Review: The Vanishing Hour

The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I think I am rounding up just a little bit: I really enjoyed this book...until the last bit... Then I found myself underwhelmed, and it kind of ruined the book for me.
No matter what the synopsis on the back of the book says, this is the story of 3 different people: one is the survivor of a horrible kidnapping many years ago, one is the single mom of a teen-aged girl who has recently disappeared, and one is a man who's father is missing. We see the story unfold from each person's point-of-view. Will the kidnapping survivor be able to put her past behind her, and could what happened to her have something to do with the people going missing in the present?
I enjoyed all three of the main characters and found myself rooting for all of them. I even enjoyed the secondary characters--even Vinny! The pacing was well-done and I really had a hard time putting the book down.
I will say that when it was time for the big "climax" and reveal of the crime and who was guilty, everything felt smashed together, and it moved so quickly that it really didn't feel like much of a payoff. Then the "resolution," instead of feeling satisfying and hopeful, was a bit depressing and open-ended--and not in a good way. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I felt kind of like, "oh... okay... well, that's crummy for them..." when I finished the last page. So I'm on the fence about whether to recommend this one or not...

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