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Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone
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An arresting un-coming-of-age story, from a breathtaking talent
Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating in ...more
Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating in ...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
July 5th 2012
by Dutton Juvenile
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Start your review of Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone

Dec 17, 2011
Wendy Darling
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
fans of Imaginary Girls, The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Shelves:
2012-publication,
young-adult,
mystery-traditional,
july,
penguin,
tough-subjects,
read-2012,
summery,
mature-ya
This has been amazing year for young adult literature for mature audiences. From The Miseducation of Cameron Post to the upcoming Monstrous Beauty, it's been incredibly exciting to find books that aren't afraid to push boundaries, ask questions, and immerse their readers in unusual literary styles. Is this in recognition that more and more adults are reading YA? Perhaps. I just hope the trend continues.
One of my favorite books this year is definitely Kat Rosenfeld's Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone. ...more
One of my favorite books this year is definitely Kat Rosenfeld's Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone. ...more

DNF at page 84. I'm at the point where I just can't even push my way through YA contemporary. This book is pretty, but boring.
...more

2.5 stars
Things I didn't like:
- Purple prose.
- Lengthy, repetitive descriptions.
- Weird tangents that I couldn't connect with the main story. I dunno, what was the main story? Everything was so convoluted and patchy.
- Every character except James.
- Alll the dramatic fight scenes.
- The pointless red herring.
- The lack of a substantial plot.
- Switching from first to third person - so jarring.
- The unbelievable, unsatisfying ending.
Things I liked:
- James.
- The vivid imagery.
- The parallel charact ...more
Things I didn't like:
- Purple prose.
- Lengthy, repetitive descriptions.
- Weird tangents that I couldn't connect with the main story. I dunno, what was the main story? Everything was so convoluted and patchy.
- Every character except James.
- Alll the dramatic fight scenes.
- The pointless red herring.
- The lack of a substantial plot.
- Switching from first to third person - so jarring.
- The unbelievable, unsatisfying ending.
Things I liked:
- James.
- The vivid imagery.
- The parallel charact ...more

Objectively speaking, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is well written. (Hence, no rating from me, even though I didn't finish it.) Kat Rosenfield is (mostly) in control of her very evocative, atmospheric prose:
"Murder in a small town is always more than a paragraph in the local paper. In a place so insulated, where lives are so small and gone about so quietly, violent death hangs in the air - tinting everything crimson, weaving itself into a shimmering heat that rises off the winding asphalt roads ...more
"Murder in a small town is always more than a paragraph in the local paper. In a place so insulated, where lives are so small and gone about so quietly, violent death hangs in the air - tinting everything crimson, weaving itself into a shimmering heat that rises off the winding asphalt roads ...more

Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone Amelia Anne is dead and gone but she apparently left behind her thesaurus because her story was quite adjective-alicious. But, once I waded through the overabundance of metaphors and descriptive prose, it was a fairly ok read....until the last 30 or so pages. That ending was bullshit. I was so angry about the fact that I had been drawn in to the suspense of this murder/mystery only to be rewarded with some half ass muddle-muck of an ending. Not to mention that it jus
...more

I liked this book alright. The writing was beautiful but the story just didn't fit together in some parts. The mystery aspect was cool but not enough of a mystery to really be haunting.
...more

Lush, lush writing and a twist I did not see coming. I mean, I sort of thought it could go down as it did, but I didn't think it'd ACTUALLY happen.
This was a dark, twisted, and complex story. I think the flap copy does it little justice, actually. It's a story about being trapped and becoming free, and it's a metaphor played out via not only murder and destruction, but sex and dreams and reaching for the future while feeling completely stuck in the past.
Reminded me so much style-wise of Nova Re ...more
This was a dark, twisted, and complex story. I think the flap copy does it little justice, actually. It's a story about being trapped and becoming free, and it's a metaphor played out via not only murder and destruction, but sex and dreams and reaching for the future while feeling completely stuck in the past.
Reminded me so much style-wise of Nova Re ...more

Amelia Anne had me at hello. The beautiful cover, mesmerizing synopsis, and steady stream of rave reviews were initially intriguing. But then there was the first line:
The night before Amelia Anne Richardson bled her life away on a parched dirt road outside of town, I bled out my dignity in the back of a pickup truck under a star-pricked sky.
Amazing, right? I’m happy to report that each line that follows the first is equally stunning. So are the characters, the setting, and the desperate, raw ton ...more
The night before Amelia Anne Richardson bled her life away on a parched dirt road outside of town, I bled out my dignity in the back of a pickup truck under a star-pricked sky.
Amazing, right? I’m happy to report that each line that follows the first is equally stunning. So are the characters, the setting, and the desperate, raw ton ...more

