Gone, Gone, Gone

March 26, 2012
Set a year after 9/11 against the backdrop of the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, this quiet and insightful drama follows two gay teens as they wrestle with their feelings for each other, for the recent past, and for the present. Fifteen-year-old Craig pines for his ex-boyfriend, Cody, sublimating his worries by taking care of numerous stray pets. When the animals go missing after a break-in, Craig obsesses over finding them, enlisting the aid of his new friend Lio. Lio, a recent transplant from New York City, is still coming to terms with surviving cancer, the same disease that took his twin brother. A kiss sparks a slow, complicated romance that’s muddled by ongoing contact between Craig and Cody, lingering trauma from 9/11, and collective paranoia as the sniper attacks continue. Moskowitz (Invincible Summer) captures the teenage mentality and voice in this tender yet emotionally complex romance. Alternating between Craig and Lio’s perspectives, the novel does an excellent job of showing the collective hurt from the 9/11 attacks and how those in both New York and D.C. dealt with the aftermath. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, FinePrint Literary Management.

February 15, 2012
The Beltway sniper shootings and the attacks of 9/11 become the crucible for this exploration of teenage grief and love. Thirteen months after the 9/11 attacks, 15-year-old Craig wakes up to find that his menagerie of five cats, four dogs, three rabbits, a bird and a guinea pig have all escaped. Meanwhile, Lio, also 15, is using his therapy sessions to explore his feelings for Craig instead of dealing with the death of his twin brother from leukemia. Hunting for the animals, the teens end up arguing over the destruction of the World Trade Center, the damage to the Pentagon and the peculiar allocation of the country's collective grief. Enigmatic characters, emotional manipulation and the convoluted plot keep Moskowitz's third novel from achieving the impact of her previous works (Invincible Summer, 2011, etc.). Craig is an especially remote character, with somewhat autistic mannerisms, and it's difficult to relate to him through either inner and or interpersonal dialogue. His relationship with Lio is not so much developed as forced. There's no skill in the treatment of these two high-profile tragedies; they both come across as cheap emotional touchstones rather than opportunities to honestly explore grief, loss and shared sorrow. What with the lost pets, the unclear relationship Craig has with his ex-boyfriend, a suicide hotline and dead siblings, there's simply too much going on. A complete miss from an otherwise solid author. (Fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2012
Grades 8-12 Fifteen-year-old Craig is nowhere close to over his (maybe) ex-boyfriend when a brooding kid with a head of multicolored hair, Lio, transfers to his school. Craig is an emotional motormouth; Lio is a cancer survivor with a twin brother who didn't make it; and their budding relationship is already complicated before the 2002 Beltway Sniper begins terrorizing the D.C. area in which they live. There is trauma to spare in this novel, but Moskowitz, as usual, imbues her prose with a dreamy quality that makes every off moment feel monumental, even when it comes at the expense of realism. Despite featuring the very real sniper attacks of 2002, this is as amorphous as the author's Invincible Summer (2011)not necessarily a bad thing for those inclined to float along with the lullaby rhythm. The theme of the randomness of tragedy (literalized here by 9/11, the sniper, cancer, and Craig's 14 lost pets) is particularly well-handled. Moskowitz is firmly within her comfort zone here; it'll be fascinating to see what happens when she breaks out.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)