Reviews

Gone For Good by Harlan Coben

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dustin_o's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

ncteixeira's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

“Gone for Good”, by Harlan Coben

2 stars ⭐️⭐️

This was my second book by this author (I own 11 more books, all unopened since purchased).

The story started very well and got my curiosity. But the writing was not that remarkable and, although we were presented with lots of characters, the story wasn’t confusing.

The development of the story, with the flat characters and the farfetched twists did not impress me.

And riveting this was not. At least for me.

I was so disappointed that I won’t care to explain.

This book was originally published in 2002.

My first experience was reading “I will find You”, published in 2023, which I rated 2 stars.

Such a popular author, with so many adaptations for the screen, but I doubt he is for me. But I will try to read the ones I already have, one of these days.

Paperback (Dell Books): 436 pages (cover to cover), 58 chapters (mostly very short) plus one epilogue that takes less than half a page.

E-book (Kobo): 448 pages (default), 106k words

katielou72's review against another edition

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3.0

I didn’t love this book, it was ok, but had so many twists and turns it was difficult to keep up and the story became slightly unbelievable. A shame as I usually love Harlan’s books but this one has to be my least favourite of his.

_nursejayy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

jamie515's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I found the first part of this book to be a little slow-paced and it took a while to get into it. The ending picked up quite a bit and I liked how everything turned out in the end. It sometimes felt more family drama/saga than thriller, but I found the MMC more sympathetic than the MMC in Coben’s Tell No One. I also liked how the MMC’s brother, who is suspected of a terrible murder and disappears for 12 years, is characterized as good and bad from different perspectives throughout until the very end when the truth is finally revealed. It definitely kept me guessing. Overall, I’m glad I kept reading to find out what happened even though I considered DNFing in the first half. It finished strong, but it wasn’t one of the strongest thrillers I’ve read recently, but worth giving a try.