A Different Kind of Gone - Catherine Ryan Hyde - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Catherine Ryan Hyde

GENRE: Contemporary Drama.

RATING: 2.5 stars

In a Nutshell: Outlier opinion. I liked the concept of the book. Offers thought-provoking situations and important themes. Too much of social commentary, though. Great for book clubs.

Story Synopsis:

Sloot, Utah/Arizona border. Fifty-eight-year-old Norma volunteers with the local Search-and-Rescue team, using her horse and her two hounds to locate missing persons. On one such occasion, she finds a nineteen-year-old girl named Jill, reported missing by her boyfriend. However, Jill begs Norma not to reveal to anyone her whereabouts as she is terrified of her boyfriend Jake and was trying to run away from him when she lost her way. Against her gut feel, Norma decides to adhere to Jill’s request and helps her back to her parents’ house in California.

Things are quiet until five years later, when an arrest rakes up the old news again. To Norma’s surprise, Jake has been taken into custody for one crime but he will also be tried for Jill’s murder. Norma is now torn between her promise and her instinct.

The story comes to us in Norma’s limited third-person perspective over two sections – the initial events and the ‘five years later’ section.

Bookish Yays:

😍 There are some interesting characters in this book. Not necessarily likeable or realistic; just… interesting. Almost all of these are women – Betty, Jill, Theresa, and Wanda make their presence felt with their strong personalities, though not necessarily in an inspiring way. Being brave can be done only a step at a time, and the women in the book prove it. I love how Jill’s and Wanda’s characters were developed as young and impulsive while Betty and Theresa acted more their age.

😍 Though the Search-and-Rescue component is only a small part of the overall book, I still liked the coverage of the same, especially the animals involved in the efforts. Norma has an amazing horse named Saint Fred and two hounds called Lonny and Gracie. All animals count as a yay!

😍 There is some truly thought-provoking content in this book, which makes it perfect for book clubs. I especially liked the spotlight on the legal system vs. the judicial system and the debates on intent vs. action. (I strongly disagree with everything Norma said regarding this.) The book covers several important themes, including domestic violence and its effect on mental health, and also shows how short-term thinking affects long-run decision-making.

😍 The pacing is surprisingly smooth for a Catherine Ryan Hyde novel. Though the first half is not much action-oriented, the proceedings still move steadily ahead. It’s never fast, but it also doesn’t drag.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 The blurb again reveals too much. But this is a story where nothing much happens until the second section – five years later – begins. So a part of me understands why the blurb went so far ahead in the book. It does spoil some of the surprises though.

😐 There are very few male characters, and even those few have limited roles in the plot. That said, all of them are key to the story and not treated merely as negative accessories. I’d have loved to see more of Ian though.

😐 I liked the small-town vibes of Sloot. (A fictional location?) The closeness of neighbours and colleagues that borders into nosiness is especially well-depicted. But there was nothing much to make me picture Sloot clearly in my head. The scenic descriptions are next to zero.

😐 Love the title –perfect for the book. Hate the cover – can’t even figure out who the two women are supposed to be!

Bookish Nays:

😒 It’s always nice to have an atypical character in the lead. Norma, 50+ years in age and yet so hands-on on her approach to life, is a compelling protagonist. However, I couldn’t bring myself to accept her thinking unconditionally. She is very opinionated about issues, though some of her declarations and actions don’t suit her backstory at all. If she herself had suffered through a problematic behaviour in her past relationship, how can she talk about justice and forgiveness for proponents of the same crime? I can appreciate adherence to a personal code of conduct, but surely common sense also comes into play for a character shown as being pragmatic and honest. Her decision-making skills were also highly questionable.

😒 There is too much of social commentary in the book, almost all of it courtesy Norma. Characters having opinions is fine. But when the character keeps spouting opinions whether directly connected to the story or not, it gets annoying. All this just results in thematic clutter. The preachy tone of Norma’s dialogues should have been toned down.

😒 The writing, especially but not only for Norma’s character, is exasperating at times. I was fed up by her overuse of “My dear/young friend” while speaking with Jill. I might have put this off as a character trait, but in that case, she should have spoken the same way with Wanda as well. She doesn’t! Similarly, Jill’s gratitude-filled “I love you” was totally misplaced. Maybe she confused a ‘Thank you’ with an ‘I love you.’

😒 The foreshadowing is absolutely irritating as it doesn’t work well for the plot, at all! I am reading the book, right? Why tell me much in advance that something is going to change soon? Moreover, the writing is in Norma’s limited third person perspective. So who the heck is the omniscient narrator letting us know of future events?

😒 The ending is too perfect. I can understand some things resolved for closure, but Norma’s personal arc should have stayed the same as before to make the climax feel more realistic. That development was unexpected and unnecessary.

😒 I don't like chapter titles being present in adult fiction. It makes me feel like I'm reading a children's book!

😒 I am not a fan of books that attempt to generate sympathy for a person’s negative tendencies. Things like domestic violence might be influenced by our external influences while growing up, but there can be no justification for the same. I am tired of the “abusers/bullies were abused/bullied” trope, no matter how much it is based in reality.

I enjoy plots that make me put myself in the shoes of the characters and wonder what I would have done in their place. This is no exception. The only problem is that the shoes of the main character are not to my taste.

I have read several CRH novels and am a fan of her unusual storylines and powerful themes. But this is my second average CRH experience in a row, the earlier being ‘So Long, Chester Wheeler’. I will still continue to read her works, because just like Jodi Picoult, CRH focusses on some tough topics and characters making controversial life choices. I can only hope that the future outings will go better than these two books.

Recommended with reservations. It’s not a bad book, but it is not at all up to the high CRH standard. If you can tolerate a dogmatic main character with some unsavoury opinions, this might work better for you. Of course, mine is very much an outlier opinion, so please read the other reviews before you make up your mind. 

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “A Different Kind of Gone”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.