Before the Ruins

June 1, 2020

In this literary/thriller blend, four friends--self-destructive Andy; her boyfriend, Marcus; her best friend, Peter; and inscrutable Em--are sheltering in an abandoned manor house. Then charismatic, on-the-run David shows up, and Andy and Peter fall out in a bid for his attention. Meanwhile, a stolen diamond necklace may be somewhere on the premises. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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Starred review from August 10, 2020
British author Gosling’s stellar debut focuses on four childhood friends—Andy, the bold ringleader; her boyfriend, Marcus; her best friend, Peter; and the creative and enterprising Em. In the summer of 1996, the four, all in their late teens, decide to experience “the apocalypse” that Andy’s alcoholic mother believes will happen on June 20 at an abandoned manor house in the Wiltshire countryside that was the scene of a suspicious death and the theft of a priceless diamond necklace in 1936. When they arrive at the manor that day, there’s no apocalypse, but they do encounter a stranger, David, in the drive. He knows the new owners, a wealthy family waiting to remodel it. David, flirtatious and a bit older than the others, is immediately drawn to Andy—and to Peter, creating tension between the two friends. In the days that follow, Em finds a suitable, cheap facsimile of the stolen necklace in a thrift shop, and the friends take turns hiding the fake necklace, which the others must find. Some romantic drama ensues, and in the autumn they all go their separate ways. More than 20 years later, Andy and Peter meet on occasion, but avoid talking about what happened at the manor. Then Peter disappears, and Andy resolves to find him. The gorgeous, poetic prose perfectly complements the suspenseful plot. Gosling is off to a terrific start.

September 1, 2020
When her friend Peter goes missing, Andy digs up long-buried secrets from their teenage years to find him. The year was 1996, and Andy's neglectful mother was sure the apocalypse was nigh. Andy; her boyfriend, Marcus; her best friend, Peter; and their other friend, Em, decide to break into an abandoned manor and pretend that the world really is ending and that they can therefore do whatever they want without consequence. At the manor they meet David, a mysterious boy about their age whose enigmatic presence pits Peter and Andy against each other, vying for David's attention. When they hear a story about a diamond necklace supposedly hidden somewhere on the property, Em buys a fake necklace that they take turns hiding and searching for, a ritual they simply call "the game." Twenty years later, Andy hears from Peter's mother that Peter has gone missing. Andy goes digging back into their past in an attempt to find some clue that might lead her to Peter, but she finds more mysteries than she bargained for. Though it's Peter's disappearance that sets off the events that lead Andy to unpack her youth, this book isn't exactly a thriller. The elements of mystery serve to provide narrative tension, but the real point here is Gosling's examination of the disappointment of modern living, the emptiness of adulthood, and the notion of the fake diamond necklace so many of us spend our lives searching for. The ending doesn't quite satisfy, and a few of the passages on contemporary culture fall flat--for example, saying that Tinder is superficial is not much of an observation at this point. But Andy's search for her friend works well as a scaffolding for some lovely passages, like Andy's thoughts on the online trend of "unboxing" videos: "And every time, when the moment finally came, I wondered if the hundreds of thousands of other people who watched these videos felt the same as I did, the same anticipation, the same surprise, and ultimately the same disappointment--that what was inside the box was just a thing." Come for the missing person mystery, stay for the existential ennui.

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November 1, 2020
Friends Andrea, Peter, Emily, and Marcus shared the same schools, the same teachers, and an understanding of the nuances of family dysfunction. When they met David, their clique finally felt complete, exploring David's run-down manor, their small town, and the thrills of stolen alcohol and hidden joints. Eventually, they all found their ways in the larger world. Years later, Andrea gets a worrying phone call asking if she's seen Peter recently. She hasn't, and her discomfort grows until she begins tracking him down. A long-lost diamond necklace adds to the intrigue, but Andrea's not sure she really wants to uncover every detail of Peter's adult life. Old memories have a habit of resurfacing, and aren't some things better left hidden? Lyrical and well-paced, matching the tone of Donna Tartt's The Secret History (1992), Kate Weinberg's The Truants (2020), and Katie Lowe's The Furies (2019), Before The Ruins spans decades among a fractured friend group. Gosling cleverly jumps backwards and forwards in time, unraveling Peter's disappearance just as readers understand the depth of the friends' secrets.

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