Night I Disappeared

HELD HOSTAGE BY AN INNER WORLD

Something scary is happening to seventeen-year-old Jamie Tessman. Ever since she and her mother arrived in Chicago, she's been plagued by freaky mind-slips and vivid daydreams about her sort-of boyfriend, Webb. When Jamie's inner world starts taking her hostage and keeping her imprisoned for longer periods of time, she becomes terrified that she is slowly losing her mind.

Jamie's mom doesn't seem to notice anything is wrong. No one does — until Jamie meets Morgan, a new friend who's had her own "brush with nuttiness." When Jamie disappears into her inner world one night and can't find her way out, Morgan sees to it that Jamie finally gets help. Morgan's aunt, a psychiatrist, breaks through Jamie's paralyzing fear and helps her unravel a tangle of long-forgotten, horrifying secrets in her past....

Publishers Weekly

Admirers of Deaver's Say Goodnight, Gracie may welcome the return of two of that book's protagonists but are likely to end up disappointed: the characterizations here are thin and the plotting will seem obvious to anyone at all familiar with YA problem novels. Jamie Tessman, underachieving daughter of a high-profile attorney mother (Jamie's father died when she was three), has only one friend, Webb, and she has seen him every day since meeting him when she was nine. But this summer they part: Webb backpacks through Europe, and Jamie accompanies her mother to Chicago, where Ms. Tessman is defending a girl in a sensational court case. Her mother works so hard that Jamie is able to conceal the problem that terrifies hershe loses herself in seemingly real fantasies of being with Webb. An accident resulting from one such lapse brings about a trip to the emergency room, where she meets Morgan (fully recovered from the grief and depression that beset her in Gracie) and Morgan's psychiatrist aunt. Deaver plants somewhat clunky clues to Jamie's condition, and not many readers will be surprised when, midway through, Webb turns out to be imaginary, nor when Jamie, in treatment with Morgan's aunt, recovers the memory of the trauma that gave birth to him. The ease of Jamie's recovery equals the superficiality of the setup; this is escapist fare, short on emotional truth. Ages 11-up. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Julie Reece Deaver grew up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author of several novels, including Say Goodnight, Gracie, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, which introduced two of the characters featured in The Night I Disappeared. Deaver has worked as a teacher's aide in special education and started her writing career in television comedy. She is an artist as well as a writer; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, and The Chicago Tribune. She lives on the Monterey Peninsula in California with her blue-eyed cat, Lincoln Rhyme. Readers are welcome to contact her at [email protected].