The Things We Don't See by Savannah Brown

The Things We Don't See Reviews

• 
  elisa

  okay. listen. i suspect that this one star rating might be a little extreme, even for me, and it's true—yes—that my track record with ya genre fiction is not the greatest in terms of reader compatibility, but i've been a long-time fan of savannah brown's brain/content/poetry and i will always take a chance on f/f teen mystery. having said that, i want to emphasize that a lot of the more nit-picky issues i took with brown's second novel are a classic case of, "it's me, not you."
  
  a few reviews for the things we don't see found fault with the main character—mona perry, a dark, unsympathetic teen detective/crime podcaster type—which is actually one of only a couple narrative features i really enjoyed during the reading experience. i think the ya genre suffers from cardboard cutout mc syndrome more often than not, so getting to follow a young female protagonist grappling with childhood trauma and less than savory character quirks was super refreshing.
  
  what i did, however, take issue with, was the character writing follow through. for example, it's established fairly early on that mona struggles to make friends + prefers her solitude to navigating new relationships. this would all be well and good if she didn't establish fast friendships with ellis and peyton practically within minutes of meeting them in the sort of strange, instant click that seemed a stretch for a personality type like hers. which sums up a lot of my personal qualms with the way this book was written: it stretched my imagination to its absolute limits.
  
  in order to enjoy a concept constructed like this one, you'll need to suspend your disbelief indefinitely, so if that's something you often find yourself able to do, you'll probably get along with this book a lot better than i did. when it comes to non-magical/fantastical genre fiction, i really struggle to turn off the logic-sustaining side of my brain, so i caught a lot of plot mechanics that just didn't make sense or seemed too far-fetched to swallow: that an entire town immediately bought a 17-year-old's story about being a graduated adult, that the only thing standing in the way of that 17-year-old cracking open a decades' old cold case was (in this order) a lock that she was able to pick right away, a window, and a fence, that within two weeks, mona perry, the people-averse lone wolf, could confidently say she loved ellis and peyton, still relative strangers beyond their proximity to said cold case. and so, so much more.
  
  much—by which i mean, the majority—of the "mystery" laid out by brown's book is solved by mona going around and talking to other people. again, if you enjoy reading mysteries that rely almost entirely on evidence-collecting through conversation, you will have fun with this. i don't particularly enjoy that straight-forward crime-solving format. i like the more hands-on, too-tangled, experiential puzzles. i especially didn't enjoy guessing the plot twists/ending around the 30-40% mark because so many of the clues are given through other characters' testimonies.
  
  by the time the things we don't see supplied the crazy climax that i craved, it was so far beyond the realm of possibility for my brain that i kept having to push back the urge to put the book down out of eye-rolling frustration. the novel vaults between lackadaisical plot construction and unbelievable chaos—there is rarely an in-between.
  
  the writing does little to bolster the world being built; i frequently found the prose disjointed and arrhythmic, at times so startlingly awkward i was half-convinced it hadn't been edited by a second pair of eyes at all, because it read like draft-stage workshop writing:
  
  

  I'd cockily assumed I wasn't only going to find something, but I was going to find everything, but even this significant something has me trembling.

  
  
  which was strange because i tend to love the way brown talks/writes (just from her youtube videos alone). i think that's also a good summary of events: i got more out of brown's
  youtube video about this book than i did the actual book. the video version of her ruminating on why we create art was complex, fascinating, coherent, and left me with both questions and answers. her book did not, which, for me, gets at the heart of the issue: brown the poet/speaker does a better job at delivery than brown the novel writer.
  
