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alienor's review against another edition
5.0
I remember September 11th. I was in Junior year in High School (in France, of course) and I learnt what happened late afternoon when I was heading for practice.
I remember being sad for all these person and mad because how unfair is it? but I also remember being pissed at all these teenagers around me who kept bragging that it had opened their eyes and showed them how much life is worth it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to minimize it, god of course not, but I just couldn't understand how people could use it to appear cool, to spread some philosophical bullshit, as if they could understand what people in New York could feel, what people in US could feel. I couldn't, and I don't think they could, either. We were just fucking French Junior who couldn't have a locker anymore because bombs. All that is to say that I didn't get it at the time. I was only a self-centered teenager whose interest never holds long and I asked myself exactly what Lio and Craig wonder about : how do we define loss? Is it the number that counts? Or is it something else? Is it the fact that we knew someone? I didn't know at the time, but I know now.
"What's love when you're too fucked up to feel it right?
I think it's a weapon."
Perhaps it's going to sound incredibly selfish but to me there's nothing truer than this : We really feel loss when we know someone. Of course we can empathize, we can feel sad and mad and sorry for someone, it remains it always seems borrowed, if we can use a word so practical when dealing with loss. Every day I hear about people who are sick, who have cancer, and yes, I feel sorry for them. My dad died from cancer two years ago. I didn't feel sorry. I felt broken. I felt lost. I felt scared. And I'm never, ever going to say that it is the same thing. It isn't. In my opinion we are partly defined by the person we love, by the person we care about, and no empathy can overtake that. None.
"Craig is just one person. The chances that he will get shot are the same as anyone else's.
The hole in the world when he's gone would be the same size as the FBI agent's.
Except...
It wouldn't be.
To me.
I have no way to measure these holes.
Click.
Numbers don't matter.
Because what if loss is immeasurable? What if all we can do is call a loss a loss? "
The story takes place in 2002, during the Beltway Sniper Attacks, and for someone like me who wasn't familiar with this tragedy at all, the way Hannah Moskowitz deals with this issue is truly wonderful because it felts real. Indeed I felt the threat, the fear, the panic this kind of random attacks could lead to. And then, there're these boys. There are these broken boys who meet and fall in love. They are hurt. They are hesitant. They are fucking afraid. But they are.
"Just wanted to let you know I got in all right. And also that my chest hurts as if I MAY BE DYING, because I accidentally left my heart on your kitchen counter. I hate when that happens.
Li"
And I love them. I even developed a not-so-little crush on Lio. Even if he's fictional. Even if I have a boyfriend. Even if he's gay. Whatever. As I said, I developed a crush on Lio because this guy is so fucking adorable that I couldn't help. As for Teeth, Gone gone gone offers us a flawless characterization with characters who aren't perfect, who mess up, who evolve, and in the end, we just want to hug them something fierce. I do, anyway.
"It's up to me whether I'm okay with the possibility of being broken.
Plus, I'm a tough little son of a bitch, and don't you forget it."
Finally, I'm sorry if this review isn't organized or doesn't even mention how incredible the writing is, how emotional this story is, how fucking beautiful their love is. I guess I didn't feel writing a complete review tonight - but the only thing I'll say is READ IT. Please, go meet Craig and his fourteen pets, Lio and his five colored hair, go read their emails and cry and laugh and fall in love. You won't regret it. Because even if I preferred Teeth, Lio and Craig's story goes instantly in my favorites, and I like to think that it's saying something.
eschewed's review against another edition
4.5
edit: Okay so I thought Invincible Summer was amazing, but Gone, Gone, Gone is a whole new level. It feels more intense and wonderful and ohhh. I love it crazy, I love it sane. I can't even be coherent right now.
Thanks Simon & Schuster for having the amazing Galley Grab program that let me read this and be awed.
breadedbookpages's review against another edition
5.0
Originally posted on my blog!
I cry like three times a day, so it’s the opposite of a big deal. It’d be like getting concerned every time I eat a meal.
Gone, Gone, Gone is a story that is told in dual point of views from both Craig and Lio, the main characters. While Lio can fall into the Love Interest category, I believe that he is a main character in this book since his point of view adds so much nuance to the plot. Plus, he is my boy.
I'll start by saying that it took me a while to get into this book because the background of 9/11 felt like it would bum me out a lot, but whoa did I fell so hardcore for this book once I hit the 26% mark. It is so beautifully written that I found myself falling into the cadence of the words that Moskowitz skillfully put together to make me yearn for a happy ending for these two.
Before I start on the main characters, I want to discuss how important the minor characters feel. There are two plots going on, I believe, one is the boys' story and the other is the sniper shooting going in D.C. (Lio would say Maryland...) and how it affects the people living in that area.
