Reviewed by Nessa Luna on
After reading the summary, I personally thought it would be a bit like John Green's Paper Towns; where a guy goes to look for a friend that's disappeared without a trace. In SYBG, Emily goes and fulfills a to-do list hoping that at the end of that list she'll have found her best friend Sloane who has disappeared without a trace. So yeah, it's similar to Paper Towns, but I personally liked this book a bit more. I am not sure why, maybe it's because the main character is a female and I am too? Because of the to-do list that was in this book? I don't know, but I just really enjoyed reading Since You've Been Gone!
First of all I liked the main character, Emily, because she spoke to me on so many levels. I was like her a couple of years ago - not very good at socializing with other people unless my best friend was with me. I hardly ever went anywhere without her, and when I did, I never talked with anyone. So yeah, I could relate myself to Emily's situation. My best friend didn't really disappear, but we just grew apart and never spoke to each other again (until recently). But that wasn't the end of the world. Emily seemed to think that Sloane disappearing was the end of the world for her, because no one seemed to notice her without Sloane. But in this book she finds out that she's her own person, that she doesn't really need Sloane to be noticed (okay maybe she did, because she kind of got those friends thanks to the list, but still), and I loved that. I also liked Emily's family - her play-writing parents and her climb-crazy brother - and the new friends she made, partially thanks to Sloane's list. I just like how their friendship grew in this book, and I was a little sad when the 'thing' happened that threatened to make a loner out of Emily again.
The list was quite a simple one, though they seemed to play on Emily's fears. Like horseback riding, 'Penelope', going to a party alone and skinny-dipping. I was kind of expecting each task to have a little clue that would lead Emily to Sloane, and I was very anxious to know whether they would find each other again - and how that 'confrontation' would go. I wasn't really expecting it to go the way it went, but I am really happy that they were still friends in the end and that Sloane didn't leave because she didn't want to be Emily's friend anymore or something like that.
I wasn't too sure about the romance (which was kind of obvious right from the start), but I guess it kind of grew on me. It was just a bit of a shame that it was so obvious from the start that the whole kissing part didn't really do anything to me.. Oh well.. Then again, the romance wasn't a big part of the book in my opinion. The main plot was still finding Sloane and finishing the to-do list. So yeah, I'm happy with it!
There were also some flashbacks in the book, but that didn't bother me at all because they were a different font and they always had the month and '... years/months earlier' at the top which I think should be a mandatory thing for every book that uses flashbacks (because sometimes I just don't know if something is a flashback or not).
In the end, I really enjoyed Since You've Been Gone, even though I had the song by Kelly Clarkson in my head every time I picked up the book (and basically every time I see the title of the book), and I really recommend it to people who've enjoyed Paper Towns. So go and pick up Since You've Been Gone and read it, okay?!
My opinion on this book in one gif:
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 25 May, 2015: Finished reading
- 25 May, 2015: Reviewed