Review: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

I picked this book up on seeing so many people recommend and praise it. If it hadn't been for that then I probably wouldn't have given this book a second glance because the cover didn't really stand out to me as something that I should pick up. However, I'm really glad I did and I think it's taught me not to judge books by their covers.

This book was a refreshing change from a lot of the teen books which are purely focused on romance. Friendship is something that people deal with before they get to relationships and I like how this book fitted that pattern. At its heart, this book is about friends and it was such a nice and different thing to read about.

At the start of the book, I wasn't sure that I was fully comfortable with Emily as a character. She was so dependent on Sloane that it was almost depressing. I wanted to scream through the pages at Emily to get a grip and that she could survive for a little while without her best friend, but as the book progressed I grew to like her more as she became more independent. Looking back, I understand why Emily had to be like that at the start of the book and I'm glad she made the progression that she made.

The storyline in this book was beautiful. The concept of the list meant that the book had integral structure and that I always knew each chapter would have something exciting waiting for me in it. Even though each chapter title was a little giveaway to what would happen, it was still interesting because of how each thing on the list played out. This book made me want to write someone a list/get someone to write me a list and then I can go on a similar adventure.

I feel like I have to talk about the romance in this book, even though I said that the main focus was on friendship. At the start of the book I didn't expect there to be a romance between Emily and Frank and I didn't even realise that there would be one until about half way through the book. That was what I loved about the romance in this book. It didn't feel forced in any way. It felt like a natural progression from friendship to relationship and it made the book seem to be so much more realistic! As well as that, both Frank and Emily having been with someone before made it seem like it was real life because in real life you don't go out with one person and then stay with them forever as it is portrayed in some books. You meet many people in your lifetime and I felt like 'Since You've Been Gone' told the truth about this.

Throughout this book, I wasn't entirely sure what to think of Sloane. At first I thought she seemed really cool because of her fashion choices and the way she seemed to be so carefree and then I started to think she was an utter b*tch because of how she was acting while she was with Sam, but by the end of the novel, starting I suppose when she broke up with Sam and Emily developed her camera, I realised that she was just a girl who had had to live through ordinary struggles that teens go through and had to constantly worry that she would be judged for something that her parent did. I'm so happy with the ending of this book because of Emily and Sloane's friendship being reconciled and I think it was nice to find out about Sloane through flashbacks as we couldn't see her in real time.

In terms of how this book was written, I couldn't have been happier. I am a sucker for lengthy description and that is what this book gave to me. I felt like I was in the book with Emily and I could have easily stepped from my world to hers in a heartbeat. I especially liked the description of the characters as it meant that when their quirks played out I could understand them perfectly and it also meant that I felt their emotions more deeply. The writing in this book made me want to read more of Matson's work because if this book is an example of all her work, then I certainly want more.

My only criticism of this book would be the length of the chapters. I felt that when I was starting the book it was a bit too much to have long chapters when I wasn't really absorbed in the storyline and didn't really know the characters yet. Apart from that, I have no complaints at all.

Overall, this book is absolutely stunning and I would really recommend it to everyone, not matter what genre you normally read. This book is simply amazing.

(Goodreads parallel)