Oh, that awkward moment where you read a book that's come highly recommended to you from just about everyone you know and then you don't like the book. There seem to be a lot of times where I'm that guy: the one who goes against the grain of popular opinion. I could list a number of books my friends all loved that I didn't like much at all, as well as ones pretty much no one else cared for that I thought were fabulous. Honestly, it's frustrating this divide that leaves me agreeing with others no
...more

Feb 07, 2012
Steph Su
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
fans of Anna Jarzab, Nova Ren Suma, Kirsten Hubbard
Shelves:
debs12
AMELIA ANNE IS DEAD AND GONE is not really a book that wants you to like it. From the uncomfortable opening sex scene to the way Becca’s plotline ends up intersecting with that of Amelia Anne’s death, it’s like you’re forcibly pressed close to the story and its ugliness, so that every blemish is magnified. If you’re the kind of reader who likes this no-gloss dissection of flawed characters and setting, then great! It wasn’t my type of read, but I can see why other will find this winning.
Say good ...more
Say good ...more

"The men looked at her as she looked away from them. Seeing Amelia, who saw nothing at all."
The writing of this book was beautiful, and the story intriguing although predictable. It also has sort of an open ending, but I did not feel like it detracted from the story at all. Worthy of a re-read.
...more
The writing of this book was beautiful, and the story intriguing although predictable. It also has sort of an open ending, but I did not feel like it detracted from the story at all. Worthy of a re-read.
...more

As evidenced by the fact that I read the first eight (EIGHT, HOW EMBARRASSING) installments in the Pretty Little Liars series, I eat teen mysteries up like they are the most delicious candy. That combination of high school level prose and sneeringly evil kids usually does it for me. When I saw that this book was being loved up all over Goodreads, it was a natural pick.
I'm not even (that) ashamed to admit that I liked the snarky, silly Pretty Little Liars way more than the very earnest effort of ...more
I'm not even (that) ashamed to admit that I liked the snarky, silly Pretty Little Liars way more than the very earnest effort of ...more

I've read books I've enjoyed and books I've hated. I've read books that made me happy and books that made me sad. Very occasionally, I've read a book that leaves me enraged.
"Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone" is such a book. Two hundred plus pages of an eighteen year old girl whining finally cummulating in the most ridiculous ending of all time.
This is not a mystery, Rosenfield gives you very few clues to work with. This is not a coming of age story. The main character, Rebecca, is a recent high sch ...more
"Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone" is such a book. Two hundred plus pages of an eighteen year old girl whining finally cummulating in the most ridiculous ending of all time.
This is not a mystery, Rosenfield gives you very few clues to work with. This is not a coming of age story. The main character, Rebecca, is a recent high sch ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
“That girl, dead and gone, her spirit trapped forever just inside town limits—she’d come from someplace, was going somewhere. Until destiny had stepped into the road in front of her, stopped her forward motion, drawn a killing claw against the white, fluttering swell of her future. Whispering, ‘Oh no, you don’t.’
When you made plans, the saboteurs came out to play.”
The night of Becca’s high school graduation brings her one step closer to leaving small-town life foreve ...more
“That girl, dead and gone, her spirit trapped forever just inside town limits—she’d come from someplace, was going somewhere. Until destiny had stepped into the road in front of her, stopped her forward motion, drawn a killing claw against the white, fluttering swell of her future. Whispering, ‘Oh no, you don’t.’
When you made plans, the saboteurs came out to play.”
The night of Becca’s high school graduation brings her one step closer to leaving small-town life foreve ...more

3.5/5
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is my kind of book, even if it really isn’t ever fast paced. It’s writing you either get or don’t; I certainly did since atmospheric and moody are but two of the things that come to mind.
Their two narratives were cleverly wove together. At first glance the leads feel different, with one whose a future that follows a certain path, a path she’s become familiar with AND another who leaves her own for something different. Yet, think on it more, and there's a symmet ...more
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is my kind of book, even if it really isn’t ever fast paced. It’s writing you either get or don’t; I certainly did since atmospheric and moody are but two of the things that come to mind.
Their two narratives were cleverly wove together. At first glance the leads feel different, with one whose a future that follows a certain path, a path she’s become familiar with AND another who leaves her own for something different. Yet, think on it more, and there's a symmet ...more

