Saturday Review: “A Right of Passage Toward Acceptance and Understanding” a review by Betina Entzminger of Megan Miranda’s novel The Last to Vanish from NCLR 2023 Winter Online issue.
North Carolina author Megan Miranda pens thrillers for adults and young adults alike. This is her first time in NCLR. The Last to Vanish is one of her most recent adult novels.
Entzminger astutely points out that “One of the best aspects of the novel is this strong, believable, and fully developed female narrator, Abby Lovett, who is not seeking, nor does she find, a romantic partner.” How refreshing in today’s entertainment. Lovett’s personal journey is perhaps more compelling than solving the plot mystery; both seem to be satisfactorily resolved.
While any good mystery needs a bit of time travel to make the story make sense, this is particularly true of a mystery set in Appalachia. Entzminger writes, “another important theme the novel develops, which makes it feel more like a Southern novel despite its author’s New Jersey origins (she now lives in North Carolina), is the connectedness of past and present.” As the fictional town of Cutter’s Pass is nestled near the millennia-old Appalachian Mountains, it is no surprise that past and present collide in the story.
Miranda’s work has been on many bestseller and celebrity reading lists. Her next thriller The Only Survivors will be published in April 2023.
Read the rest of the review now (from the online issue coming in February!) and buy the book at your local independent bookstore or from our affiliate list at Bookshop.org.