REVIEW - Since You've Been Gone by Mary Jennifer Payne

Synopsis:

Is it possible to outrun your past? Fifteen-year-old Edie Fraser and her mother, Sydney, have been trying to do just that for five years. Now, things have gone from bad to worse. Not only has Edie had to move to another new school she's in a different country.

Sydney promises her that this is their chance at a fresh start, and Edie does her best to adjust to life in London, England, despite being targeted by the school bully. But when Sydney goes out to work the night shift and doesn't come home, Edie is terrified that the past has finally caught up with them.

Alone in a strange country, Edie is afraid to call the police for fear that she ll be sent back to her abusive father. Determined to find her mother, but with no idea where to start, she must now face the most difficult decision of her life.

Review:

This book was not what I was expecting. The synopsis promised me a mystery thriller with some abuse and psychological stuff mixed in, but it wasn't like that. For me this book was just too short and rushed and nothing was let to develop properly: action, plot, characters, emotions. 

The novel started good and got me in, but the lack of description and the thin plot threw me out. The author moves so fast that now is "the past" and then they move, and Edie goes to the new school and her mom dissapears. Even the "mystery" was a total nonsense for me. Everything was too simple, things moved too fast, emotions didn't exist, characters didn't have substance. Even the bullying that was involved was just put there and... left in the wind.

I'm sorry that I didn't liked it but it's not my fault. The book has a lot of holes in it, the plot sounds better in theory than in practice, the characters are just sketched and the end... I'm not a bad reader, I'm very easy to please but this didn't have a thing that I could like. And I think I'm a good reader for the rating that I gave. 

And I gave that rating because I flew through it and got me out of my reading slump. But not for the story itself.

So, I don't know, if this sounds good to you and you think you'll enjoy a book that is not complicated and easy and so on...then read it. Otherwise I don't recommend this.

2/5

!Received through NetGalley!