when she was gone:
a novel by gwendolen gross
When She Was Gone has been called a cross between Little Children and The Lovely Bones and will grip you as you hear the story through the alternating points of view of her family and neighbors as they tackle issues from infidelity to long-held secrets.
- Lisa Steinke, Literary Roundup book review - Best Books to Take on Spring Vacation, SheKnows.com
“Similar in title and theme to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Gwendolen Gross deftly depicts the dread-filled unfolding of a mother’s realization that her child is missing and clearly portrays how a crisis of this nature unearths alliances and fissures within a community.”
- Library Journal book review, Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Libraries
From Library Journal's book review-
"Lovely, bright 17-year-old Linsey Hart vanishes a few weeks before she is to leave for college. The next seven days are spent in frantic efforts to find Linsey by retracing her movements and interactions with others. Linsey’s mother, Abigail, and stepfather, Frank, had been negotiating with Linsey’s father on how to share in seeing Linsey off to Cornell.
The night before Linsey’s disappearance, the quirky piano teacher neighbor, Mr. Leonard, overheard Linsey breaking up with Timmy, her high school love. Reeva, ruler of the neighborhood clique, had been upset that Linsey failed to show up for her babysitting job but then appeared rather more concerned that Linsey might have seen her with her lover. Geo, an observant 11-year-old loner, had been doing what he always did, keeping to himself and making collages of the photographs he took of his neighbors."