Since You've Been Gone


Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Blurb:

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just … disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.
On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?
Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.
Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?
Kiss a stranger? Um...
Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she’ll find?
Go skinny-dipping? Wait...what?

Review:

"I have never seen anyone look so suspicious," Frank said, shaking his head. "Ever. I figured I should probably stay close, just in case."

Can I just declare this book as "most obtrusive earworm-creator ever"? Because I've definitely been spending a disconcerting amount of time singing "since you've been gone, I can breathe for the first time" which really isn't something I expected to be doing, like, ever. But, aside from that, this book didn't really do much for me, sadly. I've been cradling rather high hopes for Morgan Matson, which she has yet to live up to. Not that this was a bad book, it just also wasn't a particularly good book.

Honestly, I expected something more funny and less dull. The only scene I actually thought was kinda funny was when Collins introduces Ben (or Benji), other than that there isn't really anything that made me even crack a smile. I think my expectations were drawn from the concept (I just kinda figured a list that is supposed to make your summer adventurous would be fun) and consequently never noticed that no one (whose reviews I read) actually talked about it being a "funny book". 

As for the "dull" part, well, none of the items on the list actually interested me that much. Sure, apple picking at night sounds like a lot of fun – but not the way Emily did it. I related to Emily a lot at first because I've definitely been the extremely shy friend of "the super cool girl everyone likes" but I quickly realized that my shyness is very different from Emily's. For example: I'd never think that dancing until dawn would be something I could ever find, even remotely, enjoyable (granted, I do have a lot more anxiety/panic attack problems than Emily does, so anything to do with lots of people is immediately off-putting to me). Now, because it wasn't me who did the dancing but Emily, which is why I got the appeal it had to her and why I saw how it was a nice experience and stuff, but that doesn't mean that I was as intrigued by the list as she was. (I'm definitely more of an adrenaline-junkie, outdoors-y person, give me a list where the first item is "parachute" and I'd be happy but "kiss a stranger"? Nah.)

Obviously, there were a few things I liked, mainly the friends. Frank is really sweet (and everyone who has playlists with The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, The Beatles and Arcade Fire on it scores extra points with me) and seems like a generally good guy. I really enjoyed the friendship/romance between him and Emily, although I'd have hoped that 
(Attention: Spoiler ahead!) 
he'd broken up with Lissa a little earlier because I disliked that Dawn and Collins just vanished at the end of the book. 
(Spoiler over)
Dawn was also kind and sweet and Collins seemed like a generally good guy (I didn't like how dismissive Emily tended to be towards him). Beckett was also, reasonably, fun but we didn't really get to see that much of him – more than of their parents (which I missed), sure, but still.

Sloane, however, I didn't really like all that much. I think that was partially because we didn't see that much of her and half the time she wasn't really portrayed in the best light, and partially because – as I've mentioned before – I have been friends with the kind of extrovert, super-cool girl everyone likes with the significant difference that that friendship didn't play out as great as Emily and Sloane's did so I was rather vary of Sloane to begin with. 

"Are you okay?"
"No," she said, then seemed to rethink this. "Well, I mean, I'm, like, physically fine. I'm just …" She took a breath. "Can you help me break into my house?"

Rating:

Overall, this book is pretty down the middle for me: 3/5 stars.

Details:

Name: Since You've Been Gone
Deutscher Titel: Dreizehn Wünsche für einen Sommer
Author: Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 449

(I do have to say, though, that I really, really like this cover. I don't know why but it's so pretty!)

Comments

Post a Comment

Beliebte Posts.

All the Light We Cannot See

Image
All the Light We Cannot See  by Anthony Doerr Blurb: Marie-Laure  has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in. Review: What  is blindness? Where there should be a wall, her hands find nothing. Where there should be nothing, a table leg gouges her shin. Cars growl in the streets; leaves whisper in the sky; blood rustles through her inner ears. In the sta
Keep reading

An August Throwback

Image
Another  month passes, summer is coming to an end, September (finally!) hits us with some much needed rain and a direly wished for drop in temperature (or maybe that's just me). Soon, my semester is going to start so I tried to cram a lot of books into one month, which kinda worked well? So , in total I read 21.25 books, which includes 5 graphic novels/mangas, and listened to 3-and-something audiobooks. I don't know how many hours/minutes of audiobooks that makes a day but I do know that I read a total of 6478 pages or about 209 pages a day, which I'm very happy with. But let's wind back a bit and actually look at what it is that I've read in the month of August: Maus  by Art Spiegelman (4 Stars) A pretty fantastic Comic (or Graphic Novel? I guess because I read the bind-up it is a Graphic Novel but I believe it was published as Comics? I'm really not good at differentiating the two) about WWII. Touching and brutal, as most WW-stories tend to be
Keep reading

Goldene Zeiten

Image
Goldene Zeiten  von Daniel G. Spieker Zusammenfassung: Ein Mann kommt zum Arzt und leidet anscheinend an einer unbekannten Krankheit: Sein Körper wird langsam zu Gold. Rezension: Hat  sie tatsächlich Angst, dass ich ihr fremdgehe oder sucht sie nur nach einem Grund, um die Beziehung zu beenden. Mal schauen, wer zuerst einen findet. Zunächst  sollte ich wohl mit meiner Standard-Anmerkung beginnen: Ich habe nicht nur ein Rezensionsexemplar von diesem Buch vom Autor bekommen, besagter Autor ist auch ein Freund von mir. Ich werde trotzdem so ehrlich wie möglich sein. Gut , da das also erledigt wäre habe ich zwei Dinge zu sagen: 1. Goldene Zeiten  hat mir um einiges besser gefallen als Ein gutes Leben   2. zwischendurch hat mich die Geschichte ernsthaft genervt. Ich fange direkt mit dem schmerzhaften an, einfach um das hinter mich zu bringen: Die "Wissenschaft". Urgh, jedes Mal, wenn mir Logikfehler auffallen, brennen sie sich mir so richtig böse
Keep reading