The Disappearances

What if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?

Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home—and the place where Juliet grew up.

Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own. A place where the experiences that weave life together—scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream—vanish every seven years.

No one knows what caused these “Disappearances,” or what will slip away next. But Sterling always suspected that Juliet Quinn was somehow responsible—and Aila must bear the brunt of their blame while she follows the chain of literary clues her mother left behind.

As the next Disappearance nears, Aila begins to unravel the dual mystery of why the Disappearances happen and who her mother truly was. One thing is clear: Sterling isn’t going to hold on to anyone's secrets for long before it starts giving them up.

• A Town with a Secret: In Sterling, ordinary things vanish without a trace. Scents, reflections, and even dreams disappear every seven years, and no one knows what will be taken next.
• YA Historical Fantasy: Aila must navigate a strange new town in 1940s America, where the home front struggles are nothing compared to the supernatural mysteries hiding in the shadows.
• Literary Clues: To uncover the truth, Aila follows a trail of cryptic notes her mother left in the margins of a book of Shakespeare's plays, decoding a puzzle only she can solve.
• Slow Burn Romance: As Aila searches for answers, she finds an unexpected connection with Will, the quiet and handsome son of her guardians, who has secrets of his own.
• Complex Sibling Relationship: Grieving and uprooted, Aila and her younger brother Miles must rely on each other, even as the town’s secrets—and their mother’s—threaten to tear them apart.

A Bookish Must Read YA Book of the Summer  A Barnes & Noble Teen Most Anticipated Book of the Second Half of 2017  A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, 12-14 category  "The Disappearances is a delicious mix of mystery, fantasy and romance." —Bookpage   "At its heart, The Disappearances is a carousel of sentimental acts, of regret, the many kinds of love, the people we love, and the ways people, places, and things never truly leave us even if they’ve been taken. The adventure to unravel the riddle of The Disappearances made my heart race."—Ravenous for Reads    "How do we find the words to emphasize just how much we loved and enjoyed this novel? ‘The Disappearances’ had us captivated within it’s spell from the very first page... was just beautiful, heartbreaking and irresistible...We definitely recommend this read and we are warning you, remember the name ‘Emily Bain Murphy’ as she is a rising author who will just leave you in awe, page after page! —Pocket Full of Pages   "Thick with mystery, buried secrets, and magic, nothing is safe in The Disappearances. Be careful, or you might lose yourself in this strange and wondrous world, where stars go missing, reflections don’t exist, and the question, how much would you sacrifice for love? is given entirely new meaning. I adored this book!"–Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestsellingauthor of CARAVAL   “The Disappearances is purely poetic—a beautifully woven story with enough heart to take on its own life.”—Lindsay Cummings, New York Times bestselling author of THE MURDER COMPLEX   "The Disappearances is a dazzling debut, as glimmering as the Variants themselves, with a haunting mystery, wondrous world building, and a finely wrought family at its heart. I adored it." —Jessica Spotswood, author of The Cahill Witch Chronicles   ? " Sumptuous worldbuilding, richly developed characters, and a swoon-worthy romance elevate this delightful, fantasy-tinged mystery." —PW, starred review  "...delightfully whimsical and unsettling...a story bursting with color and originality." —Kirkus  "The riddle behind the town’s curse is an intricate and surprising one, and readers will happily join the clever and witty Aila on her hunt for clues." —Bulletin   ". . . Murphy’s debut is no doubt ambitious . . . expertly woven world, spun with secrets, lush with literary allusion, and shimmering with magic (quite literally), is a place many readers will happily disappear into." —Booklist  "The Disappearances is a book of wonder and mystery by first time novelist, Emily Bain Murphy. It is well crafted and the plot is memorable and complex. Shakespeare’s words help solve the mystery, leaving the reader with a sense of hope as well as awe. This book should appeal to young adults and adults. The eloquent writing style and the well-researched inclusion of historical details make it memorable. Aila and Miles often use one word to summarize an experience, calling it a finishing word. My finishing word after reading The Disappearances is sublime."--Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE, an ALAN pick Nov/Dec 2016