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55 pages 1 hour read

Holly Jackson

The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024

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Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of violence, imprisonment, psychological abuse, and murder.

Ramsay Lee, the director of the documentary titled “The Disappearance of Rachel Price,” asks 18-year-old Bel what might have happened to her mother, Rachel Price, who vanished without a trace 16 years earlier when Bel was only 22 months old. Bel explains that her mother is likely dead and reflects on the fact that she has been defined by this mystery for as long as she can remember. Suddenly, a clumsy camera assistant named Ash trips on a wire and is rebuked for failing to tape the wires down.

Bel goes on to explain that she and her mother disappeared in White Mountains Mall. They were seen on security footage but then vanished. Hours later, Bel was found in her mother’s abandoned car. She doesn’t remember what happened. She explains that thanks to her father, Charlie, her childhood was otherwise relatively “normal” and happy. Another person involved in the interviews arrives early, and Bel, overhearing the conversations of the filming crew, asks who it is.

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