  little (nit-picky) ya oversights drove me up the wall during the novel-reading experience:
  • how a character had whipped up eggs and bacon from scratch for mona within 12 short paragraphs of sparse dialogue
  • why this was a line of dialogue used to convey how close-minded the town is: "'...but Ellis is the embodiment of how shitty this place can be,'" rather than the far more logical, "'...but Ellis' treatment [at the hands of the town] is the embodiment of how shitty this place can be.'" like? huh?
  • the absolute rushed, nonsensical, two-week romance writing that can be perfectly captured by the following lines: "I hate what's happened. I hate myself for letting it happen. I want her. Of course I do. Honestly, maybe I want anyone. Why have I been wired this way? God, I want to join the human race." i understand that mona is navigating her own trauma over the course of the novel, but it felt like her romance with peyton came completely out of left field, was sustained by three or four tiny interactions that didn't feel particularly romantic or promising of chemistry, and—honestly—more like mona was trying to convince herself that she should like peyton than that she really did. i don't understand the point or placement of that extremely strange kiss, i don't know why there needed to be romance to begin with, and i'm really not sure why it had to happen during such a rapid timeline. which is another thing!
  • why! did! the! events! of! this! novel! take! place! over! two! weeks! instead! of! two! months!
  • in places, the writing is so abrupt as to be disorienting: "The forest floor is so textured and uneven that the noise of it makes it seem like I'm being pursued by footsteps other than my own, and I fall over myself and bash against a tree."
  • why does peyton suddenly leave the dorm after claiming she's late to see liam, only to return without explanation several paragraphs later—what would be only minutes in the world of the novel—again……WITH NO EXPLANATION?
  • HOW DID PEYTON GAIN ACCESS TO MONA'S LAPTOP AND ITS CONTENTS? WHY WAS THIS GLOSSED OVER? HOW WOULD SHE HAVE GUESSED ITS PASSWORD? AM I TO ASSUME THE GIRL HIDING HER DIGITAL IDENTITY WOULD NOT PASSWORD PROTECT HER DEVICES? WHAT?
  • WHY WOULD A VETERAN COP? CONFESS? HIS? INVOLVEMENT? IN? A? CRIME? TO? A? TEENAGER? WITHIN? TWO? WEEKS? OF? KNOWING? HER? WHEN HE'D BEEN CONCEALING HIS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE FOR DECADES? WHAT IS THIS! AHHHHHHHHH
  • why would ellis' overprotective, no-nonsense mother—who also employs her child for work—not notice his absence? when there had been no sign of him since last night?
  • no...more to the point...why would no one think to listen to the kid raving on and on about solving the mystery himself until it's too late...why would no one stop and go....hm....he might be about to do something super drastic.....like......maybe heading to the recently unearthed crime scene we just told him about.....
  • WHY. WHY. WHY. WOULD YOU ESTABLISH THAT THIS COP CHARACTER HAD A DECADES' LONG THING FOR THIS MISSING WOMAN. ONLY TO HAVE HIM COMPARE MONA TO HER IN AN OFFHAND COMMENT. WHY!!!!!!!! IF I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE EVOCATIVE AND CREEPY, I WOULDN'T EVEN COMMENT, BUT IT WAS VERY CLEARLY NOT WRITTEN WITH THAT SUBTEXTUAL INTENTION.
  • "I can solve a mystery but I still can't even tell anyone the truth about —" coming after mona has already, in fact, told someone the truth about [REDACTED]
  • HOW. HOW DID A COP DROP HIS PHONE IN HURRICANE-LEVEL STORM CONDITIONS AND THEN SOMEHOW TRACK IT? WHAT? WHAT DID HE USE TO TRACK IT? HOW WAS IT NOT DESTROYED IN THE RAIN? WHAT?
  • this qualm probably can’t be helped considering brown lives and writes in the uk, but the british lingo + spelling that appears in a novel set in america as it follows an american-born protagonist really fucked with my immersion 💔
  
  i'm so sorry. i did not realize i was carrying this much unaddressed rage over the plot holes of this novel. there are so many specific to the ending that i cannot even begin to unpack for fear of spoiling/over-explaining the mystery. but please know. that they exist. and will be haunting my brain for the rest of the week. like. the entire sequence of events leading up to roxy disappearing. none of that. not one single part. makes sense. and nothing about how her disappearance was concealed. especially not the little dyslexia plot detail, which—i will say no more.
  
  i'm sorry. if you are an INTP, do no read this book.
• 
  Dannii Elle

  "There’s a shadow in me that doesn’t waver.
  
