Synopses & Reviews
Now available in paperback, Susan Hubbard’s “smooth supernatural thriller” (Publishers Weekly) The Year of Disappearances continues the most surprising vampire story you’ll ever read.
• Hot genre: New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris likens Hubbard’s “mysterious and well-written” novels to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, whose fans “pump new blood into Hubbard’s series” (Florida Today). The devotion of readers to this category ever-expanding in popularity is a prime opportunity to showcase Hubbard’s outworldly fiction.
• Author buzz: Hubbard’s novels grab the attention of a key demographic—enthusiasts of fantasy-themed fiction. “Fans of Stephenie Meyer, I have a new author for you who is even better. meet Susan Hubbard,” proclaims the Poisoned Pen newsletter from the Poisoned Pen mystery bookstore. Booksellers have welcomed Hubbard as an important new contributor to the genre.
• The year of the vampire: Ariella Montero, the perpetually thirteen-year-old, half-human, half-vampire whose adventures began in The Society of S, here, in The Year of Disappearances must harness her special abilities of hypnotism, mind-reading, and the power to make herself invisible to contend with the fatal (for humans) cultural clash wrought by warring sects of vampires and played out against the backdrop of American national politics, whereby a leading candidate proves to be something other.
Review
"Wonderful and suspenseful." -- Charlaine Harris, author of All Together Dead
Review
"With a delicate touch, the talented Hubbard manages to merge environmental concerns with a murder mystery, a coming of age tale with a literary vampire twist." -- Tammar Stein, St. Petersburg Times
Synopsis
It was the year of disappearances. The honeybees were the first to go.
Ariella Montero is no stranger to the dark side of life. Half human, half vampire, she spent her first thirteen years in exile from both societies. When her best friend was murdered, Ari ran away to begin a new life in Florida. But, one by one, the people and things she cares most about keep disappearing. And Ari may be next.
She can hypnotize, she can read minds, and she can make herself invisible, but can she escape her stalkers? Ari's special talents are severely tested as she moves on -- from a vampire community in the Sunshine State to college in Georgia to the primeval maze of the Okefenokee Swamp. In contending with the politics of vampire and human cultures, Ari comes face-to-face with zombies that are infiltrating America, as well as demons and shadows that haunt us all.
The Year of Disappearances continues the most surprising vampire story you'll ever read.
About the Author
Susan Hubbard is the author of
Blue Money, winner of the Janet Heidinger Kakfa Prize, and
Walking on Ice, winner of the Associated Writing Programs' Short Fiction Prize. A sequel to
The Society of S, her new novel, is in progress.
Hubbard's fiction has appeared in Triquarterly, Ploughshares, The Mississippi Review, and other journals. Coeditor of 100% Pure Florida Fiction, she is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida. She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Project, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Cill Rialaig.
Hubbard has given fiction readings and led writing workshops at universities and arts programs across the United States and the United Kingdom. A past President of Associated Writing Programs, she has served as an assessor and curriculum consultant for several colleges and universities. She lives in Orlando and Cape Canaveral, FL.