Since You've Been Gone may be a popular song by Kelly Clarkson, but it is also the title of a Carlene Thompson novel, which unlike the simple pop ditty, possesses incredible plot depth and nonstop excitement. When I first began reading this book I couldn't help but hear that song every time I saw the title, but it turned out the novel was much more addicting than the Top 40 hit. The worst part about it is that the song does not describe the theme of the book whatsoever. Rebbecca Ryan, the novel's protagonist, is a young woman with ESP. After her father, Patrick dies in a car crash that should have killed her, Rebecca's life gets more and more complicated. Her visions lead readers on a quest for truth that can only be discovered by turning the next page. Simultaneously, Rebbecca struggles with her mother's feelings of resentment for making it through the crash that her husband died in. Combining elements of the super natural and very human tragedy, Thompson crafts a novel that is both relatable and mysterious.
Rebecca's mother marries a friend of her father's, Frank, that was an executive in the family business. Although nobody can replace her father, Frank comes as close as you can be. He treats her like his daughter and thinks of her as such. His family becomes her family as well. Her younger brother Jonnie gets abducted and her ESP is nowhere to be found and then he is found dead in an abandoned field at the end of town. Everyone resents Rebbecca for not being able to find Jonnie and for other it's a way to ridicule her as much as they want.
