Review: Since You've Been Gone by Mary Jennifer Payne

I have received an advance e-edition of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review of it.

Kids get scared when they lose their moms for a minute, so your mother disappearing in London must be horrifying. This is the set-up for Mary Jennifer Payne’s suspenseful and tragic new novel Since You’ve Been Gone.

Fifteen-year-old Edie is used to being on the run with her mom, but she is especially heartbroken when she finds out that they are moving to her mother’s native hometown of London from Edie’s native Toronto. Not only must she start again at a new high school, every teen’s worst nightmare, but she must also do so in a place where no one speaks or dresses like she is used to. Then it gets worse, and when Edie’s mom doesn’t come home she is sent on a journey across London to discover the truth for better or for worse.

Payne’s depiction of London was phenomenal. My favorite kinds of settings are those that seem to come alive off the page, almost becoming their own character. Here, the reader discovers London through Edie’s eyes, from the slummy section of South London where she lives to the luxurious section north of the River Thames. Payne’s description doesn’t read like a tourist manual of the top ten sites to see in London like some other books. Instead, it reads like a chaotic mess that is intimidating and fascinating at the same time to a newcomer.

However, the same could not be said of the scenes of the book that take place in Edie’s high school, which were to be completely honest a little lackluster. The mean girls were stereotypical, the outcasts even more so.  The dynamics between the teachers and the students were the best part of those sections of the book, but only mildly so.

The best part of the book was the developing relationship between Jermaine and Edie. Payne managed to include a romantic subplot to the story that was like a prepubescent version of Sex in the City. Instead, their love for each other took time to develop, and was full of understanding and simplicity. That part was great.

The overall idea for the book is also worthy of praise. I only wish that the plot didn’t move so quickly so that it might have been even better. The timing of the book seemed to move way too quickly, and Edie’s father’s actions seemed completely unrealistic. I also didn’t really like how everything seemed to be tied up into a bow at the end of the book.  With everything that happened, I expected there to be more loose ends. I wasn’t left disappointed at the end exactly, just disappointed that this book wasn’t as excellent as it could have been. Still, it was a fun read and has several high points in addition to its lows.

3/5 stars 

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I just want to say this is the best book I’ve read in a really long time. Usually I’m able to close one book and start another but I needed to wait a while after finishing We Were Liars. It was one of those stories that hits you so suddenly and all at once, and one that I’ll definitely be rereading again and again in the future. Before I fangirl more, here is my review:

Everyone tells lies. Some lies just happen to be more treacherous than others. People can lie to others, but they can also lie to themselves. Young adult author E. Lockhart’s tragically beautiful new novel We Were Liars explores such lies, and the quest for truth, as the narrator Cadence Sinclair Eastman struggles to remember the repressed memory of an accident that occurred the summer she was fifteen.

Cadence is part of the Liars along with Gat, Mirren and Johnny. The four are the grandchildren (or in Gat’s case, a close friend of the grandchildren) of the eerily perfect Sinclair family, which summers on their island near Martha’s Vineyard called Beechwood Island. The Sinclair patriarch has three daughters, of which Cadence, Mirren and Johnny are the eldest children.

Lockhart’s depiction of this wealthy, self-destructive New England family is at once horrific and dazzling. Readers will both love and hate the family, for the Sinclairs are simultaneously repulsive and endearing. The language used to describe the setting is overwhelmingly rich and intense. At times, Readers will feel as if they are actually on the island looking at the houses or just taking in the salty, sea air. Lockhart’s skillful description makes the setting and the characters of this novel come alive.

While Lockhart’s novel is stunningly original, readers familiar with Spring Awakening will find similarities in the dynamic between the young and the old: the adults’ ignorance ultimately causes fracture and havoc for their children.

Cadence’s narration of the story is immediate, raw and emotional.  Lockhart combines her narrator’s realistic and natural voice with a twist-filled plot to create a well-paced suspense novel that will demand the reader’s attention from start to finish. The use of first person in the present tense gives the reader the sense that they are unraveling the Sinclairs’ secrets alongside her. Her selective amnesia from the accident she can’t, or refuses, to remember is exceptionally exploited to create a breathless suspense tale. Lockhart pushes unreliable narration to its best, and readers will be shocked when the truth is finally revealed. The ending of this book will leave every reader sobbing. Kleenex are strongly recommended for the last thirty pages or so of this book.

While Cadence is such a strong and dynamic character in We Were Liars, all of the other characters in the novel are as richly developed. Cadence’s mother and aunts each have a distinct personality that affects the course of the novel. The other Liars also have richly developed personalities. Gat has a strong-willed resistance to the Sinclairs’ ideals as an outsider while Mirren and Johnny’s reluctant adherence and subtle rebellion to the expectations of their family, creating an intricate network of developed characters. Each character has an impact on the course of events the novel takes and no one falls into the background.

Lockhart’s use of fairy tales to help Cadence sort through her repressed memories gives the book a fantastic, cryptic quality. We Were Liars is a modern fairy tale of loss, rediscovery, regret and endurance. It’s a story for everyone, young or old, male or female.

It is a book that discusses the desperateness of young love through the complicated relationship between Cadence and Gat. It shows the tragic consequences of family feuding and politics. It shows the closeness of bonds between friends and family and how those bonds change and twist over time. It’s a story of grief and loss as well as the search for truth and knowledge. It’s a story about the narrow-sightedness of teenagers, and of people, and how we try to control what it ultimately becomes uncontrollable.

Overall, We Were Liars will leave each and every reader feeling that they have read something simultaneously nostalgic, immediate, profound and magical. There are simply not enough words to describe how good this book is, so you’ll have to read it and see for yourself.

This is a book that lives up to the hype. All of it.

5/5