“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” - Inferno, DanteThese books crawl under my skin. I always feel brave and strong while reading them because I seem to stomach everything but oh, look at how dumb you are, Anna. They linger in me. My nightmares say it all. More than the what or the who or the how, the emotion flourishes deeper, digging into me and breaking my defenses. These books haunt me - I can't find another word really. They haunt me with their sharp and hard take on the world. They feed my pessimism until I stop yelling NO MORE! NO MORE! They turn my stomach inside out. They move me. Scar me. "Well, fine, my life's okay, but the world's still a pile of shit for most people. Even if my world is okay, the world is still a pile of evil shit.' You know?"Their strength lies in the power they hold against my thoughts when I'm not reading. Gone, Baby, Gone deals with child abuse. Start with caution, please. Be warned. As usual, Dennis Lehane will take your heart and squeeze, hard, until the darkness covers every tiny hope you were nurturing. Who has the right to judge? Society? Individuals? As far as I have my answers - and yes, I quite agree with Patrick on this (not always, though), how flawed our reasoning can be - I know that there's no such thing as a right answer here. There's no such thing as a right choice, but shitty choices all the way. This complexity, always present in Dennis Lehane's book, is what make them so special in my heart. The world is not as Manichean as some people want us to think, even though it would be easier to deal with it if it was. Humans are selfish animals. "Those who did remember probably shrugged off the chill of her memory, turned their heads down to the sports page or up toward the approaching bus. The world is a terrible place, they thought. Bad things happen every day. My bus is late."Is the ability to forget inherent to the human being? Are we all trying to protect ourselves and those we love on an everyday basis? Maybe. Frankly, I'm not skilled enough to judge the world (who is?), and neither is Dennis Lehane : what he offers us here is a portray of the kaleidoscope that is life, and it's brilliant.Favorite, then? Well, this is awkward. This book is probably the favorite of many readers, and I expected that it would be the same for me. However, as you can infer from my 4 stars rating, Gone, Baby, Gone lost the opportunity to uncrown Darkness, Take My Hand. What makes this series so different for me? Definitely Patrick and Angie, the heart of the series, with their sarcastic and badass moves (also, Bubba). In the first half of Gone, Baby, Gone, it seemed to me that Patrick and Angie were only the shells of themselves.As a standalone, I can't deny that it was an incredible book through and through, even though I found the first half quite slow. Yet it is not a standalone, but part of a series I LOVE, and during the first 50% I missed Patrick's quick mind and wit. I missed Angie's clever retorts. I've read the first three books in the span of 10 days, and I'm pretty sure I've got their spirit well in mind. They weren't quite there at first in my opinion. Except for Bubba. His parts were my little sunshine (I know, I'm such a psycho). This being said, after passing the 60% mark, the characters finally gave me the usual feels and ... I love them. So much. It was painful. It was raw. Again, everything is more complex than it appears at first glance : it's almost ridiculous to see how many times Dennis Lehane can surprise me. Damn. If I wasn't so engrossed in his stories, I'd be mad. But now? I'm pretty sure I'm broken.Ps. I said earlier that I would wait before starting the fifth book and as it is... I can't. I need more Bubba, more Patrick, and more Angie. Now even more. For more of my reviews, please visit:
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/ “Even if MY world is okay, THE world is still a pile of evil shit.” (Wrong movie - spot-on quote. Also, doesn’t Matt Damon have the most punchable face in all the world? The correct answer is yes. Yes he does.)This was a buddy read with my pal The Jeff, but I can’t wait any longer for his slow ass to finish so my review is going up now ; )In all seriousness, words can’t express how thankful I am that I buddied up with The Jeff for this one. Let’s just say I wasn’t in a real good place this past week so there was no way I could have made it through without adding some levity via status updates with my pal.Gone Baby Gone is the fourth installment in the Kenzie & Gennaro series and covers the investigation of a 4-year old little girl who has gone missing in Dorchester. Man this book was dark. It’s a story that won’t just break your heart, it might break your entire being. It will most definitely tear your blood pumper into ten thousand pieces, douse those pieces with gasoline, and light the match. I’ve never read a book where I already knew the whodunit before even beginning. However, since Gone Baby Gone was a feature film starring the incomparable Morgan Freeman about 8 or so years ago, I was already familiar with the story. That being said, Lehane’s writing is so stellar that even though I totally knew how things would play out I still found myself . . . and questioning whether my memory was correct.Speaking of the writing . . . “Nothing is louder than the silence of the missing child. It’s a silence that’s two and a half to three feet tall, and you feel it at your hip and hear it rising up from the floorboards, shouting to you from corners and crevices and the