Although atmospheric and well written I found this book too slow moving.
I enjoyed the present day journalist narrative far more than the storyline set at the school. Supposedly set in 1990 it could easily have been of an earlier era, in fact I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t.
Not my cup of tea I’m afraid with a mix of genres and characters I didn’t engage with. The author can weave a gothic type tale but I was glad when I came to the end of the book

Temple House is an elite boarding school for the daughters of wealthy families. So when Louisa wins a scholarship to the school, she is thrust into a world she doesn't know how to navigate; a world of petty jealousies, Catholic traditions, and schoolgirl fantasies. Shunned b y the popular girls, Louisa is drawn into a friendship with arty, ethereal Victoria, the pet of the handsome art teacher Mr Lavelle. And when Mr Lavelle takes Louisa under his wing as well, the three form an unlikely friendship.

Years later, a journalist is reporting on the unsolved mystery of the missing Mr Lavelle and Louisa, who are thought to have run away together when their romance was discovered. The narrative is split between the journalist, who narrates the present, and Louisa, who tells the story of her school days.

The book is finely written, but the story took a while to get going, and then seemed to lose its way in the second half - I enjoyed the story as a whole, but it took a very meandering path, and for a lot of the book, very little happened. I won't spoil the ending, except to say that the big reveal is one of my most hated literary devices, and utterly ruined the book for me - without it, the rating would have been a 3, possibly a 3.5, but I hated the ending so much that it cast a pall over the whole novel,

Thank you to NetGalley, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting and atmospheric read with some beautiful descriptions of the school grounds. The swimming hole and the summer house particularly appealed to me. I felt for Louisa, starting a smart new school as the ‘scholarship girl’. It was, for me, a slow burn, literary read rather than a page turner and I found it hard to engage with some of the characters but I enjoyed the undercurrent of tension and teenage obsession.

A girl Louisa and her art teacher disappear from the Temple House Convent school , 25 years later a journalist ,who used to live across from the missing girl , starts her own investigation into the story . As she delves into the disappearance a number of different theories start to appear . This story is told from the perspective of the journalist , Louisa and her best friend at the school Victoria . A well formed story framed in an unusual way , but unfortunately not my cup of tea , but I think it will appeal to many.

I’m not disputing the fact that Rachel Donohue can craft a story not that she can create convincing characters. However, this novel is a disappointing read. The first two thirds of a story which investigates the disappearance twenty-five years earlier of a teacher and one of his pupils, unfolds well. The claustrophobic Temple House school, the teenage tensions, the stultifying religious rituals, the gothic-like grounds all work to create a febrile atmosphere and it is understandable that some of the teenage girls look to their beautiful art teacher, Mr Lavelle, as the epitome of all they desire have even though, in reality, he is an inadequate waster whose ego is fed by pubescent fantasies. It is no wonder that feelings escalate, that the teacher and one of his pupils vanish, and that devastation follows.
However, the way in which the author uses narrative voice really does not work by the end of the novel – to explain more fully would be to spoil the plot. I enjoyed the focus on present-day journalism – this felt really authentic. Nevertheless, I cannot rate this novel as highly as a number of other readers because the denouement is so poorly fashioned, casting its awkward shadow over my overall view of the novel.
My thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

In the 1990s sixteen year old Louisa disappears at the same time as her art teacher. Twenty five years later, a journalist is investigating this for a story and becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened. Did Louisa run away with charismatic but shallow Mr Lavelle or is there a more sinister explanation?

I thought I would love this book. I went to a school run by nuns (although not a boarding school) and I was looking forward to some characterisation that i could relate to. In reality I didn't relate to much about the book at all. The characters were thin and somewhat elusive. At no time did you get a sense of who they really were. First love features strongly throughout and yet you never get a real sense of its agony and longing. Yes we are told of the feelings Louisa has for another character but we don't feel them in any way. In the end I found I was unconvinced and unmoved by the story although it was well written. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Whether fact or fiction, a teacher vanishing at the same time as a student is not new.
However, few remain undiscovered given a few months of searching. The Temple House Vanishing poses something of a mystery, neither teacher nor student found after many years of their disappearance.
I won’t disclose more of the story, sufficient to say this is a debut novel and should make Rachel Donohue a name to be remembered. It is very well written, keeping the reader engaged throughout the tale. I was most impressed with her style and how she made a well-worn genre, fresh and new, relevant too. She uses a device which causes the reader to make a false assumption part way through, but at the end it’s a way to reveal what really happened. It’s fair to say this is a stand-alone novel, so I wonder what topic Rachel will choose next in her career?

For me this book was about self image. Louisa as a scholarship girl felt that she was treated as if she didn't exist so was drawn to Victoria and Mr Lavelle as they considered her opinions worthwhile and thus gave her identity. Victoria herself was inventing a persona for herself that was more interesting than the reality. In reality she was impulsive and thoughtless living in a fantasy world. Mr Lavelle had no understanding of the vulnerablity of all the girls that he taught. The book was not what I expected and I felt it was too drawn out in places.

Louisa is a 16 year old scholarship girl at the seemingly prestigious, if crumbling, Temple House, run by an order of nuns. She falls in love with lofty classmate Victoria who is obsessed by charismatic young art teacher Edward Lavelle who is said to watch Louisa. One night, Louisa and Lavelle disappear never to be seen again. The mystery is written about in the national press. Twenty five years later a journalist reinvestigates.

An atmospheric mystery albeit with characters that I did not find sympathetic. Slow moving too, I found myself watching the % counter. The text is well-crafted but I did not enjoy it.

This one was just not for me. The story of a schoolgirl and teacher vanishing from a boarding school in the 90s - moving between then and the present. I found the characters hard to like and didn’t get drawn into the story or their world.

