Review: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Simon & Schuster, May 2014

I’ve wanted to read Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson since I saw the gorgeous cover photo and 4+ star rating on Goodreads a few months ago.  The blurb sounded exciting too, of course (I guess I’m not that superficial).

Sloane and Emily are best friends, joined at the hip – but when Sloane disappears just before the start of their would-be epic summer before senior year, Emily feels lost. Sloane had always been the more adventurous one, trying to get Emily to come out of her shell, so when Emily finds the list of “brave things to do” Sloane has left behind, she tentatively starts thinking of ways to accomplish them – with the unexpected help of the outwardly perfect class president, Frank Porter (swoon!).

Alright. Let’s do this. I was hooked on the writing style from the first page. I sat down last night and thought I’d start reading it – I think it was around 9 PM (on a Saturday no less, yes, I have a wild social life!). I could not put the book down.  There was a point at around 5AM in the morning that my eyes were getting heavy and I was just pushing myself to finish because I didn’t want to pause the magic. I also didn’t want it to be over, but I hate being caught up in a good magical book groove, only to pause – come back to it later, and it doesn’t feel as exciting. I did sleep for about four hours when there were about 3 chapters left, though. This didn’t spoil my excitement for the book when I woke up, though, so, no harm done!

Something really hit me in the beginning when Emily goes to the party in the orchard and has no one to talk to – as an adult reader of YA, I feel like a lot of us in our post-university days know that feeling of what it’s like to go from having a great best friend by your side (or multiple), to having people grow up and move across the country, suddenly out of reach. Matson did a great job at expressing Emily’s feelings about this without coming off as too angsty.

It was certainly painful to watch her first dealings with Frank – Emily is terribly shy and simply confused by his open and gentlemanly behavior. As they become friends, you can see her crush coming from a mile away. The fact the Frank has a girlfriend makes him just ever more unreachable in that way, though, so their friendship continues along platonically for the first half of the book. While the romance was well written and really exciting, it’s not the only plot line of the book.

It’s a story of best friends; reading the flashbacks of Sloane and Emily’s friendship were always fun  - although I kept wondering how Sloane would ever redeem herself of just up and leaving the way she did. I kept thinking that the book would end in some sort of tragic revelation (sent away with child? Rehab? Hospital? On the run from the law for their house shenanigans?) but without spoiling it, the reason turned out to be a lot simpler and more realistic than any of those things. I think I could have forgiven Sloane too, had she been my best friend like that for the two years prior, too.

Matson did a great job at fleshing out her characters – I loved reading about Emily’s new friendships with Dawn and Collins (although, again, having read a million and one Sarah Dessen novels, I saw these friendships coming from a mile away – but it was a good, comforting expectation). Since You’ve Been Gone isn’t only about the Frank friendship/romance or the Sloane debacle, but it’s also a story about Emily growing up and becoming her own person now that she’s free from Sloane’s shadow (as much as she may have loved it). With her new-found free time she spends her summer working on bravely accomplishing the list, making new friends, and spending more time with family (well, her brother, certainly not her messed up theatre parents, yikes!). It was heartwarming to see her become her own person – it was nice to finally see her stand up for herself in front of Sloane near the end, too.

I’m giving this book 5 stars on Goodreads – it had me laughing and giggling and squeeing like a school girl. I may have also cried a couple times, which, come to think of it, might just mean I’m an emotional person – there weren’t really any terribly sad-sad parts.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend this to any lovers of contemporary YA novels. If you liked Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, or even HowTo Love by Kaite Cotungo I think you’ll like this book. I’ve heard great things about Amy and Roger's Epic Detour, too (Matson’s debut novel from 2010), which I’ve definitely added to by TBR list.  

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I’m still sad that no one (minor spoiler) ever managed to steal the “Sloane Loves Ferris” sign from the drive in, though. What’s up with that?