  The eternal tar-dripped facet of my personhood. I could make myself whatever I wanted to be, were it not for the trauma – a chameleon always outed by the shadow, marked by the same dark matter.
  
  I fight my way out. If I’m locked in, I jemmy the lock. If I’m lost in the woods, I draw a map."
  
  Mona Perry is, at least to her regular and devoted podcast listeners, CAP. Under this name she has been recording and uploading consistent 30-minute episodes, each revolving around a different disappearance. Now she has announced a three-month hiatus as she resolves to solve the one that has been most haunting her. Rumours fly about just what this is but Mona resolves to reveal nothing until the mystery has been solved. Mona has her own mysteries that seem determined to never reveal themselves, but perhaps she can do some good in the wold by putting everything into solving others.
  
  Mona was an independent and headstrong protagonist and I enjoyed witnessing her battle against any object in her path, as she fought for the truth. She was not, however, a character devoid of flaws. Her stubborn nature and quickly-rising emotions revealed themselves in the inability to consider the feelings of others and often putting herself directly in harm's way without considering the consequences of doing so. She was prickly and difficult but with a good heart and a past that made her character flaws an understandable part of her healing process.
  
  The mystery she was bent on unearthing had almost every other island inhabitant wary of her character and dubious of her intentions. Perhaps this was a justified response to a teen girl entering their community and casting suspicions on everyone she met there. It made for an interesting journey to the truth though, and ensured the reader was aligned with Mona in her mistrust of the community.
  
  I had my own suspicions, which were also shared by Mona and proven incorrect about three-quarters of the way into the novel. From there, the story-line was one involving a cacophony of high-action, higher intrigue, and a battle against both the elements and the island itself, which seemed to have joined the community in distancing Mona from the truth. When it was eventually revealed it was far from the result I had anticipated. It all made sense and tied all previous narrative threads together, but I found myself wanting for a few more pages, before the inevitable conclusion, for some still-raised questions I had to be fully answered.
  
  I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Savannah Brown, and the publisher, Penguin, for this opportunity.
• 
  Sian

  DNF'd
• 
  kyle

  ok
• 
  Rhini

  I was really looking forward to this, I love the author's poetry, but this is one messy book. I couldn't believe the pacing of the ending, the quick changes in characters and events and just everything blew up after the rest of the book had pretty much just repeated itself with nothing happening, which meant for me it just didn't land. I heard way too much of Savannah in the protagonist and it kind of ruined it - the level of pretentiousness and existentialism seemed really incongruous with a 17yo girl, especially in her social interactions. I really admired the inclusion of the trauma subplot and the way that was explored throughout the whole book, but it didn't really delve deeper than the idea of Mona not knowing who she was. I think Savannah's tone and vocabulary are beautiful but aren't well matched for a YA novel, it reminds me of an actual young adult in school exploring the idea of writing a book and just shoving a lot of stuff onto a page. Watching the video she released related to creativity really confused me after reading the book - it wasn't brave or creative or really that philosophical and yet it seems that's what the author strives for in life with her content. I think she needs to write with more restraint and explore characters further away from herself, with maybe more plot structure? This is entirely my opinion and I have a lot of respect for her, I'm not claiming to be right about what I'm saying it's just how I felt reading through - once I got to the last few chapters my head just started to hurt, there was a lot happening in a somewhat haphazard way and nothing seemed true to any of the characters, but that was what was happening for me, everyone's free to disagree. It was a great premise and beautiful creation of the island, but I just expected a little more.
• 
  Lex

  Hey Savannah, you've done it again!! THE THINGS WE DON'T SEE feels wildly visceral and real, with utterly believable characters, dialogue and chemistry, intertwined with BEAUTIFUL prose that reels you in and then punches you in the face. I raced through this, especially towards the end, when I also got swallowed up by the island but in the best possible way. Loved it! Another!
• 
  Meghan Hughes Ohrstrom

