Gone - Hardcover

Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson is the author of A Fast and Brutal Wing and Target, both ALA Best Books for Young Adults, as well as the Publishers Weekly "flying start" and YALSA Quick Pick, The Parallel Universe of Liars. A library technician, she lives in Germantown, Maryland.

Grade 9 Up–This romance set near Baltimore has the elements necessary to create tension to move the novel forward from one heart-wrenching moment to the next. Connor, a recent high school graduate just short of his 18th birthday, and Corinna Timms, his 31-year-old former social studies teacher, are drawn uncontrollably to one another. Unfortunately, the story doesn't work. The sexual fumblings, anger, and longing seem as shallow as the one-dimensional characters themselves. Corinna is a former drug-addicted dropout and Connor, the product of alcohol-addicted parents. His father, broken by an accident caused by his alcoholism, is institutionalized. Connor visits him out of a sense of obligation. The protagonist is a gifted worker in wood, not so gifted academically, who frequently views the world in geometric forms. Events are sequential, relying heavily on coincidence. The supporting characters are revealed through narrative description rather than interaction. Even the pets are props. As often as not the cat is used to arouse Connor from his current fantasy or sexual self-indulgence. There is the obligatory separation and consequent pursuit in the last pages, a trip from Maryland to New Mexico. And it is in this futile endeavor that Connor comes to realize what his life really means. But by this time, readers may not care.–Sheila Fiscus, Our Lady of Peace School, Erie, PA
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