Guildford, UK – Author Morgan Mattson’s 2014 novel Since You’ve Been Gone is an interesting book. I hated it in the beginning and hated its ending, but the middle transformed me.
Listen to the author read this review:
The book’s exposition – the first 10 pages to be exact – that I read on the beach made me feel that this was just another amateur, young adult novel that my friends made me read, but the more I read, the more I realized that this book had something special.
The novel quickly became an epic journey of teen self-discovery, of adversity in hardship and the ability of the human spirit to expand and redevelop itself as necessary.
Mattson turns the protagonist, Emily, into a virtual model for any teenager. Because Emily’s actual limitations aren’t external, but rather a product of her mindset.
Emily isn’t battling illness or famine, but a perceived sense of loneliness, which has become so ingrained into our generation.
And it’s in this perspective that “Since You’ve Been Gone” really shines. It isn’t a literary masterpiece, but it is relatable.
That’s important because it is relatable to all teenagers living the privileged lifestyle we have in the developed world, where our greatest challenges come from within.
And it is through this realism that Since You’ve Been Gone has impacted me because as I identified – at least in part – with Emily, I too experienced the character growth she does towards the end.
But immediately after finishing the novel, the ending itself made me want to write a scalding review.
What had for me become a very relatable, realistic story which I thoroughly enjoyed, ended with an unattainable, overly romanticized resolution that threatened to undo everything I’d learned while reading it.
An ordinary teenager will never experience that fantastical ending, and for a second, it made me feel that only fictional characters can have the personal growth and perseverance described in the novel. The moral of the story (as a whole) was that anyone – absolutely anyone – can become the version of themselves that they want to be, that they can surpass their fears and live confidently.
So, my advice to you? Don’t read chapters 17 and 18 (the two last chapters) and instead give yourself the ending that you deserve.
Because you too, can become your own “Emily.”
Manuel Bernardo Tavares Moreira Belo Carmona is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
