Seize Hes Gone Narrated By Deb Caletti Distributed As Interactive EBook
you go looking for rescue, you end up trapped in your own weakness, ”
Deb Caletti, He's Gone
Can you imagine if you will, you are married and so happy, You go to sleep one night with your spouse by your side, Then you wake up. Your spouse is not there, OK, Maybe he or she is out taking a walk, went to met a friend, went to the grocery store, So you wait. But your spouse never comes home, .
That is the premise in "He's gone" an excellent piece of Women's fiction that surprised me with how utterly good it was.
Dani, is the wife who wakes up to a missing spouse and as the police investigate, she wages a furious internal battle with herself about what really happened to him.
I should say there is much internal dialogue in this book, It did not bother me at all, In fact, I felt it added greatly to the plot, I do not always like that aspect of story telling but it works great here and I read to the end, And was very impressed by the book overall,
A strong four and a great book for Fiction lovers and for book clubs,.stars: What would you do if you woke up and your husband had vanished What a great story idea, What makes this novel expand from great to exceptional is Calettis use of Dani Kellers, the wife of the missing husband, Ian authentic internal monologue.
Danis voice is raw and human, Her narration becomes a meditation of her marriage, of her relationships, of her life, of her selfimposed guilt, Is she a reliable narrator Are any of us a reliable narrator of our lives After Ian has been missing for a day, Dani wonders why he would leave.
What could possibly lead to Ian just vanishing This prompts Dani to meticulously examining her marriage to Ian, and to the events leading up to the morning of his disappearance.
She finds fault with herself, with her imperfection in her marriage, She examines her parents marriage Ians parents marriage, As I read, I thought of my marriage, of friends marriages, of how every marriage is a mystery, I also thought of friends divorces and the aftermath of divorce, While this is a wonderful rumination of marriageand divorce, its also a great suspense novel: what happened to Ian Caletti furnishes alternative solutions to where Ian could be, beyond the obvious, resulting in a true page turner.
A thought provoking suspense novel: genius, I didn't like this book at all because there was no plot to the story, There was a conflict that came up in the beginning, but then throughout the whole rest of the book it lead to nothing, nothing happened.
The only part I enjoyed reading was the very end when I found out what actually happened to Ian, the husband, There was way too much telling of old, irrelevant stories and not enough dialogue and interaction, I know this book got rave reviews, but to me this book was not that great, The majority of the book is nothing but reflections, The premise of the story, a man goes missing, sounds great and wants you to think it's this big mystery, However, the mystery is small compared to the fact that the story is basically the retelling of how the man and woman met, You are suppose to maybe believe that this man left his wife, Nothing is missing, and divorce or leaving is not an option, The backstory is that both the man and woman were married to other people when they met each other, They had an affair, and eventually both get a divorce and marry each other, Of course life isn't what it seems for either of them, But there is love. Then he disappears. Did he leave on his own, was he taken, did his wife hurt him Yes it's a mystery, but not a big enough one to intrigue me.
Maybe because over/of the story is reflections, Not much dialogue until the cops get involved, Overall I was disappointed. Very rarely do I begin to write a book review when I am no further than halfway through, Hes Gone is the kind of novel that makes its reader pause and think, This novel is emotional and truthful, brave in ways I have a hard time comprehending, And Dani is athe epitome of that bravery,
I love when authors write from that place inside that is so honest and vulnerable it almost hurts to read it because of the raw truth behind it.
Its that place that makes you see your own weakness, the one you always hide because you are afraid of how others will see you.
Im inclined to think that those writes do not have any fear in revealing these truths however I know thats not true, The truth is that they are incredibly brave to reveal these things in spite of their fears, No one wants to admit how weak they are or that they made mistakes and wrong decisions,
Now that I have finished Hes Gone, I understand Dani, our protagonist, Her story is one of amazing revelation and honesty, I enjoyed every single second I was poking around in her head, dealing with her emotions and trying to grasp something that was always out of reach.
Hes Gone is the story of the aftermath when Ian, Danis second husband, disappears, She is left with little memory of that night and millions of questions, Told in both the present and in reflection as to what brought her here, This novel is simply spectacular and a must read, So do yourself a favor and run to the nearest bookstore and pick this on up, Be prepared to feel. Ms. Caletti is a gifted writer and a natural storyteller, You can't but experience the anticipation and grief right along with Dani, So, just go. Seriously. It's that good.
What a wonderful career I have librarian, soon to be retired, It allows me choose so many wonderful books often based on reviews with consideration of our readers tastes, Sometimes I call a patron immediately and suggest a new book, other times I wait to see if they will find the book on their own.
In the case of "he's Gone" I had some readers in mind, The book began its circulation process and within two reads, a woman stopped at the desk to tell me it was "awesome".
What better recommendation than that! Not only did she think this but her husband liked it too, Yes, this was one reader I had in mind, Reader serendipity. Hope you don't mind my chatter, Given all this I just had to read "he's Gone" myself,
"I used to imagine it sometimes, what would happen if one day I just didn't come home, " Immediately I'm hooked. I've felt that way at times, perhaps you have too, "I'd just like to runaway and never come back" or maybe stay away a few days and sneak back home feeling refreshed and revitalized.
