Vanish

Let me begin by saying “Vanish” was a very scary novel.  It centers around three main characters:  Conner Hayden, a divorced trial lawyer is spending the weekend with his daughter Rachel; Helen Krause, a middle-aged model is having dinner with her son Kyle who is leaving for New York; and Mitch Kent, a mechanic, is about to meet up with his girlfriend to ask her to marry him.  During the course of the evening, a mysterious dark clouded storm takes over Chicago.  Not remembering anything about the previous evening’s events, each of them wakes up and discovers that everyone else has disappeared.  Afraid and wanting answers each sets out to find other survivors.  During the course of the novel, we discover that each of them has an event in their past that they can’t seem to forget. 

Conner’s son, Matthew, drowned in their swimming pool while under his care.  He seems to keep appearing in visions since the storm.  Mitch’s mother died from cancer when he was young, and his father called him before the storm to tell him that he was also dying.  Both of them appear in visions to Mitch.  Helen’s son Kyle appears blistered and burned in her visions.   Not only do they have to face their pasts, they each encounter faceless beings who whisper to them only at night.  Eventually, the three cross paths, and decide to take a road trip to Indiana to seek out other storm survivors.  In Indiana, they meet up with a strange farmer named Howard.  This is when it starts to get really good.  The ending was like something out of a Twilight Zone episode.  You are just waiting for Rod Sterling to peak out from behind the curtain. 

“Vanish” was the Winner of the 2006 Operation First Novel Contest sponsored by the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild, and it is evident why.  Jerry Jenkins was the co-author of the “Left Behind” series, which this novel reminded me of.  Just to think that something like this could really happen is very unsettling.  It makes you not want to take anything or anyone for granted, and to make the most of every moment you have on this earth.  

I highly recommend “Vanish” to anyone who is a fan of the “Left Behind” series as well as books by Ted Dekker.  You won’t be disappointed.  Watch out the next time you see a storm coming.

Vanish
Tom Pawlik
Tyndale House Publishers (2008)
ISBN 9781414318936
Reviewed by Wendy Cleveland for Reader Views (6/08)