I admit that I was too young to know about these attacks and I never got the chance to actually find out about them. This book provides such an insider look into the terror that takes over people in cases of violence.
The families of both Lio and Craig come to life on the pages. Like the previous Moskowitz books I read so far, the family ties are so strong and palpable. I couldn't help but smile because it is so obvious how essential family is in this book. Especially when it came to the boys' sexual orientation. I expected to read something that'd make me uncomfortable any minute but that never came. I was never made sad by homophobia! What a shock!
But I’ve sort of wanted to kiss him ever since I saw his fucked-up hair that day in Ms. Hoole’s class, and really since the conversation right after, when he told me he cuts it when he’s nervous, and I immediately wanted to know everything in the whole world that makes him nervous, and everything in the whole world about him.
I am so glad I got through my initial weariness because in the pages of this book is a story so beautiful of grief and love. The relationship Lio has with his sisters and dad is so beautiful I found myself smiling whenever his point of view mentioned them. Also, Craig's relationship with his brother makes me so proud. I can't count many boy MCs who actually are very family oriented especially a black teen. I don't know if I'm explaining this right but the love these boys had for their families made them so beautiful in my heart.
Now onto the Main Characters who are so fantastically written that they got me seriously moved. I don't know if teens of today would consider the prose used for Craig and Lio's narration realistic but I fell in love so badly I honestly am a bad judge for this. I just want everyone to love my boys.
Lio and Craig first meet as IM buddies and it's so cool to read about a generation that used IM (I could never get on that, I am an MSN person myself) and email so frequently. The technology usage was, for some reason, very satisfying.
Anyway, Lio moves from New York and they develop a strange friendship in which Lio fills in the gap of possibly the only other person Craig's own age whom he talks to and Craig is Lio's Maryland basically. That itself is such a beautiful moment.
Lio's shy and Craig's not, and this plays into their dynamics so well as they go through a month of the fear haunting them concerning the shootings, as well as the ex-boyfriend who stole Craig's peace of mind. Their friendship is heartwarming and I couldn't help but root for them, a lot.
I stopped waiting because that was the part of the story that came next for me.
Craig's voice is of a heartbroken boy who starts Gone, Gone, Gone looking for his fourteen pets. Yes, this boy has FOURTEEN pets and you're right if you think they all represent the ex-boyfriend who left Craig and who Craig is looking for. There is of course a happy ending to the lost pets, don't worry about that.
I’m worried I’m going to go through my whole life feeling like someone’s pulling me, like from a string behind my belly button.
If I had to choose a favorite, it'd be Lio. I love how honest he was in his head. He didn't like talking but that in itself was his own defense mechanism which I believe he comes to work through for his own good. What I love is how Lio's development was so subtle and adds to his person.
Going through the lines I highlighted, I can't help but applaud Moskowitz for her talent in writing boys so raw and sensitive, hence making them so beautiful in my mind. It's even possible I'm putting this on my favorite because I can see myself reading this book again and reveling in all the beauty of Craig's tears and Lio's anger. I love them so much.
This book counts towards both my #HMReadathon and Queer 2017 challenge since it features a m/m relationship. Also! It's diverse as heck seeing as Lio is a Jewish boy while Craig is black and both are gay. I can't find any reason not to recommend this besides casual usage of ableist words concerning mental illness. It deals a lot with depression and cancer so be aware of that. There is also positive mention of therapy.
dominicanbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
*What I didn't like: Some times it was hard to follow the discussions or train of thought of some of the characters because you'd get confused about how many things they were talking about and comparing them to ? But I liked that it was also that way because Lio and Craig, like they said so themselves, were a "little fucked up" and also TEENAGERS.
*I'm being totally random here but I wanted to match Lio with will grayson (David Levithan's will from Will Grayson, Will Grayson)or just have them be best friends in a paralell universe.
*To me "Gone, Gone, Gone" was about growing up, healing, figuring shit out, finding your home. But most of all it was about learning to feel safe in an unsafe world, and learning to feel safe when your insides are scary too and you feel too much, have lost so much and think too much. It's about learning to be okay despite it all (and even when the sniper attacks felt a little far from the plot to me, I think they were a metaphor for all of this).
emilykatereads's review against another edition
2.0
Also, the way the shootings were ended in the book was a disappointment. The whole books keeps making more and more anticipation towards the ending of the shootings, but when they actually end, it was anti-climatic. It was like waiting for a big firework to go off, but only to find out it was a dud.
emdoux's review against another edition
4.0
This reminds me of a GLBT, early 2000s Eleanor and Park.
Bonus: I had no idea it took place during the DC sniper incident & recently was in VA with boyf and saw one of the shooting sites / learned more from him about the whole thing - so it's surreal to now be reading a book with characters that are living in it just as my boyfriend did.
drizzlybear's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5