I haven’t done a book talk for a while, mainly because I was taking too long to write an article for the second book in The Heroes of Olympus series, then I just didn’t finish it and did something else. Also I was avoiding finishing a series for quite a while, so I wasn’t reading any other books. Finally though I have finished that book and have moved to other books. One of those books is Since You’ve Been by Morgan Matson. Do I have to say this books was freaking great. Let’s get into it shall we.

First off, I’m gonna start by saying that every time I think of the song ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, by Kelly Clarkson. I mean I can just hear the lyrics going around in my head. Next I want to tell you that this isn’t my usually genre of book that I pick, but I am glad that I picked it because it was freaking great. I know I already said that, but that’s because it’s true.

When I was reading it I did notice that there were some similarities with “Paper Towns” by John Green. Now I never read that book but I did see the movie and I would have to say that it most certainly does. However it is different in its own way and I had quite a lot of fun with it as well; I got a lot of laughs and rants.

Emily and Sloane have been best friends for two years, but when Emily goes out on a trip and returns, her friend is nowhere to be found. When coming home one day she finds she had gotten a letter, one that has Sloane’s handwriting. All that is in the letter is a list from Sloane, a list of things to do. Things that Emily would never dare doing, like kissing a stranger or skinny dipping. On the list it also tells Emily when she is finishes it, to come and tell Sloane about it. With this Emily believes if she does all the things on the list she will be able to find Sloane. Her only problem is Sloane was her only friend in Stanwich, on top of that Sloane was the one who would get her to do things.

This book was so good I would have to give it a nine out of ten stars; I would definitely read this book again sometime. I liked it so much I didn’t even mind the romance that was in it. It even got me yelling at Emily our main characters. I think that this was a well written book and definitely was change from the sad depressing dystopias that I have been reading. Another reason why I liked the book was because I could actually relate with the character, someone who is shy and always feels like they’re a person’s shadow. If you have never read a contemporary novel than I would say this is a good place to start on that. This book helped me avoid a slump after finishing a series, so please if you haven’t read it, go and read it because it was a great book, and I also want to get into the juicy spoilers.

Okay so the first thing that’s even near a spoiler that I would like to talk about is Emily and her ex, well if you could call him that. Her “ex” is named Gideon, probably one of the nicest ex’s I’ve ever seen in a book and probably one of the most mistreated. Typically in books the guys that are the ex’s are jerks, in this book however he was a nice guy. I liked this change for sure because it shows that just because they broke up with a guy doesn’t mean he is jerk. While Gideon was a large man he was kind man or boy because he is still in high school so I mean I guess that up for you to decide. Anyways, Gideon’s friend was a cheating creep. The real reason why Emily left Gideon made me a little angry, she left him because they were only dating because her friend (Sloane) was dating Gideons friend Sam (aka the cheating creeper!), they ended because Sam made a movie on Emily. Gideon wasn’t here for all this as of course he left, when he came back to get his phone that he left, he came back to Emily outside. When he approached Emily, she upin flipping was all like, “so we are breaking up.” An interaction they had was where he thought that her and another one of her new friends, Frank, has been dating her. What made this part even a little more messed up is when Emily saw that Gideon still had the sharpie tattoo that she had given him. I think this would be creepy normally but Gideon wasn’t really stalking her, he just had some hope. I don’t think her other reasoning was good either, she thought that because they had been brought together because their friends were together that they couldn’t be together. I just felt it was a little stupid, that’s all. Don’t worry about Gideon though guys, I heard he is already hanging out with Taylor Swift working on her next album writing songs about how Emily is just another ‘Picture To Burn’ (before you get angry my T-Swift people, I joking I like T-Swift too. No not because her name is Taylor too, okay maybe a little).

At first I was starting to think that Sloane was like Margo from “Paper Towns” but she didn’t end up really being a selfish person; her reasoning for not telling Emily seemed perfectly just, well okay maybe not just but I could understand why she lied to Emily, trying to make herself look cool. Emily was too important to her that she didn’t want them to say they would stay in contact with each other but then they actually don’t.

One of my favorite characters had to have been Collins, who might have been a “ladies man”, in which I mean the only reason he asked the girls he asked were because he knew that they would reject him. I found that part interesting but I was happy when Emily told him to ask Dawn out as she liked him, and well lo and behold, she was right. I was not to happy when Collins wasn’t with them at the end of the book. He spent all summer helping Emily complete that list and I wanted to see them find Sloane. While that would have given me more closure than I already got, I do have to say that I thought you get plenty of closure on what happens with Collins.

I don’t think the closure that we got with Dawn was all that good though; she was there at the beginning of the book and I also would have liked her to be there at the end of the book. I wanted her and Emily to be friends again. I hope if they ever make a movie of this that they close things out better with Dawn and Emily.

The whole love thing I think that it was obvious with her and Frank from the beginning. I was okay with it because it didn’t feel forced. Other than that though, I just think that they should have been just friends. Always in books and movies when guys are friends with girls, they always seem to end getting together as girlfriend and boyfriend. Of course with the way they were acting towards each other I think that they kinda had to be and like I said I was fine with it. I just think there should be more books where the guy and the girl don’t have to be a couple.

At the end of the day though, I thought that this was a well crafted and fun book. I would like there to be a sequel but I don’t think that that will happen, because I am sure this was a one-off book. I only would like another book to learn more about this new Emily and more about her family, and maybe some more about the other characters’ families.

I might have had more thoughts when I began writing this but now after writing this for a while I don’t have as many. I am so glad that I am able to write reviews and talk about books, especially when I have many family members or friends who don’t read that often and don’t really decide to read what I read. It always helps me later to go back and see what I thought about a book on whether or not keep it on my shelf. If you read this article even though you didn’t read the book, well then good job you have spoiled a great book. For real though I would like to thank all of you who read this “Book Talk” and I will see you all next time.