Review: Zen and Gone

Zen and Gone by Emily France
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars

Author Emily France's Zen and Gone evolves around Essa (Essence) McKree, a parentified teen who is struggling to manage her mother's health problems and care for her much loved younger sister, Puck. Puck is an endearing and clever child, frustrated by her mother's lack of engagement. Their mother has managed to date half of Boulder, Colorado from their perspective and is now dating a new guy, Ronnie, who has thoughts of uprooting them and moving to Oregon in a mobile home. Thus, Essa and Puck are struggling to deal with their deteriorating family situation in the face of their mother's addiction. Buddhism offers them solace and is the thread woven through this book.

Some aspects of this story, especially the poignancy of Puck's reliance on Essa and need to feel included are so well done. But as we know from the opening chapter, Puck has disappeared when Essa and some of her friends go camping in the wilderness and Puck tagged along as a stowaway. Essa's worry for her missing sister and guilt about what may have happened to her form a good portion of the book.

While I liked the idea of the Zazen practice and the Four Noble Truths + Eight Fold Path used as a coping mechanism, I just didn't feel it was smoothly integrated into the lives of the teens and Puck. The tenets of Buddhism were overlaid on the plot rather than truly integrated into it and while coping is a good skill, the realities of Essa and Puck's family situation are difficult and acceptance in lieu of meaningful change was something I kept questioning as a plot goal. I also found that the way missing child and a neglectful drug addict mom situation was handled was not very realistic from the perspective of someone with more than a decade's experience with child welfare. When a nine-year-old goes missing while camping with teens, there will be a lot of questions about parental judgment.

A secondary story-line, with another teen, Oliver, was a little more successful. Oliver is struggling with his own family demons, due to his sister's mental health. He's actually spending a summer away from his family, to try to learn to deal. His path toward maturity and coping with his personal family sorrows echoes Essa and Puck's and provides a point of connection.

This was a book that may pique some young adult's interests in Zen Buddhism and orienteering. It was a good summer read.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Soho Teen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

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