Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

There was some potential here, but it's heavy-handed to the point of being overwrought. It's almost as though the author was making a compilation of dystopian cliches and suddenly decided to make it a novel instead.

This was an interesting book which reminded me a little of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Well written but I think the similarities are the reason why I wasn’t as gripped by the book as I might have been. I enjoyed the future U.K. setting

I read this last year and thought about it for so long before I forgot to write my review. I have to say how real this feels. If we aren't careful, this could be a future. As someone who believes in holding people accountable, and NOT burning books this book spoke to me so deeply, Profound and enlightening while being so disturbing I have said it before and I will say it again, I am complete trash for dystopian fiction... just hook me up and stream it all into my brain..

Shout out to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an unbiased review of this book.

Alright, so this book has some of the weirdest pacing I’ve experienced in recent memory, which is a shame because it detracts from an otherwise interesting premise and story. If you can handle it, I think you’ll enjoy it, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself blindsided by an even in the book that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Set in a Dystopian world where reading is considered a dangerous activity, a teacher dares to rebel against the regime that took her father. It’s a 1984 story as old as...well 1984 and while it feels like this is a good attempt to make this well known trope modern, it stumbles a bit along the way. Partway through the story there’s a major character shift and due to the above pacing issues it is a jarring and somewhat confusing swap of perspectives and in my opinion, the book doesn’t recover. It becomes a very bog standard “fight the (dystopian) power” kind of book and doesn’t really rise much beyond that mediocrity. You might like it for a light read that you pick up and put down here and there, but there are other books that do this better.

It’s ultimately a 3/5 for me, and that’s mainly due to the middle of the book, where the only good section to me plays out.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Ms. Lord's new book has been getting quite a bit of buzz and it is well deserved. It is '1984' revisited and it is far more terrifying and plausible then it's predecessor.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

This is a fantastic piece of dystopian fiction, that has the added eeriness of being a little too close for comfort! The background that leads to the world we see presented here is similar to the current political and economical landscape we are experiencing now in the UK. Not only that, but the surveillance, controlling state that it leads to in the novel, is worryingly familiar to us from real history from recent decades.

It's a well structured book, jumping between past and present with alternating view points, which increased the tension perfectly. While I didn't always have as much empathy for the characters as I might have expected, that wasn't because they weren't well drawn. Instead I think it stems from a sort of numbness that pervades the book - the characters are in some ways so used to the horrors they face in this political nightmare, that there is an inevitability governing their thoughts and actions. That in itself leads to an extremely unsettling feeling...

Overall, this book had me hooked - I can definitely see it coming up in lists of books I recommend to friends, as it is very topical and will be of interest to anyone who has read and enjoyed some of the great dystopian fiction we have seen in recent years.

The Disappeared, by Amy Lord is a dystopian novel focused on a literature professor in a time when reading is considered dangerous! This book had so much potential, and in a way it took an age old plot and brought it into the now.

I have seen this compared to The Handmaids Tale, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451. I do not think those comparisons are fair. The author did a great job tying in present day issues with the spectacular notion that literature can become a dangerous power.

Farenheit 451 is one of my favorites books of all time, so I found myself comparing unfairly throughout. Overall the book was good and I would be interested to see what Amy Lord writes next!

This book reminded so much of other dystopian books that at the back of my mind I was thinking about the similarities to Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Clara was generally well rounded but there were a few places were I just found her not as built up as those around her. The switch to the Major's perspective was a little confusing because at first it was not clear who the woman he was pursuing was and how she was connected to the story. I think the story would have worked better all-round if it had been from Clara's perspective. The portion focusing on the Major were well done but it did feel a bit excessive when you look at the full plot in comparison

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early review copy

DNF. at 20%. I enjoyed the first section of this speculative fiction novel. However, It did not capture my attention and I had no desire to read on. I might come back to this in the future but for now, I have a lot of other books to focus on.

It is a bit impossible to read this story and not become untouched. It is working nicely with your feelings, what can I say. This is a tale in times of dark political control by the Authorisation Bureau, where the population is controlled by their power and those who don't obey, disappear.
It is quite a heavy idea, which makes the book get even better.

I love a good dystopian novel, and this one did not disappoint.

Clara Winter lives under the control of a regime where even expressing the wrong opinion can get you killed, and strict restrictions placed on what can be taught in schools and universities mean that whole generations grow up exposed only to the knowledge the government allows them to have. When Clara was just a small girl, her father was taken by the Authorisation Bureau for the crime of teaching banned books to his students. Now grown up, Clara is teaching at the same university and is determined to rebel against the regime that tore her family apart.

