The Gone Dead

A Novel

By: Chanelle Benz

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Billie James' inheritance isn't much: a little money and a shack in the Mississippi Delta. The house once belonged to her father, a renowned black poet who died unexpectedly when Billie was four years old. Though Billie was there when the accident happened, she has no memory of that day - and she hasn't been back to the South since.

Thirty years later, Billie returns, but her father's home is unnervingly secluded: Her only neighbors are the McGees, the family whose history has been entangled with hers since the days of slavery. As Billie encounters the locals, she hears a strange rumor: that she herself went missing on the day her father died. As the mystery intensifies, she finds out that this forgotten piece of her past could put her in danger.

Inventive, gritty, and openhearted, The Gone Dead is an astonishing debut novel about race, justice, and memory that lays bare the long-concealed wounds of a family and a country.

©2019 Chanelle Benz (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Maybe this should have been a short story...

I had a hard time believing Billie’s naivete juxtaposed against her age and intelligence level. When the Professor calls her “arrested” it was dead on but I hated that part of her character - it was distracting.
For me, the book didn’t really turn on until the 2nd half.
Performance was good though.

Good Intentions

This book has a good storyline but the read transitions were abrupt causing the storyline to become confused.

The Gone Dead Breathes And Exhales The Delta....

Chanelle Benz writes The Gone Dead in a way that takes you by the hand and walks you across the Mississippi Delta. I spent the whole time listening and feeling the hands, hearts, bodies, terrors and blood of black folks living in the place that birthed them and the klan. Benz gives us race at the gritty intersection of the most beautiful and terrifying possibility that is our countries racial history and racial present. A great protagonist and a better contextual landscape... I’ve walked these places and there was no lie ... there was only The Gone Dead!!

Author paints stunning story with words

Loved this character driven, heartfelt, realistic novel. It was hard to listen to the part in the dogpark. Puecing together different relationships was like you, the reader, were part detective. Incredible story.

Jimmy must have been messing with us

Well I now know not to read anymore Jimmy Kimmel recommend book. Ugh that was awful

I HATED the ending.

When a book leaves me thinking about the story and character when I'm done, it's usually because I love the book. In this case, the ending seemed rushed and choppy. It left me with more questions than answers. There was so much potential for the story and the characters but the author seems to have wanted to end the story at s point where the reader finally feels like they may get some answers. Very unfulfilling.

The Gone Dead - Fabulous read!!

I see this book as a movie/Netflix series!

I finished this book in 2 days. The writing is incredible, so descriptive you felt you could be any one of the characters. It’s based in the Mississippi Delta and crosses between a mystery, realistic and historic fiction, so appeals to numerous audiences.

Intriguing and spellbinding.

A story that unravels like an onion. I eagerly anticipated each chapter and the dimension from each chapter as it explored a version of truth from different angles. Benz’s novel provides a critical and yet necessary glimpse into the African-American/Black experience once removed from the familiar roots of home. The story of Cliff James made me mindful that sometimes leaving home never to return again is the best treat you can give to yourself for survival sake. Amazing story teller.

i was expecting more

for all the good reviews and being in Jimmy Fallon 2019 book list, i was expecting more out of the ending. Narrator was great, story was ok.

Poetic

Liked this. Didn’t love the characters. Probably just me but at the end it could have gone in any direction for me, didn’t really matter. Don’t think the main characters were very likeable IMO. That being said I did love the book inside the book. The poetry was beautiful. The back story , the undercurrent of slavery and racism was very well written. Some of the lines of poetry will stay with me.