emotionless face of a doll left on the floor by the bed. It’s a silence that’s different from the one left at funerals and wakes. The silence of the dead carries with it a sense of finality; it’s a silence you know you must get used to. But the silence of a missing child is not something you want to get used to; you refuse to accept it, and so it screams at you. The silence of the dead says, Goodbye.The silence of the missing says, Find me.”Excuse me for a second . . . With regard to the movie version if you’ve not yet seen it, let me tell you it’s one of the best adaptations from page to screen I’ve seen (even the miscasting of certain characters worked well). And while I don’t find Battfleck as punchable as Matt Damon, I’m not a huge fan of his acting inability. However, as a director of a gritty crime drama set in Southie???? Amazing. The film also happens to feature one of the most quotable quotes in the history of movies and one that I use around my house on the regular . . . . (Don’t you wish you were married to me? Yeah, Jeff does too.)I’m obviously not going to tell you who the bad guy is, any twists and turns, or how things play out. All I’m going to say is some people shouldn’t ever be allowed to birth children . . . Drugs are bad mmmmm’kay . . . Don’t EVER f*&^ around with people named things like “Cheese” . . . And when things seem a little far-fetched or too hinky, just go with it and be prepared for a read that makes you question everything a lot of the opinions you hold about what is right and what is wrong. Also be prepared to . . .
What do You think about Gone, Baby, Gone (1999)?
Angie and Patrick reluctantly take on a case to find a missing girl. But as usual nothing are as it seems at this case just like many before them will take a toll on them both.In Gone, Baby, Gone you really get a taste of darkness and an overdose of evil. I finished the book a couple of weeks ago, but this was a book that actually was so awful to read, the first Lehane book I had to read in phases, not right through because it was sometimes too awful to read. I also waited a while to write the review. Sometimes dwelling in darkness isn't that nice and after Gone, Baby, Gone I just wanted to read easy things and watch fun things on TV.Rating the book was also hard. I gave the book 4.5 stars after I finished the book, but after thinking it through these weeks after finishing the book have I decided to give the four instead, knock of a half star more. I found the book too dark and disturbing for my taste. I hate reading books when children get hurt and for instance the pedophile part of the books was horrific.I have more Lehane books to read, but for the moment I will read other kind of books. Books with hopefully happy endings...Review also posted on And Now for Something Completely Different and It's a Mad Mad World
—Magdalena
I just finished this book- like, literally, turned the final page, put it down, and am now writing. So, it's possible that I'm violating some rule of thumb akin to waiting two hours after you eat before swimming or not going to bed angry. However, there's a sort of queasy discomfort I have after finishing this fourth volume of the Kenzie & Gennaro corpus that might dissolve given enough lag time that I wanted to get down.Lehane has left me with the disquieting malaise of a wicked problem. Wicked problems are defined (in part) by their lack of definitive solution. And, at least for me, uncertainty is not a favorite feeling. This book, of course, is not a discourse in moral philosophy. Patrick and Angie are brought in to look for the missing child of a less than stellar mother at the behest of the girl's uncle. As usual, there are layers of intrigue, action and tension for miles. If nothing more, this one will definitely make you feel something, but it will likely be a something you can't quite pin down.
—Mara
I have just one more Kenzie & Gennaro book to read. Each one of the books I've highly enjoyed and would recommend them to everyone. This one is no exception. What I like about Lehane's books is not only his fantastic writing but also his ability to make a simple promise of a book into something that is hard to put down. This one started with a missing child and went out of control, spiralling into a world of drugs, money, corruption, and the want for fame and glory. Most of the characters in the book are likable, even those who are horrible human beings. The dialogue is always smooth, revealing bits of important information with each chapter. The last chapter was hard to read. You know there are people out there who do horrible things and you know you might even know some who are straight criminals, but it still does not prepare you for ultimate reveal. It makes you question whether a criminal can turn his life around and become a good person, the kind that even someone in the law enforcement would not question. it also makes you question whether a criminal can change into a person who cares about those around him. Lehane has a way with his story where there are no points where you would stop and say, "well that's a big coincidence. He's just using that because he does not know how to connect the dots without being cliche." I highly recommend Lehane's books. Over the years I've become one of his big fans. He is a great author and from interviews he seems like an overall great guy. I hope after Moonlight Mile he does more of Kenzie and Gennaro books. I really like them and I hope he at least mentions them in some other books, just for shits and giggles.
—Rade