But what if the tables were turned and it was a loved one, more importantly, my husband who just disappeared into thin air, I wake up and "he's Gone", How would I feel, what would I think
I've always been fascinated with books that explore marriage, This one is that, but more so a confession of a marriage, It is expertly written and thought provoking, Like many, a good book for discussion, Don't expect a fast paced thriller, This is a slow examination of thought and feeling, Without giving anything more away, I was certain of the ending, clues were given, but other choices were possible,
.for writing,for plotting a solidread. This one just wasn't for me, Most of the novel consists of soulsearching flashbacks, Maybe I just didn't have the patience required, because I I finally gave up midway through and skipped to the endthe only thing that had me reading on was to find out what happened to the husband.
Even the last pages were overly melodramatic and lackluster, Much of the language was cliche and the characters were flat and generic, I checked the author's writeup in the back to discover she had won or nearly won awards as a YA author, which seemed to make sense It was like reading YA but without any substantial kind of plot at least in the first half, since i couldn't finish it.
Way too much telling, not enough dialogue and action,
Calettis novel has an interesting premise, but suffers from far too much introspective telling and not enough dialogue and action, When the ultimate solution is finally revealed, the reader almost doesnt care, because the main characters are so unlikable and difficult to root for.
Dani Keller wakes up after a night out at a party with her husbands work colleagues, She had a bit too much to drink and doesnt actually remember coming home, Her husband, Ian, is not there, but Dani assumes hes gone to get breakfast and patiently waits, As the day progresses, she begins to worry and starts to pick apart their relationship in her head to determine whether he might have left her for another woman, just as he left his previous wife for her.
What happened to Ian I thought the premise of this book sounded pretty dam good,
Its excellent writing but not much dialogue until about/into the book, so it was a bit tedious to read as its based on reflections of the past.
Its worth a read, Im just saying dont sit eagerly for that “big” reveal,
Its ok just not overwhelmingly fantastic to make you gasp, No author has ever expressed better for me, the things a woman thinks and feels during each stage of a relationship, When Dani's husband disappears, she explores their relationship from its start to the present day, until you find out where he has gone, Insightful. . Dani wakens the morning after a company party to find her husband, Ian, gone, When he hadn't returned after a few hours, Dani, who cannot remember the last details from the night before, isn't even sure Ian came to bed at all.
Notifications are made, the police are called and no one has seen nor heard from Ian Over the course of the next few days, Dani has ample opportunity to examine how she came to marry
Ian after her abusive marriage to Mark and how she traded one set of problems for another.
Dani examines every aspect of her marriage, sins of omission and comission, did could he leave her and the not knowing is all encompassing.
What do you think happened to her husband He's Gone breaks all the "good writing" rules and gets away with it,
It's written in first person, We are told to limit the number of times we use the word I, which is usedtimes on the first full page of print and continues to proliferate throughout.
It's usedtimes on the last page, That alone would warrant a failing grade in any writing class, Caletti also slips into second person, occasionally addressing the reader as "you",
The title and cover art makes it look like a mystery, but it was clear to me where the husband had gone by the end of the first chapter.
By the end of the second I was sure, I waited for some kind of twist or surprise and was disappointed to see it all play out just as expected, A flat and anticlimactic ending,
Novels are expected to have an underlying theme and often have a subtle metaphor that repeats to reinforce the theme, Caletti's theme is transformation and is illustrated by the metamorphosis of butterflies, She beats us over the head with this in nearly every chapter, Nothing subtle about it.
Perhaps the most pervasive writing rule is "show, don't tell, " We struggle to show scenes through dialogue and action, He's Gone is densely printed, full of Dani's thoughts, dreams, and memories,
HOWEVER, despite breaking all these rules, the novel works, Although I was impatient with some of the long soulsearching passages, I kept reading because the characters in Dani's life were real and touching and I cared about what happened to them.
On the morning after a party that she barely remembers, Dani Keller awakens to the odd sound of the boat pounding against the dock.
. . and a feeling of something not quite right, Almost immediately, though, we are gifted with a view of Dani's world, living on a houseboat with a gorgeous view of Seattle, I connected to the story right away because of these details, And then I would further connect by the situation that slowly unfolds,
For one thing, her husband Ian is nowhere around, and as the day progresses, irritation turns to fear, and ultimately to panic as more time goes by.
Ian is Dani's second husband, and the two were married to other people when they met, Their infidelities would follow them and haunt them, even as they believed they were soul mates,
In this story that wrapped itself around me and plumbed the depths, excavating all the feelings that resonate for anyone who has ever been in a relationship or had an extramarital affair, I held my breath.
Slowly the possibilities of what might have happened to Ian are ticked off, as if from a list, leaving very few answers that anyone wants to live with.
I loved how Dani's introspective journey led us right into the muck of her interior world, reminding me of my own experiences with relationships.
How she needed rescue, and thought that was what was happening when she turned to Ian, But then she discovered that we all carry ourselves into each relationship, and somehow turn to new situations that are not that different from the one before.
Our situations did not destroy us, but we are "destroyed, . . by the ways in which we'd inevitably, with time, revealed ourselves, "
Even as I began to think I knew what would happen next, or what would be revealed about Ian's disappearance, I was surprised.
And then not so much. "He's Gone: A Novel" was a totally engrossing story that kept me reading long into the night, with its internal explorations, the realistic characters, and the feelings it evoked.
Five. .