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A review by mellabella
The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz
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.