Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah MoskowitzMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Okay, I think I've recovered enough to write a review.
The Good
Characters
I'll start with Craig.
Craig is not your typical gay boy. Firstly, he is black, which made me tingle with delight after being a first hand witness that if you're gay you can only be white and feminine. I really like what she did to that stereotype. To me, Craig wasn't very girly. He wasn't boyish either, oh God no, but he wasn't girly.
If you've read the Animorphs, he's sort of like a male Cassie -- coupled with the love for animals. If you haven't read Animorphs, well, then I don't quite know who to compare him to.
Be forewarned, Craig is a crybaby. But his crying is with reason, and it is pointed out that he does cry alot, which is much appreciated. Nothing is worse than a crybaby who is painted off as being a cold-hearted strong trooper. No, Craig's flaws are pointed out.
However, there is something with Cody. Cody is Craig's ex-boyfriend. Craig doesn't talk about him much -- wait, that's not true. He won't shut the hell up about him, but what I mean is that he never really talks about him. However, I've come to the conclusion that after Cody's dad dies Cody becomes utterly and completely screwed up. I think he probably verbally/physically/generally abused Craig in some way, but I'm not sure.
Because of Cody's fragility, Craig has become obsessed with taking care of things after Cody leaves to go to a mental hospital (I told you, the dude's screwed up). Which is why he has like a million animals. Actually, he only has about twenty. But when someone breaks into the house and the animals run away, Craig is left all alone. Until...
Now, we get into Lio.
Lio's therapist describes him as "a little fucked up", and if that isn't an indicator that he isn't quite right then I don't know what is. Lio and his twin developed cancer, and his twin died while he survived.
Lio, make no mistake, is a jerkass at times. But you don't excuse him for it because of his bwaaaad pwaaaast. You mull it over and forgive him because he seems genuinely sorry, and most of the time does make a good point in between his jerkassness.
Lio doesn't like to talk. But you really don't start to notice this until around halfway through the book. He's not your typical mute, though, because whenever he does open his mouth sometimes you begin to see why he keeps it shut.
And then there are those times when he opens his mouth and you wonder why he ever shut it in the first place.
Now, their dynamic,
Keep in mind, I am not a romance person. In fact, I generally try to stay away from romance (<--- LIES). However, somehow, I always end up reading romance books.
Lio and Craig have an interesting dynamic. Their friendship is cute and funny, while being distant and rather cold. It only confuses things when Lio kisses Craig, but honestly I'm wondering how Craig didn't see this coming. Sure, Lio doesn't seem gay, but the signals were...rather large. To me, anyway.
They're both fifteen (Lio is like, six months older but Craig is almost a foot taller) and this doesn't bother me. They don't seem young, at least not annoyingly young, and that is a relief. I'm getting sick of couples acting like five year olds and then it being played off as cute. Honestly, it's something if both people act like five year olds. But mushy, annoying, high pitched whining five year olds? No.
Their romance is something else entirely. It is possibly one of the sweetest things I have ever read, although things do get dark for a while. Keep in mind, I have not yet rated any LGBT books above 3 stars yet, I'm pretty sure, because if you're going to sell the boy/boy romance thing to me you have to work for it. This book worked for it.
The Side Characters
Now, in many a romance book side characters are either played for laughs, ignored, or made as annoying plot devices. I was happy with the way all of the characters in this novel were developed.
And guess what?
No disappearing parents syndrome! (<-- Not my ingenious phrase, btw)
I feel like the parents are real people. Although we don't go into them too much, we do get pretty solid personalities that aren't the typical quipster parents. Or quirky parents. Or just the nice parents. They are individuals too!!
It is set pretty early that Craig is a pretty miserable and alone insomniac, while Lio left all of his friends behind when he moved from New York, so neither of them have friends. However, we are given wonderful character development on Todd, Craig's brother, which I appreciate.
Also, I've noticed that in many boy/boy romance novels girls are demonized. I don't like this, and find it increasingly annoying (hel-lo! not all girls are make up obsessed high-maintenance freaks of nature!). However, there are a lack of girls in this novel. But the ones that we do meet, are not stereotypes, and they aren't annoying brats.
Which gives this book a few more points.
The Narration
The Narration is easy to read through, and guess what? IT'S DUALLY NARRATED! It was perfect for this book, and awesome to get into the mind of both characters. Win, Gone Gone Gone, win.
We aren't littered with adjectives, annoying purple prose, or anything of the sort. We're generally quick and straight to the point.
Which is awesome for someone like me, with a short attention span.
With good, however, comes bad.
The Bad
There aren't too many bad things about this book I can say, besides the one thing staring me straight in the face.
The plot.
Yes, Gone Gone Gone, you won on so many levels, but on this aspect, you didn't win that much. We should have focused more on the inciting incident, and then perhaps picked up the pace, created a better false happiness or false defeat, perhaps given each character an overarching plot or goal to follow.
That, is my only complaint.
In conclusion,
What I do love about this book is that all ends are tied. Nothing is forgotten, and everything is resolved in a pretty agreeable fashion. That's really all I ask...or at least one of the major things.
Book, you get a thumbs up!
And not just any thumbs up...
A Rock Lee thumbs up!
No comments:
Post a Comment