¿Que ocurriria si un dia descubrieses que todo lo que crees saber sobre tu familia es mentira? Y ¿que ocurriria si, detras de esa mentira, se ocultara una verdad oscura y profunda, pero tan irresistible como para sentirte impelido a profundizar en ella? Ariella Montero desea conocer la verdadera identidad de su madre, de su padre y de si misma. Ha estudiado literatura, filosofia, ciencia e historia, pero no sabe casi nada sobre el mundo real y sus complejidades. En su mundo, los fantasmas y los vampiros conviven con los humanos, y cada vez que el puzzle parece a punto de resolverse, la ultima pieza hace que todo cambie. Poco a poco, Ari desentraña los secretos que han hecho que su familia viviese aislada, y comienza a reflexionar sobre su propia naturaleza y sus posibilidades de supervivencia. En un giro ingenioso a un genero con numerosos adeptos, esta novela, maravillosamente escrita, mezcla humor con terror para mostrarnos que los vampiros son algo mas que criaturas de la noche que se dedican a chupar la sangre de la gente. / Ariella Montero comes from a broken home, always a stigma for a teenager trying desperately to fit in. After Ari's mother disappeared on the night she was born, Ari was left in the care of her charismatic but secretive father, an overly protective recluse who, Ari comes to suspect, is a vampire. But wait, it gets worse. [...] Ari begins to wonder if she might be one, too. The girl's got questions, but Dad doesn't have all the answers, so Ari runs away from home, embarking on a picaresque journey to find her mother, the one person Ari believes holds the key to her true identity. As she hitchhikes her way through the country, Ari discovers much about herself but nearly loses her life in the process. Eschewing the sleep-all-day/prey-all-night school of vampire lore, Hubbard instead creates marginally mainstream characters, ones whose desires and fears, plans and dreams have nothing do to with the thrill of the kill....

It was the year of disappearances. The honeybees were the first to go.

Ariella Montero is no stranger to the dark side of life. Half human, half vampire, she spent her first thirteen years in exile from both societies. When her best friend was murdered, Ari ran away to begin a new life in Florida. But, one by one, the people and things she cares most about keep disappearing. And Ari may be next.

She can hypnotize, she can read minds, and she can make herself invisible, but can she escape her stalkers? Ari's special talents are severely tested as she moves on -- from a vampire community in the Sunshine State to college in Georgia to the primeval maze of the Okefenokee Swamp. In contending with the politics of vampire and human cultures, Ari comes face-to-face with zombies that are infiltrating America, as well as demons and shadows that haunt us all.

The Year of Disappearances continues the most surprising vampire story you'll ever read....

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"If you ever want to hide from the world, live in a small city, where everyone seems anonymous."

That's the advice of twelve-year-old Ariella Montero, who lives with her father in Saratoga Springs, New York, in a house haunted more by secrets than by memories. The Society of S traces her journey south, to Asheville and Savannah, and on to Florida, as she learns that everything she knows about her family is a lie.

When she finds her mother, she learns the truth: Ariella is a fledgling member of the Society of S.

S stands for Sanguinists: a sect of environmentalists concerned with ethics and human rights -- although they happen to be vampires. S also stands for synesthete: a person able to see words and letters in colors. The letter S is lucky for Sara, Ariella's mother, who gravitates to cities such as Savannah and Sarasota. But will it be lucky for Ariella?

Susan Hubbard's novel is an intricate literary mystery that raises provocative questions about the way we live now. Ariella's voice will lure you into a world where you'll meet the others among us: vampires who cope with their special nature and need for blood in a variety of ways, ranging from the savage to the mundane to the scientific....