mixed feelings. While the atmospheric setting and historical backdrop are vividly portrayed, some readers might find the pacing slow. Tobin excels in character development, particularly in conveying the complexities of relationships, but the plot's predictability could be a drawback for those seeking more suspense. Overall, it's a novel that shines in its atmospheric details and character exploration but may leave some wanting more in terms of plot twists and pacing.

Inconsistent characterisation and a plodding, essentially meaningless plot made this a bit of a chore to read. It wasn't a terrible book, just not awfully interesting. The Gothic genre has been done to death, so it takes a special book to set itself apart. This was not one of them. The best way I can describe The Vanishing is that it was...ok.

Foundling Annaleigh has been forced to leave London and goes into service at a house in Yorkshire. When she arrives at White Windows she is befriended by her mistress Hester but the reaction of Hester's brother Marcus is odd. Although Annaleigh makes friends in the local village, events at the house become more and more concerning, particularly when the master holds a party which descends into a debacle. Annaleigh tries to leave but she finds herself falling deeper into a web that she cannot find an escape from.

Initially this book reads like a take on Jane Eyre with the orphan moving to the wilds of Yorkshire to work for a rich and strange employer. However this novel takes a huge turn and becomes a tale of gothic menace, our heroine being trapped, drugged and abused. Finally it becomes a revenge story, however at each turn in the plot I was completely engrossed. Tobin has created something that reads like the best of 19th century fiction all rolled into one but with a knowing modern slant.

A gothic, dark tale similar to Rebecca or Wuthering Heights. Very atmospheric descriptions of the setting and well developed characters. A definite page turner with many twists and turns.

This is a gothic thriller with more than a nod to the great dramatic writings of the Bronte sisters but without their skill.
Annaleigh is an orphan who grabs at the offer to work for brother & sister Hester and Marcus Twentyman. So desperate is she that she doesn't stop to consider their odd relationship & the isolation of the house on the moors.
To be honest this is a rather cliched book. The moors are dark, brooding and desolate with excessive description. The perils of going out onto the desolate moors is over emphasised - a dark and brooding setting which is better suited to a horror book. This is definitely a gothic thriller.
On the flip side the characters are not as detailed as they could have been. A bit less description of the moors and a bit more time spent providing strong three dimensional characters would have helped this book..
I didn't engage with this book .
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

First of all, congratulations on the amazing cover! It really drew me in. And it's the best when the books rises up to expectations of a good book cover. Sophia Tobin is an amazing writer, and I'm glad to learn this.
The book starts a bit slow, building up the characters. The main character, Annaleigh, is an orphan who gets a job as the new housekeeper.
But, soon she realises in this house, things are not as they seem. The Twentymans siblings have a strange brother/sister relationship, The previous housekeeper, Kate, just disappeared, and why?
The book becomes more interesting as we move along the second half. I was really glad to be sucked into this atmospheric, dark world. I don't want to tell more as I don't want to spoil the experience. But, I can say the writing is beautiful and very vivid to bring you at the edge of your seat.
I wish the ending was better though. All in all, I gave it 4 stars because the writing was just beautiful. The beginning is hard to get in.

The Vanishing starts slowly but draws the reader into the atmospheric plot, towards the bleakness of the moors giving them a story of deceit and loss of innocence..

The protagonist Annaleigh is an orphan adopted and raised by a painter, Jared. He offers Annaleigh a home and raises her as his own. She loves Jared as a father but after a family conflict she decides to leave her home accepting a job opportunity as a house keeper, up in Yorkshire Moors.

From the point she arrives the moors; the vast openness of the area, the difference in people's accent, behaviour and customs draws her into loneliness. Her employers, widow Hester and her strange brother Marcus Twentyman are a puzzle to solve

Everyone who knows the Twentymans are warning Annaleigh, to be careful, to leave that house, to not to fall the charms of Master Twentyman. There is also the question of the previous maid, Kate. Twentymans say that she stole from them and run away- although her personal belongings still lay there in the servant room.

Annaleigh drawn into a confusing relationship with her employers. She will discover their intentions but this will be costly...

"Of course he knew I had nowhere to go. I had told him a thousand times - in my words, in my looks, in my need to belong. I felt I had been strong, but he had read a thousand secret signs of my weakness. And I would be punished for it."

I love the way the story was told. I loved the tense atmosphere between Twentyman household, the realism in the brutal difficulty of being a servant. The psychological games, the open air prison feeling of the moors/house were successfully structured. I wasn't mad about the ending, I am not a fan of epilogues to be honest. Probably the reason I am not giving a five star to this book is the way it ended.

One more thing I couldn't help to notice was that the dialogue between characters being too modern for Victorian era.

"Do not turn away like that, as though you were some stupid conventional lover spurned." says Annaleigh to another character, which I cannot place in the mouth of a Victorian lady. Her attitude is also very modern but I think you can kind of overlook that thinking she was raised by an artist.

I would recommend this book for those who liked Fingersmith (Sarah Waters), and The Observations (Jane Harris) 

I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this is a great read. I really enjoyed it. Lots of layers of intrigue to unravel. First of all, the setting is great. It's an area I know - I used to live in Oxenhope - and this really took me back to the moors. It's set just across the valley from Haworth, which seems entirely appropriate for this gothick twister. It reminded me a little of Wuthering Heights - and, bizarrely, of the Secret Garden - in the way the landscape becomes a character in its own right. The atmosphere is well drawn, and the secluded house the main part of the story is set in is vividly described. The heroine is strong and thoughtful, with a mysterious birth story, and manages to sort her own life out, with the support of exactly the right man. The villain has his own tragedy, and complications. There are duplicitous servants, complex plots and, and, and....it's definitely well worth a read.

