The Disappearance

Gr 8 Up—Mike, a ninth grader and new boarder at a group home, has an angry streak that stems from his facial disfigurement and his brother Jon's death, both at the hands of his mom's abusive boyfriend. Mike's defensive attitude presents a challenge to Paddy's dominant status in the home. Paddy retaliates by intensifying his bullying of Mike's roommate, Jacob. Jacob is an uncanny boy who communicates with the dead, including Jon. Jacob is not of this time, and Mike helps him journey back to the past. On the night of their journey, Mike finds Paddy abusing Jacob, and Mike loses control, almost killing Paddy. This suspense novel adds a touch of unsettling fantasy. What truly unsettles, though, are the all-too-real social dynamics of the group home, dysfunctional adults, and social institutions that fail to nurture and protect youth, for which Mike's face serves as a reminder. The ambiguous ending that leaves Mike, Jacob, and Paddy's futures unresolved, and the blurring of good and bad, right and wrong, also work to that end. Mike is an antihero with similarities to Paddy: they both bully and share a propensity for violence (although differentiated by motivation). Mike is not a restorative protagonist who will fully reset proper social order; yet through the effective use of his first-person perspective, readers will have faith in Mike and root for him.