I really haven't a clue where to begin with this review... I suppose I could start by saying that I love this book with surprising depth. For years I've named Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road as my favorite novel because no other book has ever garnered near the emotional connection or caused me to sob near as hard... until Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone.
The novel is told in alternating points-of-view between Becca, a small town girl who's about to leave home for university, and Amelia Anne, the g ...more
The novel is told in alternating points-of-view between Becca, a small town girl who's about to leave home for university, and Amelia Anne, the g ...more

This is one of those book that is gathering a lot of love and I felt rather "meh" about. Why? In part it's the slightly florrid writing ("Stan's gesturing hand passed over the woman - the life wrung out in bruises beneath her eyes, soaking and blooming and drying the dirt, as he waved his palm over her breasts and the curve of her hip and her delicate, motionless face."). Whew! It felt like very other sentence was like that, which is a little tiring.
The other problem I had was with Becca. She's ...more
The other problem I had was with Becca. She's ...more

To say this was elequently written, would be the least I could possibly tell anyone who might think of not reading this amazing book. I just fell in love with everything that lay within the covers of this book.
Like nestling down in my bed with a fuzzy cat at my head,
and another purring at my feet, it was both comfy and a little dangerous, if I moved too quickly one cat could attack.
" ....gossip skipped up and down the asile and murmered in the spaces between the worn wood pews, until the blac ...more
Like nestling down in my bed with a fuzzy cat at my head,
and another purring at my feet, it was both comfy and a little dangerous, if I moved too quickly one cat could attack.
" ....gossip skipped up and down the asile and murmered in the spaces between the worn wood pews, until the blac ...more

I wanted to like this one more. The writing is breathtakingly beautiful and had me wanting to linger over each word and sentence.
But I had a few issues with the story which caused my low review. First off, the sex is more graphic than needs to be. If it's classified as New Adult, that's fine. But I wouldn't purchase this one or recommend it to teens in a school setting without worry about getting more than a few parents upset.
Second, the murder is predictable. It didn't have to be. If we had no ...more
But I had a few issues with the story which caused my low review. First off, the sex is more graphic than needs to be. If it's classified as New Adult, that's fine. But I wouldn't purchase this one or recommend it to teens in a school setting without worry about getting more than a few parents upset.
Second, the murder is predictable. It didn't have to be. If we had no ...more

At the same time that Amelia Anne Richardson was dying on a lonely dirt road, Becca was having her heart broken in the back of her boyfriend’s truck.
While Becca gets ready to blow out of her small Southern town and mend the heart that James broke, news of the dead girl travels fast and persistently. And in the wake of her murder, when suspicions turn inwards, James looks to reconnect with Becca over the summer before she leaves for college . . . but with her father as the local judge, Becca fin ...more
While Becca gets ready to blow out of her small Southern town and mend the heart that James broke, news of the dead girl travels fast and persistently. And in the wake of her murder, when suspicions turn inwards, James looks to reconnect with Becca over the summer before she leaves for college . . . but with her father as the local judge, Becca fin ...more

For this review and more, check out my blog, Living Is Reading!
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This is a really frustrating book to rate (although it’s very easy to review since I have many things to say about it).
A large part of me wants to just give this 4.5 stars, and maybe even a 5 star rating if I’m feeling particularly generous, despite the glaring flaws in this (there’s only two, but they’re biggies in my opinion), so a 4 isn’t the most exact rating. Maybe a 4.25? However since I personally don’t give out ...more
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This is a really frustrating book to rate (although it’s very easy to review since I have many things to say about it).
A large part of me wants to just give this 4.5 stars, and maybe even a 5 star rating if I’m feeling particularly generous, despite the glaring flaws in this (there’s only two, but they’re biggies in my opinion), so a 4 isn’t the most exact rating. Maybe a 4.25? However since I personally don’t give out ...more

