Gone Gone

by Todd Meyers

In Gone Gone, Todd Meyers reckons with grief in the face of overdose death and with the afterlives of loss created by the opioid crisis. Through conversations with friends, lovers, and family members of those who are gone, Meyers brings readers into an inquiry about lives shared, told through tenderness and tragedy. Meyers seeks to find methods to record and convey the many experiences of grief in ways that do not simply consign sorrow to the world of drugs and addiction. Blending prose, poetry, and ethnography, Gone Gone is a lucid and devastating record that reminds readers that the grief felt by those who lose ones they love to overdose is varied and untamable.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Addiction, Memoir

176 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2025

Reviews

[DERRYN · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first half a lot more than the second

If each story had different pseudonyms, it would've been a lot clearer, but I kinda like the ambiguity/mystery surrounding it

"The paths siblings travel sometimes diverge, imperceptible, often coldly, eventually. ---misunderstandings or exhaustion, dull bickering and a latent acrimony too easily stoked, distances grow. These are the something nothings of relatedness, a thousand strings that crisscross between those who share genes. But some things are not nothings, some things cause the relationship between a brother and a sister to swerve wildly, unexpectedly, pulling one onto the path of the other. Ely traded resentment for a dimensionless kindness the first time Marie-Eve overdosed." (3)

[Dan Cassino · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel, deeply felt and experienced way to present an ethnographic study of grief and loss that the author acknowledges being on the outside oh. Poetry is a beautiful way to bridge the sociological distance required by the work, while trying to express the inexpressible loss of the participants.

[Sofia Rohlman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good! I’ve never read anything like it, so it took me a minute to adjust to this style of writing. I enjoyed the confusion that I went through in understanding the characters and I liked that it sucked me in! I wish I had a just a litttttle more clarity though

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An authentic grief piece on the myriad of ways that mourners are affected by loved ones who have died of fatal overdoses. (The writing style uses experimental poetry.)

[Kayleigh Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important and powerful books looking so specifically at the grief and guilt of those left behind in the opioid epidemic. It’s a complex, slow read, and just so good