The Vanishing: Book One of The Exiles by Kelsey Crane -review tour
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /
Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 18, 2026
It all begins with a game. Six teenagers from around the world receive a mysterious VR headset and are dropped into RIZE: a hyper-realistic survival simulation game where the Earth still lives and breathes as it used to. But when tragedy strikes, the 17-year-olds are faced with a radical choice: to remain obedient heirs to a broken world or take their virtual civilization offline and build it for real.
In a daring heist, the six disappear. They flood the system with fake identities, hijack their supplies, and vanish into the Pacific Northwest to build The Ark: an off-grid homestead rooted in ancient wisdom, the science of permaculture, and the hope of creating a blueprint to save the world. At first, The Ark feels like utopia. Spring brings blossoms and blurred boundaries. But love entangles. Ideologies fracture. Winter descends. A traitor is unmasked, and survival turns brutal. As the outside world hunts them, and the true creator of RIZE is revealed, cracks in their idyllic community begin to form. They had set out to save the world, but now they’re fighting to save themselves.
••••••
REVIEW: I picked up The Vanishing drawn by its premise…. six teenagers from around the world receive mysterious VR headsets, enter a hyper realistic survival simulation called RIZE that shows Earth as it once was, and then make the radical decision to abandon the broken real world and try building something better offline. (Sounds a little like the Maze 🤔)
What starts as a game soon becomes more, a disappearance into the Pacific Northwest, and the creation of The Ark (an off grid homestead grounded in ancient knowledge, and stubborn hope.)
This is a YA dystopia that feels uncomfortably close to home rather than distant spectacle. No superpowers, no monsters, just ordinary 17 year olds confronting a world of pollution, scarcity, and systems that no longer serve them.
The choice they face…. remain obedient heirs to a failing civilization or risk everything to try living differently lands had me turning those pages. The early sections in the simulation and the transition to building The Ark are particularly effective at making the environmental stakes personal and tangible.
What worked best for me was the found family dynamic and the focus on the daily work of creating a community. Spring at The Ark brings the expected blossoming and blurred boundaries…. love, ideology, and personality clashes. Winter brings its own issues and external pressure harden everything.
The characters had great backgrounds, traumas, and skills, watching them try (and sometimes fail) to become a functioning unit was really compelling (I’d happily watch this on the big screen.)
Utopia is fragile. Relationships tangle. Trust fractures. A traitor emerges. Survival gets brutal. These elements keep the story from feeling naïve. At the same time, the book never fully abandons hope, the sense that young people might still be able to live a different life from their parents.
Pacing is deliberate in places. Getting to know six distinct points of view and settling into the rhythms of The Ark takes time, and some of the day to day details may feel slower if you’re primarily looking for high stakes thriller momentum. But once the external pressure and internal cracks intensify, the tension rises effectively.
The writing is clear, strong on atmosphere and emotional moments without becoming too much.
As a debut and the first in a series, The Vanishing sets up larger questions about technology, nature, community, and what it actually costs to try changing the trajectory of a damaged world. It left me invested in the characters and curious about where the story goes next.
If you like character driven YA that treats climate crisis and found family seriously then give this one a go.
It’s thoughtful and often moving.
I’m glad I read it, and I’ll be looking for Book Two.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Julie B 🦋
SOCIAL MEDIA: Goodreads/Website/Instagram/Substack/Facebook/
KELSEY CRANE is a storyteller, gardener, and apprentice of regenerative living. A certified permaculturist and ambassador for the Rodale Institute, she learns from the teachers, growers, and Indigenous leaders quietly building the future, and brings what she gathers to the page with care and curiosity. Her fiction explores the collision of ecological collapse and radical transformation, always with unshakable optimism—a hope she holds, as a mother, for every child inheriting this world. Kelsey lives in Los Angeles with her family.