There are nods to historical precedents (the Nazis burning books etc) that lend the story a chilling accuracy, and as the book descends into violence and anarchy, the reader is swept along towards a thrilling climax.

I really enjoyed this book, even if it made me uneasy at times when it veered a little close to the bone. I would definitely recommend to other readers looking for a well written dystopian thriller.

NOTE: I was provided with a free ARC copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

While the premise could be an interesting take on a Fahrenheit 451 type society, I found the main character and her husband to be so emotionally underdeveloped that I couldn’t continue reading. The first chapter that details how the main character’s father disappeared was quite well-written, so I was curious to see where this would go. But it did not continue on a similar trajectory...

Basically, this story takes place in an authoritarian dystopia where everyone is watched, and many books and media are banned or tightly controlled to uphold the government. Our main character decides she wants to start teaching a class abt what really happened and why this government is in power. But the Initial event that sparks her idea doesn’t seem that big of a deal to create such a change in her demeanor, to truly ~inspire~ her. She is also still heavily influenced by her father’s memory, maybe 15-20 years after he disappeared, so I’m like... why didn’t you decide to do this earlier on? The catalyst just didn’t make sense to me.

At one point she also says she is losing her connection to her father because she is not involved in the teaching of the class itself (due to a stupid reason to be honest). But how can her connection to her father “begin to ebb” when she has supposedly had a rlly strong connection to him ever since he disappeared? Wouldn’t it have ebbed in the years prior when she wasn’t teaching this class?

Also her husband Simon is so judgy to her about how careless she is, when he didn’t even want to do this in the first place. He is So self righteous for no reason. He also gets mad at her for taking notes when all these kids are taking notes abt their class and probably being less careful than she was?

I just found each of her and Simon’s decisions and reactions to be so immature and rash, very unlike the intelligent, experienced, adults they are made out to be. I wish the characterization had been better, then maybe this book would have been more bearable and could’ve turned out to be okay.

"If we don't mention it, the people won't even realize it's happening. They're too stupid, like cows, chewing on the cud we provide for them."

We've seen dystopian literature many times before in classics such as George Orwell's 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood as well as many others. I don't believe Amy Lord is reinventing the wheel here with The Disappeared, however, this is an intense, brutal vision of a future that...seems almost scarily inevitable in the current U.S. political climate.

The brutality in this book is plentiful and isn't easy to read at times at all. That's one thing I enjoyed the most about it. Lord isn't afraid to raise her voice, she isn't afraid to "go there" and bluntly depict the torture and violence that many of these characters experience. It is heartbreaking. I also saw a connection between this brutality and toxic masculinity. Men feeling they need to use violence to assert their power over those they deem weaker than them...using rape, using humiliation to feel superior. It's a major point running through the entire book and it reflects too much of what's currently going on in the world.

That sort of power, that sort of thirst for superiority is dangerous. It's what has lead to so many atrocities throughout history and we can't forget that. Sadly, it seems too many appear to be forgetting as per recent studies concerning the Holocaust and Adolph Hitler. Millennials aren't being as exposed to the numbers of people murdered or how or why. Which makes me thankful for books like this. Because our freedoms could someday be at stake and it isn't, at all, a far fetched idea seeing as many of them actually ARE right now. If this novel can spark a curiosity in classic literature and actual history...that's fantastic.

I had a few small issues here and there as well. While I think this is a very well written book, some of the dialogue between characters seemed a bit forced. Some of the interaction felt a bit stilted while at other times it felt very natural and quite powerful. I think Lord is a very cinematic writer, I had no issue whatsoever picturing this world she was creating or the people in it, this could very well become a film someday. There were times when I felt annoyed with Clara. There were times I just flat out didn't like her. But there were also times when I felt immense respect for her and I genuinely wanted her to succeed. She didn't feel phony, she felt real, she felt imperfect and most of these characters were like that. I didn't WHOLLY love anyone in this book and that felt more true to life than a lot of characters I've read.

Again, this isn't a new concept, dystopian worlds aren't new to most people and this story is very similar to ones we've already seen. But I think this is an important book in certain ways. Mostly in that we need to remember how important ideas are. How important art and literature is. How important our voices are. We can never forget that.

History CAN repeat itself, dangerous regimes have been allowed to take hold all over the world, these things CAN and HAVE happened. It's just up to us to make sure that they never do again.

I love a good dystopian and this one did not disappoint. The added bonus of books being banned was icing on the cake! Good characters and interesting storyline. I enjoyed it all the way through.