  I picked this for my September book club after reading all of Savannah’s past books & loving them! This book, however felt quite different to me than Savannah’s past writing. I would say overall, I liked, but did not love this. I just felt like it had a lot of holes in the story. I’ll start with what I loved though! I loved Savannah’s amazing imagery & way she depicts people’s feelings/inner dialogue. I loved that this was a YA *slightly queer* murder mystery book that included podcasting! Incredible! I loved Mona & Peyton together, so I wish they had a bit more of a followed-through/wrapped up relationship. I LOVED Ellis & the drama surrounding his family dynamic although it was sometimes hard to follow. I LOVED the setting of being on an island with the woods all spooky & fenced off. And lastly, I loved Booker. He reminded me of Hopper from Stranger Things & I adore that show! I just felt like the plot of this was a bit chaotic especially towards the end. I grew very confused with not only the writing style (italics to lower case to upper case), but also the wrap-up of the murder mystery. Mona & Ellis reached a conclusion with still about 100 pages or so to read! I knew something different would happen, but I did NOT expect the end to be the way it was. Ending off my reading, I just had a lot of questions… Which maybe we were meant to feel? I felt like… “Is Mona happy now? Is Roxy going to stay? Are Mona & Peyton going to be together? Will she be back as a seasonal? Will she even record the podcast? Is Ellis okay with the outcome?” Just so!!! Many!!! Questions!!! I feel happy I read this because it was very immersive & truly fun to read! I just wish it felt a bit more summed up. Overall, I do still love Savannah’s writing style & think her mind is beautifully disturbed when it comes to writing horror/murder plots. I’d recommend this if you just love to read YA! Lol
• 
  catherine ⭒

  i feel like this was written only between 12am and 6am which makes me worried for the author but also grateful because i think that if this was written at any other time i wouldn’t have liked it
• 
  Siqahiqa

  “Sometimes, nothing good comes from digging.”
  
  34-years ago, on the first September 1986, promising singer and Sandown resident Roxy Raines went missing, and the case was never investigated with consideration for wrongful play. Mona Perry thinks it’s a mystery and is determined to investigate Roxy’s disappearances on her own by going to Sandown Bay herself. She is convinced that someone must know more about Roxy. It’s just a matter of finding them.
  
  Mona has her podcast named How to Disappear, and she wants to record her findings and reveal them on the podcast. She has obsessed with Roxy because of her music, but it’s not a genuine reason for the obsession.
  
  ❒ I was incredibly eager to read this book just because of the synopsis. The beginning is slow and hard to read, but I was hooked from the second half of the book until I can finish this book in two days. Nevertheless, I think some parts are not necessary and keep the storyline dragging.
  
  ❒ In the in-depth investigation, Mona found out some hidden stories about the people in Sandown Bay, and of course, I had my suspicions on the suspects. I could not deny the vibes of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson and Sadie by Courtney Summers, indeed because of the podcast. But the podcast trend is great, so I was okay with that and pleased to read another book related to the podcast.  
  
  ❒ I liked Mona's character, and I admired her character development. I loved the part when Mona changed her mind because of something special that she had never been sure of in her life. She does not care about Roxy anymore, and I second her decision on this.
  
  ❒ I enjoyed this book, but some parts seem not perfectly secure tied up. Some scenes that I expect to happen but didn’t, and the plot twist is predictable. Overall, it was a decent read in young adult and mystery thriller, but somehow it did not get to me as I hoped.
  
  “People are more than capable of keeping quiet if they think it important enough; if they’ve got something to protect; if they have enough of a reason to, above all else, believe what they’re doing is right. ‘
  
  Thank you, Times Reads for providing me a copy of the book in return for an honest review ✨
• 
  Alia

  I wanted to like this but I honestly I just couldn't get myself to care. Most of the scenes felt monotonous and like they never really went anywhere or pushed anything forward and the characters were inconsistent and confusing. I felt like everything seemed pretty one dimensional up till the end so even when the big reveals came around those discoveries in relation to the underdeveloped characters didn't have much of an impact on me. I get why the content from the last thirty pages was saved for the big twist reveal but I think that the book could've been a lot more engaging if Mona's past was explored more in all that time we spent with irritated townspeople. Idk man I think there's some cool ideas and I really liked Brown's debut novel and I've loved the bits of her poetry I've read so maybe this one just isn't for me lol.
• 
  charlotte,

  mona honey i think maybe therapy would have been the better plan here
  
  Rep: lesbian mc, bi side characters
• 
  legolasik

  The detective story was interesting enough, but everything around it and the people in it I found difficult to believe (in). The characters feel inconsistent, especially Mona (too inconsistent to call it an unreliable narrator even). The atmosphere of gloom and hostility over the island seems fabricated because there are no consequences for the heroine.
  
