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{{infobox infobox1
|title=How not to Disappear
|author=Clare Furniss
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|date=January 2016
|isbn=1471120309
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>1471120309</amazonuk> 1471120317|amazonusaznuk=<amazonus>B00WRBV93W</amazonus>1471120317|videoaznus=1471120317
}}
'''Longlisted for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal'''
Hattie is having rather a miserable summer. Both her best friends, Reuben and Nat, are away, living it up in the south of France and Edinburgh respectively. Hattie, meanwhile, is stuck at home babysitting her younger siblings and working at a burger joint. It's hardly glamorous and it's very dispiriting to be the one waiting at home for the odd text or email from friends who are having the times of their lives. Ho hum.
''How not to Disappear'' is all about facing up to things. Gloria has to face up to her past and to the inevitability of dementia taking away not only her memories but her identity, too. And Hattie must face up to the truth about her relationship with Reuben, her pregnancy, and that the prospect of going through with it also goes hand in hand with a changing identity for her. But if she doesn't, it might be a source of regret for the rest of her life.
The novel moves between the present day and the 1950s of Gloria's youth. The transitions are seamless and the flashbacks serves serve to blunt Gloria's present day bluntnessidiosyncracies. Because Gloria can be pretty obnoxious and rude. And is often drunk. And it's not all down to dementia. But right from the outset, our sympathies lie with both these central characters and we forgive them their faults. We know that Gloria's past is a sad place but it will take us to the end of the book to find out exactly why and we forgive her peccadilloes along the way. We know Hattie has a decision to make but it will take us to the end of the book to find out what it is and we forgive her prevarications along the way. I loved both these women, young and old.
I enjoyed the honesty of it and the way in which sadness and joy are presented as two sides of the same coin. I enjoyed the acknowledgement that love doesn't always conquer all. I had a deep appreciation for the sympathetic presentation of dementia - we need more of that in our ageing society. But mostly I enjoyed the growing relationship between two women, one looking back over a life and one looking towards a life yet to come.
Remember [[The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss |The Year of the Rat]]? It was great, wasn't it? This is Furniss's second novel, so she has a lot to live up to. And live up, she does. I ''loved'' this story and was thoroughly absorbed from start to finish. I also shed a tear or two. Or even three or four. It's lovely.
You might also want to look at [[Unbecoming by Jenny Downham ]], which also deals with a long-lost relative with dementia and a family crisis. It's lovely, too, as it gradually unravels the secrets of the past and problems of the present.
{{amazontexttoptentext|amazonlist=1471120309Top Ten Teens Books of 2016}}
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