Picture Me Gone
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
Printz Award-winning author Meg Rosoff's latest novel is a gorgeous and unforgettable page-turner about the relationship between parents and children, love and loss. A National Book Award finalist! Mila has an exceptional talent for reading a room—sensing hidden facts and unspoken emotions from clues that others overlook. So when her father’s best friend, Matthew, goes missing from his upstate New York home, Mila and her beloved father travel from London to find him. She collects information about Matthew from his belongings, from his wife and baby, from the dog he left behind and from the ghosts of his past—slowly piecing together the story everyone else has missed. But just when she’s closest to solving the mystery, a shocking betrayal calls into question her trust in the one person she thought she could read best. * “Teeming with complex adult problems—infidelity, marital collapse, the death of a child—this thought-provoking coming-of-age story requires that readers be at least as mature as Mila as she confronts unpleasant truths. … Mila’s sharp observations of the people she meets and the winter landscape add a fresh, poetic aura to her discoveries and the novel as a whole.” —Publishers Weekly starred review * “With strong characters and a well-articulated plot, Picture Me Gone is a welcome addition to any collection. The author accurately captures this mature adolescent's view of adults without condescension or judgment, a feat worthy of praise. Complex issues are dealt with, and, true to the novel's trajectory, a tidy ending would have been out of place. Rosoff does not disappoint.”—School Library Journal starred review * “A brilliant depiction of the complexity of human relationships in a story that's at once contemplative and suspenseful.” —Kirkus starred review
Reviews with the most likes.
“In theory, I would like to lead a transparent life. I would like my life to be as clear as a new pane of glass, without anything shameful and no dark shadows. I would like that. But if I am completely honest, I have to acknowledge secrets too painful to even tell myself. There are things I consider in the deep dark of night, secret terrors. Why are they secrets? I could easily tell either of my parents how I feel, but what would they say? Don't worry, darling, we will do our best never to die? We will never ever leave you, never contract cancer or walk in front of a bus or collapse of old age? We will not leave you alone, not ever, to navigate the world and all of its complexities without us?”
Excellent. The YA rating is mostly due to issues of extramarital affairs, so it may be appropriate for some younger readers as well. The nuances and storyline are sophisticated and elegant - I devoured it in two days.