  The book is rushing ahead of itself. Too much is revealed too soon instead of letting it brew slowly (like Mona drawing conclusions for the reader about what led her to the island), while some important things (like Mona remembering a traumatic event in the past) are dealt with within a single paragraph.
  
  Overall, nice potential, lacking execution.
• 
  Lou (nonfiction fiend)

  The Things We Don't See is a compulsive young adult mystery that can be enjoyed by all ages. The year is 1987 and the sleepy village of Sandown Bay is waking up. To its residents, Sandown is home - a tiny village holiday resort in the western United States. To everyone else, it's a minuscule island, that brings tourists in summer and not a lot else the rest of the time. To Mona Perry, it's a mystery. Thirty-four years ago, promising singer and Sandown resident Roxy Raines went missing and was never found. The people of the island are still reluctant to talk about it, claiming Roxy was simply a runaway, but the evidence doesn't quite add up. Mona is convinced something else is going on.
  
  Armed only with a suitcase and a microphone - to record her findings for the general public - this runaway teenager is determined to get to the bottom of the disappearance. But as Mona gets drawn deeper and deeper into the strange goings-on of this isolated community, it is clear that nothing is as it seems - not even Mona's own past. Some things are meant to disappear. This is a compelling and absorbing mystery that is difficult to put down with a fast-paced narrative, beautiful prose and fascinating characters. It's fresh and propulsive and explores loss, its effect on those who experience it and the difficulty in moving on from trauma and devastation. Highly recommended.
• 
  Clare Snow

  And then I woke up from the nightmare that was reading this book
• 
  hollie

  2.75 stars
  I was curious when I received an ARC of this book because I ended up DNFing Savannah's other book The Truth About Keeping Secrets. However, this book was miles better than the other one of hers I tried to read and I will say, I think the beginning was a lot better than the ending. I overall have mixed feelings about this book and I guess it's better to explain them...
  
  Mona, first of all, was a really unlikeable character. Although I didn't hate this for the story, it made some of her decisions seem ridiculous and to be honest, stupid and what grated me most was that she was honestly horrible to almost everyone she met besides Ellis - wait, is that even his name, lol? There was no reason for it and she honestly would have been the type of girl I'd hate if she was real.
  In terms of the mystery of Roxy, I did find it a bit eye-rolling. I couldn't understand for the life of me first of all why Mona was so intent on figuring out what happened. I'm not saying Roxy didn't deserve to be found but she seemed just as unlikable as Mona did so maybe she related to her. I don't know. I found the whole small-town hides secrets thing very overdone and in this case, there didn't really feel like there was any reason for it. Once we finally got to know what actually happened, I felt a bit let down, as if I'd climbed a mountain only to get a shitty view on the top.
  However, I did like the podcast aspect and anything that involves a different form of media - especially in mystery/thrillers - always enhances the story for me. I think the podcast transcripts could have been included more as we got some snippets initially but those seemed to completely disappear at around 40%. Sorry, where have you gone? That was honestly one of the better bits of the book.
  I do like Savannah's writing and her use of diversity with her characters. I also liked how this book wasn't romance based and was solely focused on the mystery. I will say, Mona's own battles were predictable, but the reveal for this was done better than the reveal for the mystery the book was about.
  
  This book is hard for me to review because it wasn't like I didn't find it enjoyable, it just fell flat in the places I expected more.
  
