17 & GONE by Nova Ren Suma

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

5 stars (I changed my mind this book is too good to be just 4.5 stars)

There are spoilers and it's best not to click unless you've read the book. Unless you don't care about being spoiled then go for it! For the spoiler review click here.


Lauren starts to have visions of girls who have gone missing a few months before her seventeenth birthday. All these girls are 17 and gone. While Lauren struggles to shake the nightmares and uncover the questions about why these girls are speaking to her and how to help them. In a little house in Lauren’s dreams all the girls await and causing Lauren to wonder why she’s the only girl that can leave the house. Is she next? Will she be 17 and gone like Abigail? This book was so good. I had mixed feelings after reading it and even though I loved it I wasn’t sure if I loved it enough to give it five stars. It is good enough and beyond that to be five stars for me. This book was just perfect. I’m absolutely entranced by Ms. Suma’s writing. I consider her to be a writing witch. She weaves stories with words so perfectly. Her descriptions are entrancing and the story is always interesting. I never want to put a book of hers down, but sometimes life gets in the way and it forces me to do just that. This book is just so different. It’s a lot like Imaginary Girls in writing style and I urge anyone that even remotely liked that book to read 17 & Gone. While I noticed that a lot of people had a problem with the fact that Imaginary Girls had no plot or explanations to the things happening, 17 & Gone does.


The main female character is Lauren. Lauren isn’t my favorite heroine ever, but I did like reading from her perspective. I was just as confused as her to her situation. Her story is quite moving. Lauren is far from being a great heroine, but she’s no Mary Sue. I liked learning about what she went through when she was little with Fiona. SPOILER! Seriously I kid you not if you click on the spoiler tag it’ll ruin the whole book for you. (view spoiler)

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7

The main male character is I guess her boyfriend Jamie. He is absent for quite a bit of the story. I didn’t really like Jamie, but I didn’t hate him either. I do appreciate the choices he made for Lauren in the end though. This makes me like Jamie a lot even if he was hardly ever present.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 6

The Villain- I’ll just leave this one with the answer of I’m not sure. I just don’t know what to put without giving anything away.

Villain Scale: Undecided

The girl that Lauren first saw that started the visions is Abigail or Abby. I’m not sure how to explain what I think about Abby. (view spoiler) There’s also Fiona Burke who plays a huge part of Lauren’s story. It’s hard to explain any of the girls of Lauren’s visions without giving anything away, which is why I put off writing a review right away. I have my opinions about these girls, but I can’t talk about them because it gives too much away.

Character Scale: 8.5

I enjoyed this book immensely. I officially consider myself to be a fan of Suma’s work. I’m so happy to have read this book because it really made me think about things. Not only what Lauren is experiencing, but also about how many girls go missing. The girls that went missing were real (view spoiler) I find this incredibly scary because it happens so easily and sometimes it’s voluntary, but going missing is such an often occurrence. This book made me think about the girls that have recently been going missing in my little town. They are a lot like Abby and Fiona and all the other girls that go missing. I think this book is absolutely amazing and I encourage everyone to read it. This is definitely a great book and it won’t have an impact on everyone, but it’s worth reading. Sorry for the not-so-great review! It's hard to review a book that you don't want to give away.


Thank you Penguin Teen for the Advanced Reader Copy and Ms. Suma for signing it!

Cover Thoughts: I absolutely love the cover. It is just so perfect. I love how they have Abby’s missing poster on the cover and I just love it.