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ericamgallo27's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.0
melissareads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
liketheday's review against another edition
3.0
This was my first read for my library's virtual book club, which breaks up the reading into four weekly check-ins. I'm not sure this book benefits from being broken up in pieces like that because not all of the sections are of equal quality and it's pretty obvious when you split it up like that. I really liked the beginning but I felt like it got less internally consistent as it went along. I'll be interested to see what the book club makes of it in our whole-book chat next week.
mellabella's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this was going to be different. That was probably my own fault. I was expecting a mystery of sorts. Which this is... It just wasn't just that.
Billie inherits a house (which isn't much more than a shack) in Mississippi and a little money when her grandmother dies. The house belonged to her father Cliff. Cliff died when Billie was 4. He was a revolutionary and a poet.
When she gets there with her dog Rufus (also inherited from g-ma), a few odd things happen. She sees her uncle Dee (her fathers much younger brother) for the first time since she was tiny and while he's concerned, he also blames strangers and suggests she does her business fast.
As she finds out a little more about her father and when he died... She realizes that he might have been murdered. She also learns that she went missing for a bit when her father was killed.
This book is really well written. I could feel the oppressive (in more ways than one) Mississippi heat and feel the weight of the stares Billie got being a biracial woman in racist Mississippi.
Billie had been living in Philadelphia. We get the sense that her and her mom Pia led a nomadic lifestyle as Billie grew up and never really settled. While Billie also spent time in Mississippi as a kid, she never realized how racist it still was.
Billie makes a few poor life choices. One includes becoming involved with the White son of her fathers best friend when he was growing up. A man that might have had something to do with her fathers death . The book is told from a few povs and while I found it unrealistic that Billie would have made it out alive... I'll stop there. This is a great debut novel.
Billie inherits a house (which isn't much more than a shack) in Mississippi and a little money when her grandmother dies. The house belonged to her father Cliff. Cliff died when Billie was 4. He was a revolutionary and a poet.
When she gets there with her dog Rufus (also inherited from g-ma), a few odd things happen. She sees her uncle Dee (her fathers much younger brother) for the first time since she was tiny and while he's concerned, he also blames strangers and suggests she does her business fast.
As she finds out a little more about her father and when he died... She realizes that he might have been murdered. She also learns that she went missing for a bit when her father was killed.
This book is really well written. I could feel the oppressive (in more ways than one) Mississippi heat and feel the weight of the stares Billie got being a biracial woman in racist Mississippi.
Billie had been living in Philadelphia. We get the sense that her and her mom Pia led a nomadic lifestyle as Billie grew up and never really settled. While Billie also spent time in Mississippi as a kid, she never realized how racist it still was.
Billie makes a few poor life choices. One includes becoming involved with the White son of her fathers best friend when he was growing up. A man that might have had something to do with her fathers death . The book is told from a few povs and while I found it unrealistic that Billie would have made it out alive... I'll stop there. This is a great debut novel.
blogginboutbooks's review against another edition
4.0
THE GONE DEAD is a raw, angry novel about racism in the Deep South. It's bleak and depressing, but it's also thought-provoking and impactful. The plot is fairly straightforward, without a lot of surprises. It goes basically where I figured it would. Although the story meanders a bit here and there, it remains compelling throughout. I can't say I loved THE GONE DEAD, but I do think it addresses important issues and asks valuable questions. Even though I knew where the tale was going, I wanted to keep reading.
lizaroo71's review against another edition
3.0
Billie James return to the Mississippi Delta to claim the home her grandfather left for her. She hasn't return home since she left the Delta with her mother following her father's death when Billie was five.
Now an accomplished professional, she is faced with the historical trauma of the racial divide in the South. Billie is bi-racial and is beginning to gain a better understanding of her mother and father's struggles as a couple and the ultimate demise of their marriage.
There is a lot of down time in this book. It isn't a long book, so this is problematic. Still, I liked that the chapters are told from different characters' POV. This moved the text along nicely. I liked the final third of the book better than the beginning as not much happens until we get about a hundred pages into the story.
Although this is set in the Mississippi Delta, the only real indication of the setting is the racial prejudice presented in the story. I was hoping for more details of the landscape.
Now an accomplished professional, she is faced with the historical trauma of the racial divide in the South. Billie is bi-racial and is beginning to gain a better understanding of her mother and father's struggles as a couple and the ultimate demise of their marriage.
There is a lot of down time in this book. It isn't a long book, so this is problematic. Still, I liked that the chapters are told from different characters' POV. This moved the text along nicely. I liked the final third of the book better than the beginning as not much happens until we get about a hundred pages into the story.
Although this is set in the Mississippi Delta, the only real indication of the setting is the racial prejudice presented in the story. I was hoping for more details of the landscape.
lara1977's review against another edition
4.0
This beauty of this book is in how all the different POV's converge to tell an at times ugly story. Each POV is unique and shows the underlying racism and social tensions within the community and the families living there. The descriptive writing vividly illustrates the world-the reader feels like they are right there in the Mississippi Delta with Billie. Highly recommend the audio book! I do feel there were too many different POV's-I would have liked further development of some of them. Billie's character read to me more as being in her earlier twenties rather than her earlier thirties. One relationship in the story seemed to develop out of nowhere and then abruptly end. All the secrets in the story in the name of "protecting" only serve to create more tragedy. The ending just didn't fit for me. This is an important book to read and a difficult book to read because of the subject matter. I learned a lot reading this book, became immersed in the story and am glad I now have this author on my radar.
cattylou's review
3.0
I liked the premise of the story, but the writing and editing was off to me. There were long narratives by one of the characters that felt unnecessary to me and sometimes it was difficult to figure out who was saying what. Some actions the characters take wasn't always believable.
Definitely a mixed bag.
Definitely a mixed bag.
mrskendallreads's review against another edition
2.0
A hugely popular book, but it missed the mark for me on character development and scene transitions. Overall a choppy read without much mystery.
dfostermartin's review against another edition
3.0
I liked The Gone Dead. The author did a great job of interweaving historical commentary (recent and ancient) throughout the story. It did feel like there was a climax that the novel was working towards that didn’t ever peak. Still, it was a good read and an interesting entry into the world of the Mississippi Delta.
“I was thinking on the drive about how the desire to change is uniquely expressed in this landscape, by which I mean how the Mississippi River seeks to merge with the Atchafalaya River, which would of course flood this whole area, so that it would be a sort of Delta Atlantis, and how the Mississippi’s desire to change course is thwarted by the Army Corp of Engineers. What’s so fascinating to me is how the tension between our desire for stasis and the natural world’s appetite for change is such a potent symbol for this region.”
“I was thinking on the drive about how the desire to change is uniquely expressed in this landscape, by which I mean how the Mississippi River seeks to merge with the Atchafalaya River, which would of course flood this whole area, so that it would be a sort of Delta Atlantis, and how the Mississippi’s desire to change course is thwarted by the Army Corp of Engineers. What’s so fascinating to me is how the tension between our desire for stasis and the natural world’s appetite for change is such a potent symbol for this region.”