Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone

by Kat Rosenfield

[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.