Good as Gone

by Amy Gentry

Overview

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, Amy Gentry's propulsive and suspenseful Good as Gone is a "smart, crisply written thriller" (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

"So gripping you might start to question your own family’s past."—Entertainment Weekly

Anna’s daughter Julie was kidnapped from her own bedroom when she was thirteen years old, while Anna slept just downstairs, unaware that her daughter was being ripped away from her. For eight years, she has lived with the guilt and the void in her family, hoping against hope that Julie is still alive.

And then one night, the doorbell rings. A young woman who appears to be Julie is finally, miraculously, home safe. Anna and the rest of the family are thrilled, but soon Anna begins to see holes in Julie’s story. When she is contacted by a former detective turned private eye, she is forced to wonder if this young woman is even her daughter at all. And if she isn’t Julie, what is it that she wants?

“A bracing, scarily honest look at what it means to be female—and to be a daughter, sister, wife, mother—wrapped up in a vicious thriller. Gentry's ambitious debut will satisfy fans of Gone Girl, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and The Killing.”—Merritt Tierce, author of Love Me Back

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781328745552
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/03/2017
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	684,884
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

AMY GENTRY is the author of Good as Gone, a New York Times Notable Book, and Last Woman Standing. She is also a book reviewer and essayist whose work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, Salon, the Paris Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Austin Chronicle. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Chicago and lives in Austin, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

A New York Times Book Review "Editors' Choice" An Entertainment Weekly "Must List" Pick A Refinery 29 "Suspense Thriller You'll Love" A "Skimm Reads" Pick "[One] of the most anticipated summer thrillers...Gentry's novel isn't primarily about the version of the self that comes from a name and a family of origin; instead, it draws our attention to the self that's forged from sheer survival, and from the clarifying call to vengeance." —The New York Times Book Review "Gentry’s debut novel is more than worthy of the analogy [to Gillian Flynn’s 2012 smash, Gone Girl]…it’s so gripping you might start to question your own family’s past." —Entertainment Weekly "So much about this novel is fresh and insightful and decidedly not like every other thriller…Good as Gone ranks as an outstanding debut, well worth reading. This is no mere Gone Girl wannabe.” —The Dallas Morning News “A mother, a daughter, a zealot, an investigator, a family, a stripper, and more than a few survivors lay the riveting groundwork, but it's Amy Gentry's realistic portrayals of victims and their families that set Good as Gone apart from other page-turning crime dramas...The end result is a true ‘novel of suspense’: a book that's hard to put down not only because of our investment in the plot, but also because of our investment in the lives of the complicated characters.” —The Austin Chronicle "Compelling and emotionally nuanced." —The Seattle Times "This smart, crisply written thriller begins with a ‘ripped from the headlines’ premise, but broadens to explore themes ranging from the mothering of daughters to the inwardness of suburban life and the lure of the megachurch in an era of consumerism.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune  “Both a mother-daughter and a family-under-fire story, Good as Gone is laden with confused identities and a thrumming plot. Amy Gentry's debut also holds a mirror up to the myriad ways rape culture is perpetuated.” —Bustle “Good as Gone…confirms the entrance of a powerful new voice in the world of crime fiction—Gentry knows crime fiction as a critic and as a writer, and brings her experiences with her for a novel that is as playful and self-aware in its structure as it is responsible in its themes.”—MysteryPeople "If you love a measured and thought-provoking novel of suspense, with one eye on character study and one eye on a city’s conflicted culture, this might just be the next book for you.”  —Crime by the Book "Debut novelist Gentry delivers on genre expectations with crisp, unobtrusive writing and well-executed plot twists." —Kirkus Reviews "Clever perspective changes give Gentry's debut building suspense...Fans of Paula Hawkin's The Girl on the Train will enjoy the shifting points of view and the complex female characters, and those who liked Samantha Hunt's Mr. Splitfoot will appreciate the seedy characters and haunting theme of childhood vulnerability...Gentry's depiction of a family working through immense suffering will connect with many readers." —Booklist "Gentry’s trea —

From the Publisher

If the central question of the novel is inescapably simple—Is this person Julie Whitaker or isn't she?—there are only two possible answers. But the attendant riddle of identity is correspondingly complex. In the end, Gentry's novel isn't primarily about the version of the self that comes from a name and a family of origin; instead, it draws our attention to the self that's forged from sheer survival, and from the clarifying call to vengeance.

The New York Times Book Review - Jean Hanff Korelitz

05/30/2016
The life of Anna Davalos, the narrator of Gentry’s suspenseful if flawed first novel, has been defined by a single night—when her 13-year-old daughter, Julie, was abducted at knifepoint by an intruder into their Houston home, a crime witnessed by her terrified 10-year-old daughter, Jane. Eight years later, Anna’s relationship with Jane is strained, and no one is looking for Julie any more. Anna’s life is upended again when Julie shows up on her doorstep, traumatized physically and mentally. Julie’s account of her captivity is harrowing, but Anna soon suspects that Julie isn’t being completely honest about what happened. Those doubts extend to the basic question of whether the young woman is really Julie or a manipulative, cynical imposter. As the family adjusts to the new reality, Anna’s relationships with her husband and Jane suffer. Gentry does a good job of making the characters, especially Anna, psychologically plausible, but the final revelation is a letdown. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (July)

Publishers Weekly

For eight years, Julie Whitaker’s family has agonized over her knifepoint kidnapping. Was she murdered? Could she be alive? The horrifying question is miraculously answered when Julie appears on their doorstep. Narrator Karen Peakes portrays the sheer joy of Anna, Julie’s mother, and then her unspeakable creeping doubts about the grown-up Julie’s true identity. Peakes’s narration of Julie herself is tinged with a shade of vagueness that invites listeners to question her credibility. Because the points of view change between chapters, and, for the most part, Peakes maintains only minimal characterizations for most voices, it sometimes can be difficult to quickly grasp the changes. But Peakes delivers the occasionally elegant prose with grace. As doubt turns to suspicion, the plot twists become even more intriguing. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-05-30
A kidnapped girl, missing for eight years, shows up on her parents' doorstep…but is it really her?Houston, Texas, literature prof Anna Whitaker lives in an etiolated reality where she has to get out of bed every morning "to face a world where the worst thing has already happened and somehow I am still alive." In the eight years since her 13-year-old daughter, Julie, was abducted, she has given up hope, watching numbly as her marriage and her relationship with her other daughter, who witnessed the kidnapping, are strained to the breaking point. But in Chapter 2, Julie shows up on the front porch, having narrowly escaped from a human trafficking ring and the man she was sold to. The chapters that follow narrate Anna's experience as the shock and euphoria wear off and she comes to suspect that this blonde, blue-eyed young woman is not really her daughter. These alternate with sections that follow what seem to be one or more runaway girls through various scenarios of sexual abuse, life on the streets, foster homes, and other miseries. "By the time she got to San Francisco, she'd lost track of the men who got her there, but at least she remembered their names. Their names were Pete. Two Petes in the bus station. A Pete in the bathroom of a Diamond Shamrock gas station.…She turned 14 between Petes, but she wasn't sure when exactly the day passed, and anyway to Petes she was 16, to police, 18." These back-and-forth points of view which eventually dovetail in the big reveal (and the big reversal) are a popular tactic for the emotional thriller, especially since the success of Gone Girl, at which this book's title seems to consciously take aim. Debut novelist Gentry delivers on genre expectations with crisp, unobtrusive writing and well-executed plot twists.

Kirkus Reviews