Julie's Review: He's Gone

Author: Deb Caletti
Series: None
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Publisher: Bantam
Pages: 352
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction,Mystery
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Wow!
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: “What do you think happened to your husband, Mrs. Keller?” The Sunday morning starts like any other, aside from the slight hangover. Dani Keller wakes up on her Seattle houseboat, a headache building behind her eyes from the wine she drank at a party the night before. But on this particular Sunday morning, she’s surprised to see that her husband, Ian, is not home. As the hours pass, Dani fills her day with small things. But still, Ian does not return. Irritation shifts to worry, worry slides almost imperceptibly into panic. And then, like a relentless blackness, the terrible realization hits Dani: He’s gone. As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations — he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed — Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can — and cannot — remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth — about herself, her husband, and their lives together. ~powells.com

Review: He's Gone is such a thrilling ride. I savoured every page and yet I couldn't wait to get to the end of this book purely because I needed resolution, just like Dani. This book is so layered. It is a mystery, a love story, a psychological thriller and a study of marriage/fidelity. It is not a simple story. It is complex like Dani. It shows the different sides of a woman as she goes through the anger, grief and relief. We get into Dani's head as she examines every nook and cranny of her relationship/marriage with Ian. It isn't pretty. It shows the dark side of life and of some marriages.

Dani needed to be rescued from her marriage but what she doesn't realize is that she is the one that needed to do the rescuing. I really wavered back and forth on all different scenarios. There was a point that I really doubted Dani and her sanity. I felt she was going crazy. I couldn't decide if the blackout was real or if it was just something she was saying because she was guilty.

Ian is not a nice guy. He is the master of manipulation and feeling sorry for himself. At some point your upbringing needs to stop being an excuse for how you act. Your life and your behavior is in your hands. He was never going to be happy with anyone because he wasn't happy with himself. He might not have physically abused Dani but he certainly verbally and emotionally did.

I'm so happy that Alice put this on my List this year, otherwise I probably would have passed on this fantastic novel!

Alice's Review

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