The Gone Dead

A Novel

By: Chanelle Benz

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

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.

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.

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!!

Good Intentions

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

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.