  I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Angelika

  I was a bit disappointed honestly... I liked Mona, the way she was described as an unlikable character was only shown in the end where she got really rude, but in the beginning it was only told, which is a beginner's mistake in writing that I didn't expect here. Mona was totally nice to everyone and got along with Peyton and Ellis right away. I think that Mona and Peyton were also really similar to the two girls from TTAKS, one weird and dark, the other sociable and the pretty one, which I find a little bland. Also the way everyone wanted to hide what happened to Roxy but no one took serious measures to stop Mona and didn't charge her or anything for breaking into places twice was so unrealistic. I think the interview style conversations were kinda boring and obvious and too straight forward. I liked the scenes where Mona was dreaming or living through her trauma and I liked the dark relationship towards her sister but I think it didn't quite match the rest of the book, I was feeling like I was reading two different stories, because of the writing style. I think it was weird that we didn't get an info on who was Sylvia's father or did I just miss it? Also that Sylvia didn't meet Roxy, I think that would have been cool. I hoped there would be a bigger story to roxys disappearance also, that maybe Archie got jealous because of her and Mary Anne and Roxy gave frank the money in order for him to pretend like he found the guitar, I thought it was a bigger net of people who were involved, I think that would have been cool but that's just a side note and not very important. The thing is that everything seemed kinda loose in the end and not very well tied up. Overall I really preferred TTAKS over this book a lot.
• 
  Rebecca Bowen

  This may seem like a super high review for someone who doesn't like YA, but I'm going to justify this by saying that I'm an extremely sad infp that absolutely got lost in Savannah's poetic and (not me not knowing how to describe this without thinking of honey and warm sheets during winter) words this afternoon and found the characters so compelling. I love reading about other people's traumas!!!
• 
  Michelle (around - catching up!)

  This book and it's characters are still on my mind a week after finishing it.
• 
  Caroline

  casual gay and female wrongs, my two favorite themes
• 
  kada elliot

  Brown has a delicate way of blending typical elements of YA/coming-of-age stories (friendship, belonging) with harsher subjects like existing in the shadow of trauma, death, and grief. It’s always a pleasure to read.
  
  TTWDS did start off a little ~slow~ for me, but I quickly got invested in Mona's story. On the surface this is a novel about an adventurous seventeen year old uncovering a murder mystery, but it moves into much heavier topics (depending on how heavy you consider murder, I guess?) with ease.
  
  Rating this somewhere between 4 and 5 or 4.5 or 4.25 or 4.7 or 3.999 stars, idk! But it's good and I loved it. In conclusion I think Savannah Brown somehow plucks out pieces of my brain and puts them on paper— I don’t know how to be objective when I felt it all so deeply.
  
  (& i took months to post this review for that exact reason. oops!)
  
• 
  eve

  i usually hate YA but brown’s writing grips me everytime and saves it all. i didn’t even care about the illogical aspect of it all, i just kept craving her immersing prose and incredibly acute observations about trauma and pain and how unbelievably annoying (& stupid & mean & scared of absolutely everything & nothing at the same time) it can make you. the mystery of it all was gripping and there were just enough clues to lead the reader on without handing them the whole truth at once
• 
  Cleo

  A scrape-together of 3 stars. An original, modern premise and thorough closing of plotholes captured my interest at the open and close of the book, but the reading of the meat of it became a slight slog. Brown's poetic background led to glimmers of lyrical brilliance which were ultimately all too brief, and her preoccupation with death and anxiety weighed the movement of the novel down like a Sandown albatross.
• 
  susan✨

  3.5
  the writing is beautiful and engaging the whole way through but I felt the beginning definitely started off stronger and the ending became a little far fetched (but not difficult to visualize).
  overall brown is definitely coming into her own as a writer (she is definitely stretching her style here) and I can’t wait to see what else she puts into the world!
• 
  Alana

  This book is written beautifully - lyrically, almost - and the beginning is enticing as hell. Yeah, I wasn't a massive fan of the ending, but the book was well above average. The plot is well-thought out, the idea original, and the writing tops it all off. Great mystery. And let's all just take a moment to admire that cover.
• 
  Lucy

  I liked this and I didn't predict most of the twists.
• 
  leonie

  hmmmm?? so i really enjoyed the first half but then the plot didn’t get as intricate and plot twisty as i would’ve liked/ expected? so 3.5? 4? idk
• 
  Syd

  savannah brown always understands the assignment