Jun 13

Jun 13 The Art of Vanishing

About the book

Author: Morgan Pager
Publisher: Ballantine

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

The Art of Vanishing is a book about a woman who gets a night shift janitorial job at an art museum and, upon realizing she can somehow step inside the paintings, falls in love with one of the subjects. It’s a fast read and very fun — I think it would make a GREAT beach read this summer.

I loved that this was written as a dual-POV novel. I had a great time in Jean’s head, spending time in Pager’s imagination of what it would be like to be the subject of a painting, as well as how the paintings all interacted with one another. But if you’re looking for a detailed explanation of how the magic of the story works, you’ll be disappointed — this book is fast-paced, plot-forward and magical for magic and whimsy’s sake, and reading it felt like sitting out in the sun on a warm spring day: fleeting and good for the heart. It worked really well as an audiobook, and I thought the narrators did a wonderful job.

There is one caveat to that recommendation of this as a beach read, which I don’t think is really a spoiler, but if you don’t want any details, you can finish reading this review now. (Okay, last chance.) The pandemic is a major plot point in the story, so if that tends to put a bit of a damper on your reading experience, just know that going in. That said, I think this was really well done, and overall the book doesn’t have much heaviness about it at all.