Hypable has an exclusive look at the eerie cover art for Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver, a moody mystery of sisters, secrets, and discovery.
Best-selling author Lauren Oliver is no stranger to small towns or secrets, themes which have played strongly in her young adult novels Before I Fall and Panic. Oliver revisits these ideas in her next novel for young adults, titled Vanishing Girls, which weaves a mystery out of scars, silence, and sisterhood.
The evocative cover art for Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver is revealed exclusively right here!
Synopsis
When nine-year-old Madeline Snow goes missing from a parking lot in a sleepy Massachusetts town, the whole community follows the seemingly dead-end search with bated breath – including sisters Nick and Dara Warren. The girls, once joined at the hip, have become estranged after a violent car crash leaves Dara scarred and Nick with almost no memory of the hours leading up to the accident that changed their lives forever.
But when Dara disappears on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Nick is convinced that something has gone terribly wrong, and she’s determined to track her sister down. The more Nick uncovers about her enigmatic sister and the double life she led before the accident, the more unsure she is that she wants to know the truth. But the stakes are getting higher, propelling her forward and backward in time, willing her to expose the link between these two vanishing girls.
Interview with Lauren Oliver
Tell us five random facts about yourself.
1. I need ten hours of sleep a night.
2. I can’t stand fruit, especially bananas.
3. I once sang “I Will Survive” to a crowd of strangers at a Grey’s Papaya in NYC.
4. In high school, I was in an a capella group called The Quaker Notes (which perhaps contributes to explaining #4).
5. I cry at every movie. Literally. Every movie.
What is your favorite element of the cover for Vanishing Girls?
I love the way that the idea of vanishing is made literal on the cover. It’s so arresting.
Why did you most want to write Nick and Dara’s stories?
I have an older sister, and I’ve always been interested in the dynamics of sisterhood: the love and envy and desire to emulate and need to differentiate, all of it commingling at once. I’m also particularly interested in the pernicious dynamics of “rescue” – i.e., when one person feels the need to save another person – having had multiple relationships with addicts. So this book allowed me to explore both.
Which is easier to write: The first line, or the last line?
Probably the first line. That’s what usually comes to me initially: it’s that spark of an idea, the unspooling of a voice in my head.
What are you working on now?
So many things! I’m working on a second adult novel – my first adult novel, Rooms, comes out from Ecco this fall. I’m writing a middle grade series and I’m also diving into another realistic teen standalone. Summer is a busy time for me. :)
For more information…
Follow Lauren on Twitter at @OliverBooks, and visit her website to learn more!
Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver will be published on March 3, 2015.