Since You've Been Gone by Mary Jennifer Payne

*based on ARC edition


     Since You've Been Gone is about a girl who has been on the run with her mother 

since she was ten years old. She's never been able to take root, make true friends...fall 

in love. This last stop on the run is to London and things are even harder there than in 

her native Canada. She doesn't understand the way people speak or the way the 

streets are made or why one particular girl in her school has decided she needs to be 

crushed like a bug. And on top of it, after only a short while there her mother goes to 

work one night and never comes home. Knowing she would be put in foster care if 

someone found out Edie enlists the help of the school misfit to find her mother. I 

enjoyed Since You've Been Gone. It wasn't the best written book I have ever read but 

while it was fairly predictable, Edie and the her partner Jermaine were well-drawn out 

and empathetic. There is some social commentary on racism in England that seemed 

almost unnecessary but as I am not from there it may be a bigger problem than I know 

of. Edie and Jermaine's eventual relationship over only a couple days seemed very pat 

to me, but then that is a part of the genre. The story was, like I said, predictable, but 

somehow Ms. Payne still managed to provide a suspenseful feel to the book which I 

appreciated. Overall I would recommend this book for a quick read and a good way of 

passing some time.