The Gravity of Missing Things by Marisa Urgo

Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. Even if, over the course of her odyssey, Violet comes to uncomfortable conclusions, she undergoes a powerful and engaging transformation.Īn engaging mystery that investigates intimate themes with compassion. Each of the characters in Urgo’s narrative is drawn with refreshing detail, making them feel believable: Violet’s father is a writer of crime novels, while her mother is the primary breadwinner her sister, Savannah, gets a kidney infection and her friends Alex and Langdon have anxieties, ambitions, and dreams and sometimes make mistakes.

Like many teens, Violet feels alone in her angst, describing the loss of her mother as a sign that she “couldn’t have nice things,” such as act in the upcoming school play or have a boyfriend or girlfriend, because “life wasn’t meant to be perfect” for her. The novel explores themes of mental illness and betrayal within a family with insight and empathy, and Urgo is excellent at describing the chaotic rhythms of teenagers in the 21st century, particularly those in the midst of extraordinary circumstances. Soon news reports and social media are speculating that her mother brought the plane down on purpose, or perhaps “US133 has been cyberhijacked by a remote foreign body,” even “perhaps a domestic threat.” Unlike her sister and father, who seem to accept that her mother is dead almost immediately, Violet stubbornly attempts to learn the truth of the plane’s disappearance, along the way uncovering a series of revelatory secrets which lead her to self-harm-an old habit she fights against.

Urgo’s debut YA novel tells the story of a teenager surviving the sudden loss of her mother.Īt the opening of this powerful story of transformation and growth, set in present-day small-town New York, 16-year-old Violet McKenna Ashbyis working as a designer backstage for her high school’s latest theatrical performance when she learns that her mother, a commercial airline pilot, never came to the show-because her plane vanished.

The Gravity of Missing Things by Marisa Urgo