The Literary Adventures of Amber and Eleanor the Cat “The Nature of Disappearing,” By Kimi Cunningham Grant

By: Amber Ford, The Mountain Times

It was bound to happen eventually. You can’t claim to be an avid reader without coming across that one novel which makes you completely question what you know about literature. I wasn’t nearly as distraught over this as Eleanor, who fretted over this book for weeks, ignoring her treats, barely touching her fresh tuna, and refusing to make a new book selection. But here we are, well over the trauma that is reading an underwhelming book, sharing our thoughts with our mountain community.

“The Nature of Disappearing” by Kimi Cunningham Grant looked enticing. From the start, the book cover had these mountain girls intrigued beyond measure. The book’s blurb was a striking account of a young woman in the backwoods of Idaho on a mission to find a lost friend, and  reconnecting with a former boyfriend she hadn’t seen in years. The novel seemed right up our alley, but it failed to launch. 

Although some of Eleanor’s favorite books seemed to stall out in the first few chapters, only to gain momentum, this book didn’t even make it out of the parking lot. The main character, a young and impressionable girl whose childhood was rocky at best, was full of self- loathing and lacking inspiration. Unlike other tomes whose female leads begin weak and ultimately develop fire and strength, this main character, quite frankly, annoyed us. There was no pivotal moment where she found her inner warrior-princess. The continued time-jumping from her past to her present gave us no indication she was ready to fight the demons of her childhood. Her character development, although a hair better at the end, never fully blossomed into the “Laura Croft” the author seemed to be aiming for. By the last few chapters, Eleanor was secretly hoping her happy ending would cease to exist. Her words, not mine.

As if the main character’s childhood wasn’t depressing enough, Grant took it one step further, using the protagonist’s early adulthood as demonstration of another hardship: her relationships with very wealthy people. Struggling to find her identity post-childhood, she befriends two very privileged  peers in college and, unbeknownst to her (although how she didn’t see it coming is something Eleanor is still mad about), the role she plays in the friendship was more pet than anything. Bouncing between lavish parties and expensive vacations, our girl is perpetually manipulated over and over again by “friends” who have more time, more money, and more obnoxiously loud brand-new Columbia apparel than any real backwoods, mountain-dwelling student should. She finally comes to the startling realization that these relationships were all built on control.

As if the characters were not already the absolute worst part, the setting was just as unbelievable. We understand that we do not live, by any means, in the “backcountry” of Oregon, but our knowledge of the great outdoors positions us to better critique the geography in the book. Having been to Idaho and experienced some of its rugged and unforgiving terrain, the depiction of these places and of the wildlife, wildfires, and wild “off the grid, crazy locals” was enough to have us using this book as a coaster. 

Although this title definitely will not make our shelf of “read again or recommend,” Grant is an author we have previously enjoyed. Her 2021 novel “These Silent Woods” was a fascinating tale of a father/daughter relationship and the lengths to which parents will go to protect their kids. While we try not to hold grudges against literary disasters by authors we have enjoyed in the past, this book was a perfect example of the tried and true phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover.”