This is an outstanding book about fascism and authoritarianism and sacrifice and resistance and resilience and hope. In a Britain under authoritarian rule, Clara Winter’s father, a literature professor, is arrested and “disappeared” when Clara is eleven. Her mother marries the major who oversaw the arrest in order to protect Clara, paying a heavy personal price. When Clara herself becomes a literature professor and falls in love with a colleague in the history department, she becomes involved in a project to spread dissent; when her partner is similarly arrested, she becomes even further involved ins plot to overthrow the government. Deftly written and full of the pain of making choices in impossible situations, coming to terms with self-sacrifice and the costs of war, this book is an excellent and all-too-real meditation on political silencing and the ways individuals react to and cope with brutal regimes.

"Our stories are how we grow and understand our place in the world. They give us a voice. They are fundamental to our being. We shouldn't have to live without them."

Thank you to NetGalley and Unbound Digital for this ARC!

The Disappeared by Amy Lord is a bold tale of rebellion against a repressive regime. Clara Winter's father was disappeared by the authoritarian military regime when she was just a child. Years later, she is working at the same university where he was teaching when the government accused him of terrorism and took him away. How far is Clara willing to go to fight for her father's legacy and her own freedom?

This is an okay dystopian that will serve to pass the time. It is not destined to be enshrined the halls of great fore-thinking literature. This is a good choice for an air plane book or a beach read. It'll pass the time but you won't cry if you lose it, misplace it, or never finish it.

I really liked the dystopian world and the focus on books. Reminded me of "Fahrenheit 451", but it was still an original story.

The Disappeared by Amy Lord is a recommended dystopian novel set in a totalitarian state that controls books.

Clara saw her father when he disappeared. He was arrested based on the books he loved and taught about. Now Clara is a teacher in this changed Britain and she works as a literature professor. She convinces her partner, Simon, a history professor, that they should teach a class about history and about banned books. This happens. There are consequences. Arrests. There is an underground rebellion. By the way, Clara's mother married the Major who arrested her father, so a highly placed enforcer of the Authorization Bureau is her step-father.

If you enjoy reading dystopians, The Disappeared will fit the bill for one based on banned books. The point-of-views of Clara and the Major are shared in alternating narratives. That said, although this is written in the vein of Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, it is not even remotely as good as either novel. Go to the originals for that experience. None of the characters are especially well-developed. The dialogue is stilted. The rise and hold over the public of the actual regime is not well explained. Several events were mentioned, but nothing firmly established the background. Sorry, but Clara makes so many senseless mistakes and slips that it makes it difficult to sympathize with her. Why would she not expect to be watched considering who her stepfather is? Why take notes?

This is an okay dystopian that will serve to pass the time. It is not destined to be enshrined the halls of great fore-thinking literature. This is a good choice for an airplane book or vacation read. It'll pass the time but you won't cry if you lose it, misplace it, or never finish it.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Unbound Publishing.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/06/the-disappeared.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2873174387
https://www.librarything.com/work/23263849/book/170265209

I really enjoyed this book!

This is a story of fear, rebellion, and hope. In this world, reading banned books can get you killed. The generation before Clara's remember the time before the regime; everything's changed since the First General rose to power. People are made to disappear over, seemingly, small crimes. Fear punctuates every action and decision. The disappearance of Clara's father in the middle of the night sparks a rebellion in child Clara that the soldiers couldn't have anticipated

This book has vibes of 1984 by George Orwell, set in the very near future. It also, more frighteningly, mirrors present situations in some countries and the recent past in others. Controlling what people learn, altering the history taught, encouraging neighbours and colleagues to spy on one another: it's all startlingly familiar and believable

This book has one of the scariest villains I've read, in my opinion. Clara's step father was terrifying because he could and does exist in the world, encouraged by the regime of this book. His is a type of believable and tangible evil that sends a shiver down my spine and, at times while reading, made me feel physically ill!

As I always feel after reading dystopian fiction, I wish we'd got the POV of someone living a normal life under the regime. Not the rebels, not the enforcers, just a member of the public going about their days. I know it wouldn't be as exciting a narrative but I always wish for snapshots of their stories

The only negative I can say is the ending of this book left me feeling just a little dissatisfied: everything seemed to wrap up just a little too easily. Saying that though, it was an ending of hope which I think was necessary and did buoy me

Overall I really enjoyed this book! It spoke to the part of me that loves dystopians, the other part that used to have a passion for politics, and the other part that fears the rawness of human nature