Told between two timelines, The Temple House Vanishing a a slow paced, gentle mystery. Twenty five years ago a girl and her teacher disappeared from a Catholic boarding school and now a journalist is trying to put together the pieces. It's a slow burner told by both the journalist and the long lost girl and I have to admit, it didn't really resonate with me.

It is a novel that relies on its atmospheric nature but I just didn't find myself getting drawn in. It's all a little too shallow, trying to seem deep without really delving into lives of the individuals concerned. I found both teenage main characters rather unlikable and, frankly, boring whilst the art teacher is set up as this teenage God and I never really got why. Very little is actually made of the religious background, and set in such a conservative religious setting that is strange. There's a whole heap of pretentious arty stuff which largely went over my head.

I found the ending rather predictable as well. It had to be one of two options really and I was relatively confident which one it would be from about half way in. All in all, a bit of a disappointment.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC copy.

A convent boarding school run by supposedly strict nuns, which allows the only male teacher (who has no qualifications) to entertain his favourite pupils at all hours in some sort of bohemian studio/den is a bit of an unlikely setting. The fact that adolescent girls would have huge crushes on a young male teacher has not occured to them, even though it is set in the 1990s. Then, when one pupil disappears no one is informed until it is too late. The male teacher has also disappeared, but the mystery is not solved until years later when the school has been closed down for a number of years and a journalist who used to be a neighbour of the missing girl decides to investigate. The truth of the matter is revealed eventually but there are no great twists and the pace of the book is very slow, in an attempt to create an atmospheric setting.

Two sixth form students at a convent school and a charismatic young, male art teacher. What could possibly go wrong? Louisa and Mr Lavelle, the teacher, disappear at the same time. Twenty-five years later a journalist is examining the open but unsolved case. The atmosphere of the ancient building run by the order of nuns was brilliantly portrayed. I attended such an establishment myself, though in the 1960s. By hearing from the two girls and the journalist in turns the story unfolds for us. Occasionally I found the voices so similar I had to go back and check who was telling me the story. The characters, all so young, even the teacher, were trying to find who they were, usually with reference to others. It was a tangle, and an interesting one. Although the style occasionally threw run-on sentences at me, I enjoyed the book overall. A good read.

This book is truly stunning. A romance in so many directions at once, and chillingly dark without ever seeming macabre, The Temple House Vanishing is some of the best writing about teenagers for adults I have come across in a long time. The novel is atmospheric and disturbingly romantic in parts, and while it never feels like a thriller where you're waiting for the big twist, when the reveal comes it is heartbreaking and satisfying all at once. Rachel Donohue is a very exciting new voice, and I can't wait to read whatever she does next. I LOVED this.

What a book!

Temple House comes across as a sort of enigma.

A fairytale or perhaps a nightmare.

Twenty five years after a horrible disappearance of a student and teacher questions are again being asked.

Are all the stories about this now derelict building true?

Executed in an extremely clever manner.

It is slow building but in the best of ways.

Mysterious and thrilling at the same time.

Even when I thought I'd pieced it all together, there was another twist that left me feeling nothing less than shocked.

Cannot wait to share my full review with you on my blog nearer publication time!

I read this book in a day as I just couldn't put it down. It is a dark, but beautifully-written book, and the gradual unfolding of what has actually happened to Louisa is very cleverly written. The scenes set in the school were completely believable, and the characters were all well-drawn. I would thoroughly recommend this rather unusual book.

I got this book confused with another book I was hoping to read and requested it in error, I gave it to my wife to read and she really enjoyed it, good enough recommendation for me

A tale of adolescent passion and jealousy at a catholic girls boarding school, Temple House.
Attended by girls from privileged families and occassionally a scholorship girl from a state school is accepted. One such girl is Louisa.
Louisa forms a friendship of sorts with Victoria, who in her mind has created a relationship with the school art teacher Mr Lovelle.
In the cloistered atmosphere of Temple House passions spiral out of control, leading to one girl`s, Louisa, disappearance and of the handsome art teacher.
Did they run away together or did something more sinister occur.
The mystery has remained unsolved for many years but now a young journalist is determined to discover exactly what happened.
An atmospheric tale filled with suspense, mystery and characters who came to life.
I was drawn in from the start.
An excellent read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Atlantic books for the opportunity to read this as an ARC.

"The Temple House Vanishing" is beautifully sculpted and haunting. Rachel Donohue's prose carries a hint of Daphne du Maurier. The book explores a variety of themes including the confines of Roman Catholicism, the nature of love and obsession. It's a lovely piece of work.

This was unsettling to say the least! A religious school in the 1990s and the nuns are scary! It's hard to pinpoint where the story actually takes place. You would think it was Ireland with the names and the fact there were many catholic boarding schools in Ireland does hint at this. However, wherever the school is , it's one you'd want to avoid in real life! I do think a little more explanation as to where this school was, would have really made this stronger for me even if the town had been fictional. There's something about having a name of a place that helps to ground it for me.

Boarding schools are scary at the best of times in novels. This one is full of creepy nuns, scary girls and a teacher who has seemingly run off with a pupil. What really happened? The story is revealed surely and with a deft hand of touch. Told in the 1990s and the present day, this works well with the school memories and the investigation into the past.

In the present day a journalist who lived near the missing girl narrates the story. Then there's Louisa and Victoria.. Two girls I wouldn't like to meet! The students are all a bit wild but that school is soon going to tame them!

This is a story about hidden passions, hormones and the decisions that result. Jealousy is a school companion throughout and this tale gets dark and gritty pretty quickly..

Religion, schools and religious schools= lots of chills and spills
Very Donna Tartt I thought. A bit of Tana French thrown in. .
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