Title: Before I Disappear
Author: Danielle Stinson
Genre: YA Fantasy/Science Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Narrated By: Tara Sands
Length: 11 hours, 14 minutes
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publish Date: July 23, 2019
Rating:  ★  ★  ★  ★  ★ 
Recommend: HECK YES!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley, Feiwel & Friends, Fantastic Flying Book Club and Danielle Stinson for this free copy.

First, I wanted to say I’m so sorry for the delay in posting this review. My goal was to have it up at the same time as my interview, but alas life happened. I only recently finished it in its entirety and I didn’t feel right writing a lackluster review without reading this entire thing.

Gosh, this book seriously broke me. It made me think about my brother, and how I would do just about anything for him. This book really tests that theory, because Rose literally has to crawl through Hell to get to him before he and the rest of the world disappear forever. She has to remember every thing that Charlie has ever told her, when it seems like he’s not completely here listening to her, and how he rarely asks her anything but asked her to remember, to protect them. To save them.

Do you hear the music, Rosie?

-Charlie Montgomery

I think having the opportunity to interview Stinson prior to finishing this novel really gave me an insight to what may have been going through her mind when writing this. I won’t claim to say I know exactly what it was, but I could just feel how much Rose and Charlie really lived in her until she was able to pour their souls into these words. I honestly really felt for them, and sometimes I don’t get like that for characters in the contemporary world.

I also need to say that the concept of The Fold, and The DARC are scary as hell, and I hope to heck that nothing like this happens in our real world. You need to read it to figure out why The Fold freaked me out. It’s spoiler worthy so I don’t want to say much, but it definitely has to do with fears, negative thoughts… stuff like that.

The bond that Rose and Charlie had was amazing. Like, it was almost otherworldly how much Rose could feel what was happening with Charlie. If he hurt, she hurt. She felt his pain, and he was so selfless that he never complained about it. I feel like Charlie was the strongest character in this novel, despite being the youngest and separated from the main group for the majority of this whole journey. I still think that he’s not from our world. He has to be some sort of angel or other higher being. There’s no way that he’s just a kid. I can’t accept that.

Clearly I love Charlie so much and I officially adopted him into my makeshift family.

I think another one of my favorite things about this book is that we know that Rose has dealt with some issues. I don’t even think she really trusts herself after what her and her family have been running from. But she still puts others first. She will do anything for Charlie. She will do anything she can for her mother. She will save a stranger from drowning because she thinks about what Charlie would think, what he would say if he was there. But sometimes I also feel like she would have done that anyway, because I don’t think she would want to see someone suffer if they didn’t have to. She could have ditched the group she was with and tried to find Charlie on her own, but she didn’t. She could have left [redacted] to suffer from the darkness, but she didn’t.

She could have let Charlie disappear forever – I mean there was no way she could have known he was really alive and that she was able to rescue him – but she didn’t.

Actually, I don’t think she would have done that anyway, because she would move mountains for her brother. He’s the one thing that kept her going for so long.

Wow I feel like I could love on this book forever. I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to read this book and participate in the epic blog tour with Fantastic Flying Book Club. I absolutely love Stinson’s writing, and I can’t wait to read what she comes up with next.

Additional Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.