Never Gone
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
Fifteen-year-old artist Dani Deane feels like the universe has imploded when her photographer father dies. Days after his death, she sees him leafing through sketches in her room, roaming the halls at church, wandering his own wake. Is grief making her crazy? Or is her dad adrift between this world and the next, trying to contact her?
Dani longs for his help as she tries and fails to communicate with her workaholic mother. Her pain only deepens when astonishing secrets about her family history come to light. But Dani finds a surprising ally in Theo, the quiet guy lingering in the backstage of her life. He persistently reaches out as Dani's faith falters, her family relationships unravel, and she withdraws into a dangerous obsession with her father's ghostly appearances. Will she let her broken, prodigal heart find reason to hope again?
From the skyscrapers of New York to the sheep-dotted English countryside, NEVER GONE explores life after loss with emotional honesty, humor, and a touch of romance.
"Garver tackles difficult subjects with depth and grace, weaving the complexities of faith with the complexities of growing up."
--Heidi Willis, author of Some Kind of Normal
Customer Reviews
Reviewer
Fifteen year old Dani Dean is mourning the loss of her father. She keeps seeing him every where- walking in their apartment, at her church, even at his own funeral. She feels like she is going crazy.
Dani’s relationship with her mother is not good. Her mom sends her off to England to stay with her father’s family. Dani fears this will be a permanent move. As she keeps seeing her dad’s ghost she believes he is the answer to her problems.
Laurel Garver approached the hard issues of grief, doubt, and fear with a honesty I have never read. Dani was portrayed exactly as a fifteen year old should be when faced with the death of her father and the fear of change in her life and of forgetting the most important person in her world. The fact that her relationship with her mother, the person who should be supportive and comforting, is a poor relationship only adds to her feelings of loss.
I did not quite understand how the adults in Dani’s life did not worry about all her ghost sightings. They did not offer her the support and help a teenager needs after the loss of such an important person in their life. I struggled with this part of the story. I had a hard time connecting with the characters because of this.
Even with the tough subjects in this novel it is a very hopeful book. I will recommend this novel to young adults and not so young adult readers.