Charlie, Presumed Dead Book Review: YA Twists and turns

Stars: 3.5/5

Blurb: In Paris, family and friends gather to mourn the tragic passing of Charlie Price—young, handsome, charming, a world-traveler—who is presumed dead after an explosion. Authorities find only a bloodied jacket, ID’d as Charlie’s. At the funeral, two teens who are perfect strangers, Lena Whitney and Aubrey Boroughs, make another shocking discovery: they have both been dating Charlie, both think Charlie loved them and them alone, and there is a lot they didn’t know about their boyfriend. Over the next week, a mind-bending trip unfolds: first in London—then in Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok, the girls go in search of Charlie. Is he still alive? What did their love for him even mean? The truth is out there, but soon it becomes clear that the girls are harboring secrets of their own.

No one knows whom to trust in this thrilling tale of suspense and deception.

Charlie, Presumed Dead is a twisty, turny YA novel from author Anne Heltzel.

The novel follows Lena and Aubrey, Charlie’s girlfriends who meet at his funeral in Paris. Charlie was cheating on Lena with Aubrey, and when the two meet, they realise that the Charlie they each thought they knew doesn’t exist. More importantly, he could be alive. So begins their journey through exotic locations as they try to track him down.

I’ve deleted and rewritten my attempts to define Charlie, Presumed Dead — three times now. Kirkus Reviews says it’s a book in the tradition of Gone Girl — confession, that doesn’t mean anything to me, because anything with Ben Affleck associated with it in any way gets a big resounding no from me. So if this review sounds familiar, you know why.

This book will turn you inside out when it comes to trying to understand these characters. You don’t need to read much to know Charlie’s an ass — but that’s just scratching the surface about him — Lena and Aubrey meet in chapter 1, and they both realise that Charlie cheated on them. Very quickly, it becomes clear how adept Charlie was at playing them, but then I found myself questioning how could the girls not see who Charlie was? How could they let themselves believe his lies?

But, things aren’t that simple. The book doesn’t touch on how Charlie’s relationships with the girls worked because the focus falls on where things went wrong with them more than anything as the story continues. It will make you question Lena’s and Aubrey’s decisions, and who they are, but what’s important in this book, is that the author shows that they evolved in their relationships with Charlie. And he clearly didn’t like it.

The books alternates between three POVs — Lena, Aubrey and Charlie’s.

Charlie’s chapters are small, with almost a stream of consciousness feel to his voice, which added to its unreliability, and to be honest, his crazy. It becomes pretty clear Lena and Aubrey were things to be had for him. He had no regrets cheating on either girl because as far as he was concerned, their purpose in life was to be with him, and whoever he wanted to be. That’s the thing with Charlie — he wanted, he was a different person with different likes and dislikes with both girls.

Lena and Aubrey are vastly different girls. Lena is sophisticated, dynamic — the kind of girl you’d be friends with and envious of at the same time. She’s manipulative and angry as well, and isn’t afraid to do whatever it takes to manoeuvre Aubrey into chasing after Charlie in far-flung places; places Aubrey wouldn’t ever have thought about going to. She’s also still more emotionally invested in Charlie than Aubrey is. Lena struck me as a bit of a Queen Bee — but there’s more to her than meets the eye as becomes apparent as the book progresses.

Aubrey is the grounded one, in a way. There’s a strength to her voice that isn’t present in Lena’s. She’s not above lying to her parents to go off and stay with an ex for awhile, but she’ll do her best to make sure they don’t worry. She’ll worry about being safe while travelling with Lena, but she can throw caution to the wind. She’ll try to break free of Charlie, even though he’ll blackmail her back into being in his orbit — I find her harder to pin down than I do Lena, actually.

There’s something uncomfortable about Lena and Aubrey’s POVs — emphasised because it’s written in the first POV I think. They each believe they knew the ‘right’ Charlie early in the book, that they knew him best, but as the book progresses, they slowly realise that they didn’t know him at all. That they saw what he wanted them to see of him. It left me wanting to shake some sense into them, but I can appreciate their growth into individuals that Charlie will need to be wary of … there’s a hint of their own deviousness in this book, which is great and not, because this one has the mother of all cliffhangers. It does hint at some great potential for them in the next book, though.

If ever there was an odd couple, they’re it. As the book begins, they don’t trust each other, and each wants to get to Charlie for different reasons. Their relationship isn’t easy and they are often as angry with each other as they are with Charlie. Their secrets need to be earned by each other, but the twisty, turny and angry road to friendship highlights just why two such vastly different girls can be friends — and it doesn’t have anything to do with Charlie at that point.

Aside the from mind-bending, questioning-everything feel of the book, Heltzel excels at creating an immersive atmosphere for every part of their journey — from Paris to Kerala — I did wonder if she’d been to these places herself.

This is by no means an easy book to read, and neither Lena or Aubrey are easy to relate to — you will want to shake them, you will get angry, annoyed and wonder what on earth is wrong with them. But you will cheer them on too. But that’s what good books make you want to do.