Rather interesting.. i like the unknown path of this book :) ( )

Rather interesting.. i like the unknown path of this book :) ( )

3.5 Stars ( )

I read and enjoyed Nova Ren Suma’s previous book, Imaginary Girls, and as soon as I heard about this book, I knew I wanted to read it. Spoiler alert – I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but feel like it’s hard to talk too much about this book otherwise, so you’ve been warned!

Here is the Goodreads summary:

Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

With complexity and richness, Nova Ren Suma serves up a beautiful, visual, fresh interpretation of what it means to be lost.

I feel like I have been waiting to get this from the library for such a long time, even though it just came out in March.

Our protagonist, Lauren, begins having visions of Abby Sinclair, a 17 year old girl who went missing. Soon Lauren begins to see even more girls – all of whom went missing at the age of 17. She begins to have nightmares, and begins to feel that she has to know what happened, and to save these girls.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that I love the writing. This came as no surprise, after Imaginary Girls, which is also beautifully written. Both books had a dream-like, almost ethereal quality to them that I loved.

There are a lot of elements at work in this book: it’s part supernatural/paranormal, part psychological thriller, part mystery. But it all works, and I read the book in one day because I just had to know what happened.

Lauren is an unreliable narrator, which can be confusing or disorienting at times, but it was so effective. Lauren is dealing with a lot in this book, and without spoiling anything (I hope), the way it all came together made me feel for her. In her own mind, Lauren was fighting for these girls, to find out what happened to them. I kept getting the message that these girls, these missing girls, whether they ran away or were taken away, were important and worth looking for. They should not be forgotten. That’s how Lauren felt, and that’s how I felt.

Even at the end of the book, I was not quite sure what was real and what was not real, and I love that the author doesn’t quite call it one way or the other. There is a lot to take in, and I was so captivated by this book.

This was a great book, and I definitely recommend it. Now that I’ve read two of her novels, I can safely say that I will be reading whatever Nova Ren Suma writes next. ( )

(This review can also be found on my blog The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl).


When I first read the premise for this book, I knew I had to read it. It sounded all ghostly, and I love ghostly! This is one of those books that, while I was reading it, I had mixed feelings about. In the end, I did enjoy it, just not as much as I thought I would.

Lauren is a 17 year old girl who starts seeing a bunch of girls who went missing when they were 17. All these girls start appearing to her one by one asking for her help. Lauren abandons everything to help them. She dedicates all her time to finding out what happened to these girls. But not all is as it seems.

The title is straightforward about what the book is going to be about. All the girls in the book (minus the main character) were 17 when they disappeared. I do think it's an interesting title for this book even if it's dealing directly with what the story's about.

I found the cover to be very interesting. The cover is also a scene from one of Lauren's dreams in the book. I love how it is shrouded in mystery. I also love how well the colors work together.

I did enjoy the setting and world building for the most part although I was a tad bit confused. I was under the impression during the whole story that Lauren was already 17 which is why these girls were reaching out to her, yet at the end of the book, it mentions how Lauren had just turned 17. Other then that, I thought it was good, and all the questions left unanswered when it comes to the world building are answered at the end.

The pacing was a bit hit and miss in this book. I couldn't tell if I was really enjoying it or if I was bored. I really don't know how that could happen, but it did. I think there are a few places were the pacing just kind of slows right down like the beginning of the book. Then, there are places where the pacing takes right off. I don't know. I suppose there is too much info dumping in certain parts of the story. However, after about halfway through, I started enjoying the story much more.

I did think the characters were well-written. I love how Lauren was written, especially at the end. I did think she was a bit too accepting of what she was told at the end though. I'd go more into detail, but I don't want to spoil it. I loved how Lauren wanted to help all those girls and risk losing herself in the process. Lauren came across as raw and fearless. I felt that Lauren's mother was also a great character. I could feel her hurt and her love for Lauren. I also enjoyed Fiona and her snarky comments! I did start getting confused when a bunch of the missing girls were mentioned. It was like information overload! I remembered Abbey's and Fiona's story, but all the rest of the girls started becoming a tangled mess for me, and I couldn't remember what happened to which girl. I think the author started out good with dedicating a few chapters to each girl, but at one point, this stops and all the girls' stories are melded into the same chapter.

I enjoyed the dialogue in the book. I loved seeing into Lauren's mind about how she was feeling and what she was thinking. There's not a lot of dialogue between characters as with most books, but it works in this story. As for language, this book is clean when it comes to swear words or sexual references.

Overall, 17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma is an enjoyable read but it deals with heavy subject matter. I would've liked to know more about each missing girl individually, and I would've liked the pacing to be consistent but it was still a good read.

I'd recommend this book to those aged 14 who are looking for something different than just an average ghost read.

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma gets a 3.75 out of 5 from me. ( )