Review: The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston

Title: The Rules for Disappearing 
Author: Ashley Elston 
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion 

Publication date: May 14th, 2013

Genre(s): Young Adult (Mystery/Contemporary)

Source: Publisher

Format: ARC

Pages: 320

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She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.

Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself.

But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

The Rules for Disappearing was one of our Waiting on Wednesday picks, and I'm so glad it did not disappoint. The Rules for Disappearing was the perfect mystery for me. The main protagonist is in a witness protection program that her dad got her whole family into. She's been in six different places, and every place she's got a completely different identity. We actually don't find out the main protagonist's real name until the end, so for now I will be calling her with her last "fake" name, which is Meg. Meg is fed up with all the moving around, and she is now determined to find out why her family is in the witness protection program in the first place. Meg has also decided that she won't even try to fit in in her new school, because sooner or later they will be moving out again. There is one problem though, and that is Ethan. Ethan isn't allowing Meg's plan to go smoothly, and that's how the story develops and gets more interesting. 

If I was in Meg's place, I would definitely feel the same way as she does. I feel like Ashley Elston did a great job of portraying a girl who just wants to be worried about what clothes to wear, rather then keeping major secrets like her real name. Meg was an awesome character, and I really felt like I could relate to her. We also get introduced to Meg's younger sister, who is called Mary. What I really liked is how Ashley Elston had the sister play a major role in the book. I think that just made the book much more realistic, and more believable. It's always weird when authors forget to mention the families of the main protagonists, when family clearly plays a major role in every person's life. Ethan was a very interesting character to read about, but I kind of think that we didn't get to know that much about him. He was sweet, and was definitely interested into finding more about Meg and her secrets. The mystery picked up it's pace during halfway of the book, and I guess that's where the author added an unexpected twist to it. 

Overall, The Rules for Disappearing is a very interesting mystery book, and I totally recommend it to all those mystery fans out there! The ending is very open ended, and I guess you can say that the mystery might not have been completely solved? I guess that did annoy me a bit, but again, I think it added more to the "realistic" factor of the book. I'm definitely going to look out for more books by Ashley Elston, and I hope I enjoy her future work as much as I enjoyed this one!