Review: Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

Title: Picture Me Gone

Author: Meg Rosoff

Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile
Publishing Date:  October 3rd 2013

Pages: 256
Genre:  MG Mystery/Coming of Age 

Series: Stand Alone
Source: Hardcover

  

Mila has an exceptional talent for reading a room—sensing hidden facts and unspoken emotions from clues that others overlook. So when her father’s best friend, Matthew, goes missing from his upstate New York home, Mila and her beloved father travel from London to find him. She collects information about Matthew from his belongings, from his wife and baby, from the dog he left behind and from the ghosts of his past—slowly piecing together the story everyone else has missed. But just when she’s closest to solving the mystery, a shocking betrayal calls into question her trust in the one person she thought she could read best. 

When I first saw this book, it was with the UK cover and the cover is actually what drew me in first. I read the synopsis and thought I needed to read this book. I still like the UK cover better but I figured it was easier to obtain the American  version. So I did. I really enjoyed this book. It was very entertaining, heartwarming, and the mystery was done well. 

Mila is a very interesting girl. She is like a young Sherlock Holmes. She doesn't miss a thing. she takes in all her surroundings and makes a clever deduction to figure out people, their lives, and their secrets. She has a pretty good home life. She is well loved and has a great mom and dad. Her father has planed a trip from London to New York, just the two of them, to introduce and visit his life long best friend. Shortly before going her father finds out that his best friend is missing. He has taken off, left his family at home, and disappeared without a trace. Now Mila and her father decide to take their trip as schedule to track down Matthew. This leads to an eye opening road trip for the father and daughter that brings secrets out and gives some good life lessons. 

This book was really good. I found it to be very well written and very entertaining. What I liked a whole bunch was the way the story was a mystery and a coming age twisted together so seamlessly that I was never completely overcome by one or the other. The presence of both elements were always evident. The mystery was done very well. It didn't concentrate so much on the solving of the mystery but more of the mystery itself. The reasons why Matthew went missing not as much as where he went. There unraveling came from people in his life that Mila and her father met on the journey. It was wonderful watching Mila's brilliant mind put it all together. 

The main character, Mila, was the star of the story and because it was a coming of age story, the secondary characters really didn't share any of the limelight. It was all about Mila, her relationships, her discoveries, her growing up and realizing that life isn't always what it seems and there isn't always a simple solution or black and white. Most coming of age stories I start off not liking the main character to much and they grow on me as they grow up. Mila was likable from the very beginning. She was sweet, smart, and very cute. She grew in the book but on her knowledge of the world not her feelings of the world. She seemed to have lived in a pretty closed in world and on her trip she learned the world is so much bigger than her own little world and that is OK. 

The book was pretty well paced, the writing was just right for the age group but definitely could be enjoyed by older. I think that there could be something for everyone found in this book. Oh and it made me want to take a road trip just not in the winter in New York. 

Very good read. I highly recommend it.