2.5/5 stars.
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone was a book that I was very much looking forward to reading. In fact, my anticipation was so great that I actually requested that my library purchase the book, instead of waiting for them to come across the title themselves, which can sometimes take ages. When the book was first released, I heard nothing but praise for it. The reviews promised atmospheric prose, gorgeous descriptions, and a slower-paced but still gripping plot. So it was with glee that I d ...more
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone was a book that I was very much looking forward to reading. In fact, my anticipation was so great that I actually requested that my library purchase the book, instead of waiting for them to come across the title themselves, which can sometimes take ages. When the book was first released, I heard nothing but praise for it. The reviews promised atmospheric prose, gorgeous descriptions, and a slower-paced but still gripping plot. So it was with glee that I d ...more

Nah. Just, nah.
This book really wasn't for me, and I don't really understand how it could be for anyone.
Amelia Anne is dead and gone had one main message that made me sick. You know, I have a "always aim for the highest, don't content yourself with something lower than your standards" mentality.
This book would deserve zero stars alone for it's foul message.
Amelia Anne is dead and gone had a message of "Don't you ever make plans to escape from your run-of-the-mill-life because all of these pla ...more
This book really wasn't for me, and I don't really understand how it could be for anyone.
Amelia Anne is dead and gone had one main message that made me sick. You know, I have a "always aim for the highest, don't content yourself with something lower than your standards" mentality.
This book would deserve zero stars alone for it's foul message.
Amelia Anne is dead and gone had a message of "Don't you ever make plans to escape from your run-of-the-mill-life because all of these pla ...more

You can see more of my reviews at Forever 17 Books!
Intense and captivating, Kat Rosenfield’s Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone left me breathless. This tells the story of a girl named Rebecca who just graduated from High School and has plans to high-tail it out of her small town and move forward with her life without looking back. On the night of graduation, her boyfriend suddenly dumps her in a cruel manner and the body of a dead girl is found on the road in her town. No one knows who this girl is o ...more
Intense and captivating, Kat Rosenfield’s Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone left me breathless. This tells the story of a girl named Rebecca who just graduated from High School and has plans to high-tail it out of her small town and move forward with her life without looking back. On the night of graduation, her boyfriend suddenly dumps her in a cruel manner and the body of a dead girl is found on the road in her town. No one knows who this girl is o ...more

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone has a raw, unrelenting prose that I found refreshing; it truly captures the teen voice and makes Becca & Amelia very relatable characters.
Becca's life is pretty much perfect - she just graduated high school, has a great boyfriend and is about to leave her small town life style behind and head off to college. On the night of her graduation everything changes; two things happen that night that makes Becca question herself and everyone around her - Becca's boyfriend bre ...more
Becca's life is pretty much perfect - she just graduated high school, has a great boyfriend and is about to leave her small town life style behind and head off to college. On the night of her graduation everything changes; two things happen that night that makes Becca question herself and everyone around her - Becca's boyfriend bre ...more

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is well written. The two interwoven stories of Amelia Anne and Becca come together so nicely to paint a portrait of what it means to leave certain things behind. Kat Rosenfield uses these two ladies to expertly comment on heartbreak, second chances, new beginnings, small towns, loss and love. There were so many times when I was simply swept away in her prose. It's a book propelled not by plot or characters, but simply by introspection.
Therein also lies the fault of ...more

This wasn't a bad book, really. The writing had a tendency to get repetitive, with lists of sentences saying the same thing in slightly different ways. That sort of thing can work for dramatic effect/to drive a point home sometimes, but not once per (short) chapter - it felt like a TV show that always ends with a "poignant" voice over on what it is to live in a small town. The dark side of small towns isn't exactly new material, and the author didn't really succeed in adding much. Occasionally,
...more

This was the first book I won through Goodreads giveaways. Fell in love with the cover. As you can imagine based around the title of the book it's not a happy go luck kind of read. You step into something that feels like you are stuck, too, just like the characters.
Good:
The writing did its purpose pulled you into the story. Descriptions are written flowery and the flow is good in this regard.
Bad:
The writing was a tiny bit too slow. But I managed to get through this and enjoyed the story. ...more
Good:
The writing did its purpose pulled you into the story. Descriptions are written flowery and the flow is good in this regard.
Bad:
The writing was a tiny bit too slow. But I managed to get through this and enjoyed the story. ...more

Disturbing and haunting, this book has fantastic writing, a compelling plot and a very twisted and dark look at how the death of someone, maybe someone you didn't even know, affects everyone. Review coming later.
...more
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“I have learned that knowing where you're going means remembering where you've been. I'm not afraid of what lurks behind me, or ahead.”
—
33 likes
“When you made plans, the saboteurs came out to play.”
—
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