I can’t remember where I first heard about this book, but I was drawn to the premise of two girls disappearing and what happens after. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting such an unconventional (and for the mystery-lover in me, somewhat unsatisfying) tale, but this was an intriguing work that kept me reading till the end.

Disappearing Earth starts with the disappearance of two little girls. After the first chapter, however, things didn’t proceed as expected. Instead of a more conventional murder mystery, we’re given eleven glimpses (one for each month) into the lives of various characters as they deal with the aftermath of the disappearance. Not all of them know the girls or are involved, but they’ve all been touched in some way. It’s only at the end that we go back to the disappearance and get a little bit of closure.

I’ll be very frank – I’m normally not a fan of unconventional structures (especially when I’m expecting a mystery) but the characters here are well-written. I really liked the chapters where the main characters are ‘natives’ (minority groups in Russia) because they explore the divide between Russians and the smaller minority groups. It reminded me a lot of how China also has a lot of minority ethnic groups that get overlooked and/or distrusted – a great example of how stories of people in vastly different worlds can resonate with issues closer to home. Not that mainland China is very close to Singapore, but it is closer than Russia.

Since most of the stories were unconnected or only tenuously connected to the disappearance, it took a while for me to see how things related to one another. It also meant that I was more interested in some chapters than others – the one that stayed with me most was the December chapter, where Ksyusha struggles between the overprotective/controlling Russian boyfriend that she loves and the native boy that she’s comfortable with. I think that was when I knew I was going to finish the book, instead of wondering if the next chapter would be when I lost track of the whole thing and gave up.

As a mystery-fan, the ending was not satisfying at all. We do sort of find out what happens, but there is no firm conclusion. After googling about the book, I realised that this was intentional on the part of the author, but yeah, I wouldn’t recommend this as a mystery. It’d work if you’re into characters and even then, I wish the book was longer so I could properly get to know the character; but then again, I’m also an uncultured reader who prefers conventional narrative styles so there you go.

Last thing: I have no idea if the lifestyle and yearning for Soviet times depicted here is accurate. If you are familiar with this aspect, please chime in! I didn’t really take note of the author’s name when I read the book so I didn’t realise this was not an ownvoices novel until after I finished and was googling more about why it’s so unconventional. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it, but now I’ve got an urge to read Russian fiction by Russian authors (ahem, this is also why I do the SEA Reading Challenge; I like reading books set in other countries by writers who have grown up and still live in said country) – anyone have any recommendations?