Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone

by Kat Rosenfield

Unveils the details of a horrific murder, its effects on permanent and summer residents of the small Appalachian town where the body is discovered, and especially how the related violence shakes eighteen-year-old Becca's determination to leave home as soon as possible.

• ISBN10: 1101574070
• ISBN13: 9781101574072
• Publish Date: 1 July 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dutton Children's Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

I loved the writing in this book; I think it was so beautiful. It made the entire thing very atmospheric and immersive. I felt like I really understood the town of Bridgeton, because it was described so perfectly.

The plot was great; I loved how the two stories paralleled and overlapped, and the ending was a twist. I suspected James pretty much right off the bat, and I was wrong, but also right. At first I was angry because it seemed so obvious, with a clue just blatantly dropped near the beginning, but it turned out differently than I expected.

I think my biggest issue is that I don't feel like we got to know either Amelia or Becca very well. The plot and writing were wonderful, but the characterization of the two main characters seemed a little bare bones. Interestingly enough, I liked how James, Luke, and Lindsay were characterized; there were aspects of each of them that I liked, and some that made me either dislike or completely hate them. But Amelia and Becca were a bit elusive.

Overall I really, really liked this book. I thought the emotional tone was perfect, the writing was gorgeous, and the conclusion was surprising and creative. It wasn't perfect, but it was really damn good.

[Amanda]

Original review: http://onabookbender.com/2012/09/17/review-amelia-anne-is-dead-and-gone-by-kat-rosenfield/

Wow. Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is a book that works on multiple levels, from the gorgeous imagery to the mystery of who killed Amelia Anne to the startling honest look at small town life to Becca’s unraveling. This is not a happy story with a happy ending, but it is the type of book that pulls you in and deeper until you are too enthralled and engaged to break away. This is the kind of book that sticks with you after you finishing, sinking into your thoughts.

The book is told from two different perspectives: Becca, our main character, and Amelia Anne, the dead girl. The two stories seem absolutely different, but as the book goes on, we begin to see threads of their lives coming together until the point, at the very end, when you see how they finally tied together. This is truly a mystery and a contemporary book woven into one, with elements of each type of book integral to the overall experience.

I have a slight fascination with small towns, and Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone had a way of digging into that fascination. The language used to describe the small town and surrounding lands was rich and vibrant. The mystery is intriguing, and while I thought I had it all figured out by the end, I didn’t have all the pieces, lending to the idea that there is so much more that goes on beyond the surface than what we are about to see.

Fans of dark mysteries, who don’t mind the lack of a happy-go-lucky ending, might enjoy Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone. It is one of those books that will likely not appeal to everyone, but it had many of the elements that I love in a book: fantastical imagery, a murder mystery, small towns, self-discovery, and darkness.

[Stephanie]

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is about Becca who's life seems to take turn for the worse the summer before she leaves for college. The chapters are interrupted by Amelia's story and the events leading up to her death. The chapters are written in first person and narrated by Becca while Amelia's part is written in third person.

I was very intrigued by the whole murder mystery, but that was about it. I enjoyed Amelia's story, but Becca's story was so boring to me. I honestly didn't care about what was going on with Becca, but I read it anyways to see if anything exciting would happen in her life besides her feeling sad or nausea's or unsure all the time.

I got very confused quite a bit. The writing jumps around from past to present, like Becca would be having a conversation with her boyfriend, James, and he would mention something that I wouldn't understand, and then Becca would jump back and start explaining something that happened in the past, to explain what James was talking about, but I wouldn't be able to tell if she was really telling us about the past or if it was something happening the next day until I read a couple pages. It all made sense in the end, but it was confusing while I was reading it, and sometimes the whole scene wouldn't even contribute to the overall story. The scene might have been interesting, but it didn't fit into the story, to me. I thought to myself "what was the point of even telling us that?".

Becca's chapters are also very descriptive. Now, sometimes I can enjoy a book that is very descriptive, but that is very far and few between, so needless to say, I didn't like how it was very heavy on the description. While some might find the writing pretty, I found it boring. I was already impatient with the writing, with the jumping from past to present, so I wasn't very willing to read about how the grass moved in the wind.

Regardless, I did really enjoy Amelia's story. I probably liked it because I knew that her story wasn't going to end well, and to read about the events that lead to her death was almost fascinating because I was trying to figure out who killed her the whole time. The fact that her story was written in third person also helped me get into the story more because it wasn't so descriptive like Becca's, so her story moved at a faster pace and was easier for me to read.

I felt more invested in Amelia's story than I did with Becca's. Becca becomes depressed for some reason that wasn't very clear to me. One minute she was fine, and then the next she was upset. There were also a few things that were touched on, but not fully explained, like Becca would mention the she hadn't seen James for weeks, but it wasn't very clear to me until she actually mentioned it, as much as I knew, she talked to James just yesterday. So then it made me wonder why she was clinging onto her and James relationship when they were barely talking anyways?

So, overall I enjoyed Amelia's part of the story, but I couldn't get myself to really care for Becca's.