Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Review: 17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

17 & Gone
By: Nova Ren Suma
Pub. Date: March 21, 2013
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 354
Source: ARC

Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

With complexity and richness, Nova Ren Suma serves up a beautiful, visual, fresh interpretation of what it means to be lost.
17 & Gone is a really interesting concept. Every day girls go missing and Lauren can see the 17 year old girls that have disappeared. Some wanted to disappear, other were forced, but they all become pictures on a missing persons poster. Lauren doesn't know why she sees the girls, but she knows that if she can help them, then she will do anything she can to save them. Lauren becomes consumed by these girls. She eats, sleeps and breathes there stories. She pushes everyone away. She used to tell her mom everything but Lauren knows she can't tell her mom this or she will be labeled crazy.

One girl in particular, Abigail Sinclair has been missing for a few months and while everyone else is thinks she ran away, Lauren is convinced something else happened to her. She talks to Abby's grandmother and boyfriend to try to piece Abby's last day together. Between this and the clues that Abby is leaving her, she is getting closer and closer to finding out what really happened.

17 & Gone is part mystery, and part thriller. It also shows mental disease in a very real light. To be honest, I wasn't enjoying the story as much as I wanted to, but then the last 100 pages completely hooked me. It was exciting to see how it all came together. I don't want to give anything away, making this review a little harder to write, but it was interesting to see how Nova Ren Suma mixed mental illness with kidnapping, lies, and missing girls. 

This is the first book I have read by Suma. I am excited to read Imaginary Girls, which I hear is fantastic! 

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

2 comments:

  1. That's too bad that it didn't get interesting until the last 100 pages, but it sounds like a fascinating story. Nice review! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds like a really interesting idea for a book. And even though it took a while for you to get into it, I'm still very much intrigued by it.

    ReplyDelete

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