17 and Gone

Pure excitement to see a new book out by Nova Ren Suma, author of Imaginary Girls, one of my favorite reads from last year!  I gobbled up 17 and Gone, which was eerie and satisfying and a more than a little unnerving. In her newest novel, missing girls haunt the pages, all of them seventeen-years-old, all of them missing without a trace, all of them drawn to our main character, Lauren, herself only seventeen-years-old and suddenly able to see these missing girls, these--dead?--girls, not only in her recurring dreams but in waking life.  Lauren becomes obsessed with the missing, to the point where she drives her own boyfriend away and withdraws from everyone she knows.  Lauren doesn't care.  Because she's realizing how dangerous the world is, how vulnerable a teenage girl can be, how easily one can disappear, there one moment, gone the next.  The voices of the missing fill her head.  Can Lauren find them?  Why have they come to her and what end awaits them all, including Lauren?

Nova Ren Suma is an incredible writer.  She manages to go a step beyond in both of the novels I've read by her.  You won't find cliche here.  She goes deeper and she has a very accurate sense of the psychology of teen girls.  Imaginary Girls and 17& Gone are polar opposites in some thematic ways I won't get into here and now, but they both have the same deliciously dark factor coupled with beautiful writing that make them quality reads.

Highly recommended.