Book Review | Since You've Been Gone | Morgan Matson

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Published by Simon & Schuster on May 6, 2014
Genres: Contemporary YA, Friendship
Pages: 449
Format: Hardcover
Also by this author: Second Chance Summer
Source: Bought it
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
five-stars

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn’t go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn’t do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Ok, easy enough.Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

There are a handful of authors whose books I will always read, no matter what. NO MATTER WHAT. Ever since I read AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR, Morgan Matson has been one of those authors for me. I read her newest book, SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE a month ago, but I’ve been sitting on my review because, sometimes, when I really love something I just can’t get my words right. Perhaps other books of Morgan’s have made more of a lasting impact on me than SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE, but I still loved it and its story of friendship A LOT A LOT.

SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE is about Emily, a girl on her summer vacation who is feeling LOST without her BFF, Sloane. Sloane, vibrant, magnetic, open-minded Sloane, has just completely disappeared. No warning, no notice, no nothing, and Emily is legit floundering. All of their carefully made plans for the summer are suddenly dull and unsure, and she’s faced with a summer of babysitting her little brother while her playwright parents fall deep into the writing hole. That is, until she receives a list from Sloane of things that Emily needs to do over the summer, including going skinny dipping, stealing something, and riding a horse. Enter Frank Porter, all around nice guy and new friend/running partner of Emily’s. When Frank and a few others make it their summer mission to help Emily complete her list, all kinds of fun, emotional things happen, and Emily gets lots of time to think about her friendship with Sloane and the THING that happened that might’ve changed their relationship for always.

If there’s one thing Morgan Matson does really well it’s, well it’s basically everything. Friendship, romance, road trips, relationships, family, grief–I’ve never read a book of hers that I didn’t think was amazing and hit all the right notes. SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE lives up to every excellent thing I expect from Morgan Matson.

Where other books of hers have focused on different kinds of relationships, SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE is really about friends. Emily and Sloane are the kind of friends that are different enough for one of them to shine a little brighter than the other. Sloane is confident and free-wheeling, and Emily is quiet and follows Sloane’s lead basically all the time. People know Emily first as Sloane’s friend. If I’m being honest, while I enjoyed the friendship angle a lot and enjoyed the way Sloane’s list led Emily to come out of her shell, I thought their relationship itself was a little unhealthy. Not that Sloane expected Emily’s blind devotion. It never seemed that way. This was more Emily being a little timid and unsure of herself. The kind of girl who doesn’t believe that someone like Sloane would ever be her friend and is in awe of her. What makes this part of SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE so wonderful is the way Emily steps out from Sloane’s shadow.

I enjoyed the list aspect as well. It spoke to how well Sloane knows her friend, and it gave Emily the perfect excuse to stand up to her fears and live a little. Emily goes after this list with focus and reverence, it being the last thing she ever got from Sloane and the only possible hint to her whereabouts. The friends Emily makes while trying to get through the list were funny and supportive as well, so BONUS FRIENDS.

Of course, one of the friends Emily makes in SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE is Frank. FRANK. Frank Porter is your typical Good Guy: good student, popular, involved in student government, great athlete, good looking, and super nice. Even if you usually go for bad boys, there’s honestly nothing to dislike about Frank except the fact that he’s nice. I, personally, LOVED HIM. He’s a great friend to Emily, encouraging her to cross things off her list and MAYBE developing some feelings for her on their almost-daily runs where they exchange playlists. (THE PLAYLISTS! Morgan Matson has way hipper taste in music than I do, but I loved the playlists from AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR, and I loved them in SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE, too.)

Emily and Frank develop a great foundation for their relationship and so when things become a little more complicated and the line between friends and more than friends gets blurrier, there are swoons and butterflies for days. I loved them together, but I also loved that SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE is really about Emily becoming less “that girl who’s friends with Sloane” to “Emily.”

SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE was one of my most anticipated books for this year, as all Morgan Matson books will always be whenever they come out. It’s a very real, emotional story about friendship and individuality and being brave. Even as a grown up, there are a lot of things I learned about life from SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE and I wish we didn’t have to wait until 2016 for more from Morgan Matson. Love her and her books to pieces.