The Ninja Reader

Melodrama is the bane of my existence.

I'm starting off on that note to express my state of mind towards books that recount dramatic events. We all know that quoting statistics about people starving to Death in Africa doesn't have the same impact on us as, say, the news of our neighbor dying of a heart attack and not being found for three days. Grand, dramatic deaths are horrible, but they don't affect me on the same level as hearing a person I've known and loved has passed away. 

Hannah Moskowitz understands that, and that's apparent both in her choice of protagonists and in the actual story of "Gone, Gone, Gone". Instead of giving a broad image, she narrows down the focus on two boys - Craig and Lio, and how their lives shaped them into the people they are at 15. 

This isn't an action novel. No epic battles to save the world, no secret attempts of revealing a conspiracy, no investigations looking to discover the lost city of Atlantis - and yet it manages to hold my interest ten times better than City of Bones did. Why? Well, for one thing, the author knows how to pace the novel, and just through that alone she takes this huge character study and turns it into something really special. The lovable, quirky characters are like people you'd want to make your friends, people who you'd like to invite over for chicken pot pie and soda at your house, who are probably weirder than anyone you've met and yet more real than any character you've read. It's truly rare when you do find a book like that.

Also appears on The Book Lantern.