Gone for Good
Sarah Crossan
A novel by Sarah Crossan cannot be anything other than brilliant and true to form, her latest verse novel is another triumph.
Connie is angry and confused when she is dragged from her bed in the middle of the night and taken to some sort of correctional institution in a remote American location. She is even more bewildered when she discovers that her father has requested it.
Torn between trying to leave and making friends with others imprisoned like her, Connie quickly realises that something is very badly wrong at Silver Lake and that another girl has gone missing.
I really enjoyed this. It will appeal to fans of the popular school crime genre (Holly Jackson. Karen M McManus) and slightly more dystopian titles such as Happy Head by Josh Silver.
The theme of grief and loss is woven throughout the story line by tackling the subject of parental death as well as removal from a familiar and comfortable lifestyle. Connie and her new friends show resilience when faced with adversity which, when written is verse, makes a deep emotional impact. Time poor readers will also appreciate the verse novel format which carries you to the end so much faster than when written in prose, although such is the quality of the book, I really didn’t want it to end.
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2026 (392 pages)
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