Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

TL;DR contemporary about a to-do list written by a friend gone MIA

(finished 6/13/15)

Okay. Let me be honest and say that this review is probably gonna be a little biased / emotional unless I go back and edit it out. Because let me tell you, this book felt like a rollercoaster as I finished it. 

I loved all of the characters. They all felt so unlike cardboard cutouts that it was like Matson just wrote a non-fiction narrative. I mean, of course some of the coincidences were too good for real life, but all of the characters felt so real and flawed and I would read a whole series about them if that was a thing that existed. 

And speaking of that: the biggest thing that I'm unhappy about right now is how Since You've Been Gone ends. Like, the ending scene is great, and I'm really happy about that, but there are still other things to resolve!! You can't just leave all these problems unsolved!! There are other friendships to mend! I seriously would've given the book five stars and talked about it as much as I do The Lunar Chronicles if I wasn't so unhappy about not knowing the fate of Emily's relationship with Dawn and Collins.You can't do that to me.

Also related to Dawn and Collins: the plot around this point seems very to-the-book. It was a very unsurprising Murphy's Law, and I'm really mad that I don't get to see Emily and Frank solve all the issues that said Murphy's Law caused. I honestly love Dawn and Collins as much as I do Emily and Frank, and I'm upset that their plotlines are just left like that because they're technically side characters. I didn't see them as any less important. They didn't feel like side characters to me at all.

Okay. Moving away from talking about characters. The plot was pretty typical for a fluffy contemporary, in my opinion, but that wasn't bad. I liked the concept of Sloane's list. I liked Emily's character growth.

To be honest, I actually identified a lot with Emily as I was reading. My best friend since middle school (ironically also named Emily) is going out of state for college in the fall. While I'm not as socially inept as book-Emily is in the beginning, I'm still a little afraid of what it will mean when she's away -- it was hard enough for me when I was out west for a week. I've also been lucky enough to experience the kind of shenanigans book-Emily had with her new group of friends. I'm really grateful for all the time that I get to spend with my friends, even if I seem to flake out sometimes. (It's not my fault I'm a wimp and can't handle Jurassic World. Or get asked to babysit.)

Anyway, I'd say Since You've Been Gone falls very firmly into the "fluffy contemporary" genre, and it was perfect to read at the beginning of my summer. I actually read half of it in one afternoon when I was at a party and my iPod died on me. The book made very good company.

But I will also not be a happy camper until I get a short story explaining the resolution with Dawn and Collins.