I can’t decide if this book is supposed to be as humorous as it is. At first I thought it was a pastiche of Gothic melodrama along the lines of the Bronte sisters (as its blurb would suggest), but it is far more modern and explicit, and (I think) tongue-in-cheek. On several occasions, as I was silently screaming at our heroine, “Don’t go there, you can see what’s going to happen”, and thinking to myself that I might not bother reading any further as I knew what was going to happen, the plot would take me by surprise.

It is set in a remote location on the Yorkshire moors, they lurk in the background and we are frequently warned how treacherous they can be. At one point our heroine sees the noble Thomas ride off onto the moors with the words, ‘Thus I sent my only friend out into the wilderness’. The scene seems set for disaster. But does anyone stray off the path? Does anyone get lost on the moors? No, they do not and I had to laugh (at myself really for assuming they would).

I enjoyed the first half of the book well enough, though it seemed predictable. The second half becomes ever more complicated and unpredictable, and leads to a surprising but rather chaotic end. An entertaining read.

The plot of The Vanishing drew me in immediately, it's gothic setting with comparisons to Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights, I was really interested in reviewing this one. Especially because I read very few historical fictions! Plus, the cover is absolutely beautiful!

In terms of the writing, Sophia Tobin has a beautifully, eloquent writing style - which hooked me and kept me hooked, for the most part. This is especially evident in the descriptions of the setting, which has so much depth - the vivid world-building is a definite plus of this book. The characterisation is also a highlight of this novel, with Annaleigh - who is both submissive and ambitious, and Twentyman - who is likeable and unlikeable, depending on how you perceive him. He seems charming on first glance, but under the shell is somewhat mysterious and dangerous. Overall, the interesting characters just make you more gripped to the story, trapped in the suspense throughout the book. That being said, the characters weren't entirely fleshed out and I would have liked a bit more depth to them.

Obviously, as this is a spoiler-free review, I can't say much about the plot, but I found the storyline interesting and well-paced enough, particularly during the latter half of the book.

I have never read anything from Sophia Tobin before, and don't often read historical fiction, so I didn't have the highest expectations for this book, but she has a lovely standard of writing and I'll look out for her name in the future. I'll also try to branch out more and read more historical fiction, which is one of my favourite genres, and yet I don't read it enough.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and it reminded me that I should give more historical fiction a go. I enjoyed Sophia Tobin's writing and will be keeping an eye out for her books in the future. However, the characterisation wasn't quite developed enough for me in this story, and overall, it's mystery at times felt un-mysterious. Therefore, I'll rate this one 3.5 stars! Worth a read if you're looking for something new, and I would recommend if you like the genre.

Full Review Here: https://thereadingruby.blogspot.com/2018/01/book-review-vanishing-by-sophia-tobin.html

3.5*

It seems that within the wide and varied genre of "historical fiction" there is an ever-increasing interest in Gothic romance and "sensation fiction". Many authors do not only set their stories in the 18th and 19th centuries, but also borrow from the genres popular in the period. Sophia Tobin's "The Vanishing" is a typical example. It follows the destiny of one Annaleigh, a foundling raised by a London artist named Jared. Annaleigh's adoptive parents disapprove of her budding relationship with Jared's stepson, and so she takes on the position of housekeeper at "White Windows" a remote house on the Yorkshire moors. The owners of the house - the dashing Marcus Twentyman and his eccentric sister Hester - are viewed with suspicion by the locals. However, despite dark warnings from several well-wishers not to become too "involved" with the Twentymans, Annaleigh is unexpectedly attracted to Marcus, with devastating consequences.

Some "neo-Gothic" writers try to subvert the genre but Tobin is happy to rely on the tropes of 19th century fiction to recreate the feel of a novel of the time, if with a less "coy" approach to scenes of sex and violence. The Yorkshire moors - bleak and dangerous and yet, like Marcus, strangely beguiling - will surely recall the novels of the Brontës. The dark mansion where the plot pans out, the shadows seemingly haunted by former occupiers, the galleries of ancient portraits, servants who know more than they will tell... this is Gothic at its typical and most gripping. And when the plot becomes more convoluted, secrets are uncovered, and the action moves to London, one feels the marked influence of Wilkie Collins and 'sensation fiction'. In other words, this is a novel where you are expected to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride - and it's none the worse for that.

Reading this on the back of [book:The Widow's Confession|23505806] which I loved, this is like a poor relation. Mashing up elements of the Brontes' [book:Wuthering Heights|348914], [book:Jane Eyre|10210] and [book:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall|337113] with du Maurier's [book:Jamaica Inn|358954] sounds like a great premise: but sadly it doesn't work as well as it could. The narrative is confused, the characters flat, and the writing uninvolving. There are jarring elements like characters being introduced by their first names (it's 1815) and some wildly preposterous behaviour.

Tobin's richly descriptive prose makes the most of the atmospheric Yorkshire Moors setting - but a more vivid foreground, and emotional depth to the characters would have given the whole thing the body it needs. As it is, it's Gothic-lite.