I found some of the characters to be interesting, and I would have liked to know even more about them. At the same time, I had expected more from the novel. I enjoy a book with a strong plot. I did not find it to be at all suspenseful. It read like glimpses into personal lives of some neighbors in a stereotypical upper class suburban community. ( )

Interesting book centered around a missing young woman. As the days pass searching for her, the readers learn the secrets of the neighborhood. There's an outcast, a cheater, ex-boyfriend, retired music teacher, and three very different little boys. Gross writes beautifully, but there's not much of a story in this book. Each chapter is told about a different character, but the characters are not truly connected to each other. At the beginning of the novel, it appeared to be a mystery; however, no one is trying to solve the mystery. The book is more like a collection of stories about different people in one neighborhood. The ending is very anti-climactic. There's no miraculous discovery or twist. ( )

I liked this book. I liked the way it was constructed and I enjoyed the writing. The story had less to do with the teenage girl's disappearance, although that is the event that ties all the characters together, and more to do with the actual characters. Enjoyable character study. ( )

This is the story of a young girl who disappears before she is to leave for college. The story is difficult to follow as it seems to jump from character to character. There also seems to be several themes involved. I just did not care for this book at all. ( )

When She Was Gone by Gwendolen Gross is about a seventeen-year-old girl who goes missing just before she is about to go off to college. The author lightens up the story by letting the reader know early on that Linsey Hart had left a note before leaving her house very early that summer morning and that the note had gone missing. As the story progresses from Day One onward, concern over the missing girl and her family grows among the neighbors and families in the suburban town, but also a heightened sense of drama and sympathy fatigue, as time passes.
The story moves around – settling briefly on one character, then moving to the next, beginning with Linsey’s next-door neighbor, the solitary and eccentric piano teacher, Mr. Leonard. Reading, we gather bits of evidence from each, piecing together an outline of what happened from what each person has seen or knows. The chapter headings list neighborhood addresses (24 Sycamore St., 26 Sycamore St., etc.) cluing readers in that the focus is shifting from one character to another. Several neighbors have secrets they would prefer not to have revealed to their neighbors in the course of a police investigation.
This is a quiet story, not a shocking one or a suspenseful one. If you go into it looking for something like The Lovely Bones or Gone Girl, you’re going to be disappointed. When She Was Gone is more of a psychological novel. It doesn’t go deep into the family’s emotional reservoir the way Songs for the Missing does, but stays closer to the factual surface of the story, reporting characters’ thoughts, allowing readers to read between the lines, and getting down to the nub of dissatisfaction at the heart of suburban life.
When She Was Gone is the author’s fifth novel. The characters in When She Was Gone are well drawn and memorable. I enjoyed reading this study of a suburban town in subdued crisis mode.
For fuller review, please visit the Bay State Reader's Advisory blog. ( )