The story is written from two points of view: that of a journalist and that of a girl, Louisa, who went missing from a private school many years ago. It also skips back and forth in time between the present and the period leading up to Louisa’s disappearance. This approach sometimes works well but is often confusing. I found myself re-reading several passages to understand where I was in the story.

Louisa is a misfit. She wins a scholarship to Temple House School, so she is from a very different background to the majority of the pupils who come from rich families. That resonates with me as it mirrors experiences in my own school life. She soon befriends Victoria, another girl who doesn’t fit the establishment. Both girls, enjoy their art classes and have crushes on their art teacher, the only male member of staff amongst a coven of nuns, Mr Lavelle.

My favourite character in the whole book is Helen, the red-headed, sinister head girl. She was well developed in this story and I feel that the author could write a whole new book with Helen as the leading character.

The pace was very slow and there was just a bit too much description and filler, so much so that I often found myself skipping a couple of pages, feeling that I had missed nothing.

This is a fairly good debut novel. I am sure that Rachel Donohue has much more to offer and I look forward to her next book.

A brooding, gothic-style mystery set in a boarding school. Not fast paced but kept me reading. I had to keep reminding myself that the boarding school parts were set in the 90's. It felt much earlier than that. The characters were intriguing and the book is full of teenage angst. I kept waiting for a twist that never came (maybe that was the twist !) I think it would be good for book clubs or reading groups. There is lots to discuss.

I was drawn to this book by it's blurb but unfortunately found the pace a little slow. I didn't warm to any of the characters and felt no sense of intrigue as to what had happened with the missing couple.

This was dark and atmospheric and whilst it was a little slow in places, it still got under my skin and I felt compelled to get to the bottom of it.

I was really into the premise of this book as it sounded like a really good mystery with a little bit of back-and-forth through time. What I found was that actually the story was sadly a little stodgy... I don't feel like the ending was as punchy as I expected it to be, and while the place and description was atmospheric, I don't know that there was a single overly likeable character in the book apart from maybe the journalist narrator. I didn't really find myself rooting for anybody and at times I felt the characterisations of the schoolgirls quite stereotypical.

Plus points to the writing style and the author's descriptiveness, but I just didn't particularly enjoy the story. Sorry.

Unfortunately The Temple House Vanishing was a DNF for me I found the storyline dragged on a bit and sadly didn't grab my attention.

Rachel Donohue’s first book tells the story of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic teacher who disappeared without a trace twenty-five years ago. It’s an evocative and haunting novel exploring infatuation, unrequited desire and the long-buried secrets held by a cast of shallow, spiteful and unlikable characters.

Enjoyed this book, it was fast paced and kept me guessing. Certainly helped pass time during lockdown!

Not a book I would usually pick at first glance, but I’m glad something made me choose this. An unsettled read, but one I enjoyed and read quickly to find my answers! Will look out for this author again.

A supposedly strict boarding school run by nuns in Ireland. Along comes Louisa, a scholarship girl who doesn’t really fit in. One evening she just disappears at the same time as a teacher. I was torn as to whether this book should have 2 or 3 stars, but decided on 2 simply because the story never really got going, and then wham, it’s the last page. Yes it was beautifully written, with some lovely, clear descriptions but it needs a little more than that. The girls in this school were quite awful, so no empathy there and it’s surprising that nuns would even employ a male teacher bearing in mind it’s supposed to be strict!

I took a while to get into this book, but once I did I read it avidly and looked forward to each time I could sit down for another few chapters.The setting is perhaps not unusual, but the author handles it in an interesting way and it becomes an important part of the plot. The characters of the schoolgirls are well fleshed out and they develop as time goes on. It seems obvious, but many authors writing about children forget that they change quickly and can be capricious. All in all, I thought this was a great book.

This was a good read, but slightly predictable at points, It wasn't really clear what genre it was aiming for but the writing was great at times.

I found this to be s rather strange book - but nevertheless intriguing. This tale is told from a couple of people's perspective and this works well. I was gripped by wanting to know the outcomes but found some passages to be overlong and wordy and I was tempted to skip these - not the best way to read a book. All in all I would recommend this unusual book and don't skip any!

The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donahue is a fascinating read. The writer captures the readers’ imagination by very cleverly telling the story through the eyes of three characters; the journalist who is reporting incidents from the past and the two main characters who make up the story. Although the storyline is strong, there is not really a lot of action and the pace is rather slow for a mystery.

I enjoyed the book and the writer’s style but I felt there was very little uplifting in the story and that was disappointing.

The remote setting gives this story a gothic quality. It's a place that masks deceit, obsession and dark secrets. Louisa is vulnerable and desperate to fit in somewhere in her new school. This makes her an easy target for manipulative Victoria.

Flawed realistic characters are the story's driving force. They often lack compassion and understanding. The pacing is slow to create the school's claustrophobic atmosphere. The plot does seem to rely on coincidences in parts, but there are realistic twists and a dark ending.

An absorbing, intriguing tale that has a haunting quality.

I received a copy of this book from Atlantic Books -Corvus via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is a slow burner of a debut from Rachel Donohue in which you can draw comparisons to the brilliant The Secret History from Donna Tartt and to the more recent The Furies from Katie Lowe.

A teenage student and her teacher disappear from a Catholic boarding school. Did they disappear together or did something more foul happen. Years following these events a journalist starts digging and the story unravels.

Donohue builds the environment of the school with real skill, it’s brooding and it’s claustrophobic. No one in the book is without fault, this is a subtle battleground of simmering tensions, of jealousies, of class issues of repression.

You can’t escape the fact that this book is a slow read, but it does slither it’s way under your skin and there are some nice twists on the journey to discovering what happened to both student and teacher.

Well written debut. I am looking forward to reading more from Rachel Donohue ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five.

4 Stars from me

This darkly atmospheric tale is in Temple House  boarding school for girls - run by some rather lacklustre nuns. In 1990 Louisa gains a scholarship but is deemed inferior by the richer students. Think Mallory Towers but make it more of an R rating! Ripe for the picking she soon latches onto Victoria, the only girl to truly offer her friendship, and fangirls over the male art teacher Mr Lavelle.

Questions abound when Mr Lavelle and Victoria disappear...

25 years later and we join the story as told by Louisa and a journalist - layers of history are unveiled in a bid to find the truth.

Beautifully descriptive, this story is essentially a dark mystery, a cold case in a way, but it is full of acutely observed tales of the falsehood of friendships, teenage angst and raging hormones, deceit, the dreadful ways in which some people behave towards others and an obsessive quest for the truth.

This was beautifully written and a very intriguing story, amazing for a debut novel. Like other reviewers I thought that it was unlikelt that the school would employ Mr. L, and there was bit near the end that all went a bit spooky that I didn't think was necessary, but overall a great read.

This was the first book I've read from this author and it was just okay. It was hard for me to get into and the characters didn't keep my attention.

I wish I had been this book's editor because, with a rewrite, it could have been so-damn-good. Without one however, it withered in YA trope hell and then died.