A review by alienor
Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane

4.0

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” - Inferno, Dante

These books crawl under my skin. I always feel brave and strong while reading them because I seem to stomach everything but oh, look at how dumb you are, Anna.

They linger in me. My nightmares say it all. More than the what or the who or the how, the emotion flourishes deeper, digging into me and breaking my defenses.

These books haunt me - I can't find another word really. They haunt me with their sharp and hard take on the world. They feed my pessimism until I stop yelling NO MORE! NO MORE! They turn my stomach inside out. They move me. Scar me.

"Well, fine, my life's okay, but the world's still a pile of shit for most people. Even if my world is okay, the world is still a pile of evil shit.' You know?"

Their strength lies in the power they hold against my thoughts when I'm not reading.

[b:Gone, Baby, Gone|425123|Gone, Baby, Gone (Kenzie & Gennaro, #4)|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388234938s/425123.jpg|1234238] deals with child abuse. Start with caution, please. Be warned. As usual, [a:Dennis Lehane|10289|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227580381p2/10289.jpg] will take your heart and squeeze, hard, until the darkness covers every tiny hope you were nurturing.

Who has the right to judge? Society? Individuals? As far as I have my answers - and yes, I quite agree with Patrick on this (not always, though), how flawed our reasoning can be - I know that there's no such thing as a right answer here. There's no such thing as a right choice, but shitty choices all the way. This complexity, always present in [a:Dennis Lehane|10289|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227580381p2/10289.jpg]'s book, is what make them so special in my heart. The world is not as Manichean as some people want us to think, even though it would be easier to deal with it if it was. Humans are selfish animals.

"Those who did remember probably shrugged off the chill of her memory, turned their heads down to the sports page or up toward the approaching bus. The world is a terrible place, they thought. Bad things happen every day. My bus is late."

Is the ability to forget inherent to the human being? Are we all trying to protect ourselves and those we love on an everyday basis? Maybe. Frankly, I'm not skilled enough to judge the world (who is?), and neither is [a:Dennis Lehane|10289|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227580381p2/10289.jpg] : what he offers us here is a portray of the kaleidoscope that is life, and it's brilliant.

Favorite, then? Well, this is awkward. This book is probably the favorite of many readers, and I expected that it would be the same for me. However, as you can infer from my 4 stars rating, [b:Gone, Baby, Gone|425123|Gone, Baby, Gone (Kenzie & Gennaro, #4)|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388234938s/425123.jpg|1234238] lost the opportunity to uncrown [b:Darkness, Take My Hand|21681|Darkness, Take My Hand (Kenzie & Gennaro, #2)|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392049150s/21681.jpg|1356228].

What makes this series so different for me? Definitely Patrick and Angie, the heart of the series, with their sarcastic and badass moves (also, Bubba). In the first half of [b:Gone, Baby, Gone|425123|Gone, Baby, Gone (Kenzie & Gennaro, #4)|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388234938s/425123.jpg|1234238], it seemed to me that Patrick and Angie were only the shells of themselves.

As a standalone, I can't deny that it was an incredible book through and through, even though I found the first half quite slow. Yet it is not a standalone, but part of a series I LOVE, and during the first 50% I missed Patrick's quick mind and wit. I missed Angie's clever retorts. I've read the first three books in the span of 10 days, and I'm pretty sure I've got their spirit well in mind. They weren't quite there at first in my opinion. Except for Bubba. His parts were my little sunshine (I know, I'm such a psycho).

This being said, after passing the 60% mark, the characters finally gave me the usual feels and ... I love them. So much. It was painful. It was raw. Again, everything is more complex than it appears at first glance : it's almost ridiculous to see how many times [a:Dennis Lehane|10289|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227580381p2/10289.jpg] can surprise me. Damn. If I wasn't so engrossed in his stories, I'd be mad.

But now? I'm pretty sure I'm broken.

Ps. I said earlier that I would wait before starting the fifth book and as it is... I can't. I need more Bubba, more Patrick, and more Angie. Now even more.

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