Review: Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick

Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: January 8th 2013
My rating: 4 stars

In the tradition of 13 Reasons Why, a suspenseful and heart-wrenching novel from the author of Nothing Like You and Her and Me and You.Two years ago, Adrienne’s best friend walked out of her life. One week ago, she left Adrienne a desperate, muffled voicemail. Adrienne never called back.

Now Dakota is missing. She left behind a string of broken hearts, a flurry of rumors, and a suicide note.

Adrienne can’t stop obsessing over what might have happened if she’d answered Dakota’s call. And she’s increasingly convinced that Dakota must still be alive.

Maybe finding and saving Dakota is the only way Adrienne can save herself.

Or maybe it’s too late for them both.

“Either way she did this. She chose this. There’s nothing you need to sort out. Finding her, jamming all these jagged, arbitrary puzzle pieces into place, won’t get you any closer to understanding why she shit all over you and your friendship”

Adrienne and Dakota have been best friends forever, they were inseparable until little cracks started to develop and then one day Dakota and Adrienne just stopped talking. The sweet innocent Dakota that Adrienne knew abruptly changed into some dark edgy person that Adrienne didn’t know anymore. They went two whole years without talking until Adrienne receives a random voice message from Dakota out of the blue, asking her to call back. Adrienne thinks nothing of it and so leaves it until Dakota’s announced missing a few days later. Adrienne’s happy with her current life she has a boyfriend who loves her and a best friend in Kate who she can confide in at anytime. So she’s not expecting to find herself caught up in the middle of the investigation with the guilt of not calling Dakota back clawing away at her.

The changes of Adrienne’s character over the course of this story were heart wrenching to watch. The happy girl who had fun with her friends; was a dedicated student all disappear in the blink of an eye. A lot of her friends didn’t know she was so close to Dakota and so don’t expect any of her behaviour. Or they don’t understand how she could be affected so much by the disappearance of a girl who she hadn’t spoken to in two years.

But the more Adrienne’s behaviour changes, she starts turning up drunk to dinners, is dressing in more darker clothes with dark make-up, isn’t making the effort in her school work and becoming more withdrawn. The more concerned her boyfriend and friends become. But Adrienne can’t do anything about it, she finds herself spending more time with Dakota’s on/off boyfriend Julian smoking and following a dark and dangerous path, but she can’t stop until she uncovers the truth.

I hated watching Adrienne come apart when she had friends who truly cared about her and when were given flashes of her friendship with Dakota in the past it had me thinking what did Dakota ever do for Adrienne? Dakota didn’t deserve this time and frantic energy that Adrienne spent worrying away over her. What I enjoyed the most with this book was the mystery part of it, of slowly unravelling the clues along the way and discovering the secrets into Dakota’s character. I’m glad that Adrienne did have Julian there as a form of support as they went into their journey about Dakota, a person who they both thought they knew. Because with the shocks and twists that were thrown their way I’m glad they weren’t alone in their road to discovery.

Then You Were Gone was book I picked up spur of the moment, but I’m so glad that I did as it resonated with me days afterwards. Then You Were Gone is a dark, gritty novel chock full with surprises that I highly recommend giving it a try.