Book Review: Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

This book has been on my TBR list for months. I finally got around to reading it, and thought it wasn’t what I expected, it was actually a lot better and more unique than what I had imagined it would be.

4/5 stars

 

Amazon description of Picture Me Gone:

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.

I expected this book to be a hyper-dramatic, fast-paced, psychological-type novel. In reality, I was pleasantly surprised by the intricate delicacy of the subtle plot Rosoff built and the complexity of the characters she crafted.

This book is seriously touching and surprisingly heart-wrenching. Rosoff discussed friendship, trust, lies, and mortality through a child’s voice perfectly. Her plot started off simple and gradually built up toward the climax, which was SO INTENSE. Her writing was great, not dominating her book with metaphors, only using a few key motifs to discuss her themes.

I actually took notes while I read this book, so here are some of my random thoughts I had about the book:

• Accurate texting. No really guys, teens don’t txt like dis 4eva. Sometimes we type out full words. Using the excess of texting acronyms that many authors do just highlights how out-of-touch they are. Rosoff didn’t suffer from this affliction.
• Interesting take on the US. Mila’s family is European, but the book takes place in America. Mila’s observations about the US were insightful without breaking from her youthful voice.
• Mila’s voice and breaking the 4th wall. I loved the way that Rosoff wrote Mila. She’s twelve years old, so definitely younger than the characters I usually read. She’s smart and definitely more observant than most kids her age, but she feel young. Her age and her inexperience with the world of adults is a major part of the book, adding uniqueness and making her character realistic. She also broke the fourth wall by addressing the reader often, which helped bring me into the story and her character.
• Jake. He was the perfect addition to the story. He appears in the middle of the story and I can’t really tell you much about him without spoilers, but he was great. Relatable and realistic. Right as the plot was in danger of lagging, he brought life back into the story.
• The cover. The cover perfectly sums up the book for me. I looked back at it after I finished reading it (I always read books without their dusk jackets on) and realized how perfect it was for the story.

I would recommend this book to anyone in the mood for a poignant read that delves deeply in the intricacies of adult life, mortality, and trust through a lovable narrator.

I hope you guys read it, and if you have read it, how did you feel about it?

Just a sidenote: do you guys like the bullet point system? Should I make it a staple or scrap it? Feedback would be great!