Monday, February 28, 2011

Book Review: Gone by Lisa McMann

Gone (Dream Catchers #3) by Lisa McMann

Reading Level: Young Adult
Hardback: 224
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Language: English
ISBN-10:1416979182
ISBN-13: 978-1416979180
Source: Bought (and signed!)
Cover: This cover makes the most sense out of all the others I've seen. I know where this chair fits into the novel so it makes me like it a bit more than the other two. Not only can I identify where this chair is in the book but it also gives this really lonely, forlorn type of feeling, adding the the title of the book. This is the best cover out of all three in my opinion.
First Sentence: "It's like she can't breathe anymore, no matter what she does."


The Mini-Review: If you hung in there for the first two, you better finish this series. McMann does an amazing job of sending off the characters we've grown to love!


Book Summary:




Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she’d made her peace with it. But she can’t handle dragging Cabel down with her.
She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He’s amazing. And she’s a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves: She has to disappear. And it’s going to kill them both.
Then a stranger enters her life — and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she’d ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out. . . 



The Review:


The final installment in The Dream Catchers trilogy, Gone is an exploration in saying goodbye. Full of desperation, hope and our favorite characters, it isn't to be missed.


Janie's back for one last round of fighting, but this time it's for her future. After discovering the horrible secrets about her future in the previous installment, Janie is now faced with a choice: stay with Cabe and go blind in her early or late 20's or leave him and go into solititude. Both decisions are unbearable and both have consequences that can't be ignored. Janie finds an entirely new type of strength in this novel. She's already proven herself as resourceful and powerful but in this one, she has no way out. While her situation is terrible, I had respect for her the entire time because she was willing to act. Plus, I was so excited for her to finally start standing up for herself with her mother.


Cabe and Janie's relationship was as complex and heartwrenching as ever. I love that Cabe is willing to sacrifice and I just wish that Janie understood this more. Especially after the lessons they learned in the last one. I think Janie and Cabe's relationship is one of the most realistic I've read in YA fiction but on that note, I hate that it didn't feel like it went anywhere. They still didn't talk to each other. I wish there had been a bit more communication.


The plot was a lot more quiet than the last one. I almost wish the novels had been reversed. It felt like the crescendo of the story arc was in the second one and this one, while interesting, fell a bit flat as far as plot goes. With the previous installment, I needed to know what was going to happen. Gone was really about Janie finding herself and in that sense, felt like it took a step backwards or was out of order in the story arc. It felt to me like we should have been introduced to Janie in the first (Wake), let Janie come into herself in the second (Gone), and let her begin her life by fighting crime (Fade). That's just a personal opinion and in no way effected my liking of the story on an individual note.


As always, McMann's gritty, simplistic writing style lent itself to Janie's story perfectly. Through the breaks in time, we get everything we need and I love the honesty of the simple sentences. I knew that when it says "Janie's sad" that that's really what it means and it made the pain of the discovery that Janie's life will never be right, no matter what she does, that much more powerful.


Gone leaves Janie with no easy answers and though the furture is as unsure as it was in the beginning, I felt confident that together, Janie and Cabe could work it out. An altogether wonderful ending to a wonderful series with characters and writing that won't let you down. If you haven't read this series, I say go for it. 


Rating:

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