Review: The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone

Two-time National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin offers an ingenious fictional take on the "oral history" celebrity bio that defined a bestselling genre: Edie, American Girl by Jean Stein and George Plimpton. In presenting herself as interviewer and curator of memories, Adele paints the portrait of a tragic young celebrity who allegedly committed suicide—presented in a series of brief first-person recollections—that ultimately results in the solving of a murder. 

Adele's words: "From the moment she burst into the downtown art scene, seventeen-year-old Addison Stone was someone to watch. Her trademark subversive street art and her violent drowning left her fans and critics craving to know more about this brilliant wild-child who shone so bright and was gone too soon. By means of more than one hundred interviews with those who knew her best—including close friends, family, teachers, mentors, art dealers, boyfriends, and critics—I have retraced the tumultuous path of Addison's life, with research that sheds new evidence on what really happened the night of July 28, 2013. With photo inserts and previously unpublished supplemental material."

This book was definitely a new kind of read for me as I have never read a fictional biography before. I loved how Adele Griffin wrote using interviews and pictures. It made the story seem more real, I actually thought it was a real biography. Griffin creates a character with substance and the reader gets to truly know who Addison Stone was. I could literally feel emotion coming off the pages from all the different characters telling stories about Stone's life and death.

I've never read an Adele Griffin book, but this novel has made me want to buy every single book she's ever written. It was that good and the pictures inside definitely helped the novel to be even more interesting. 5 Stars!

Received at ALA 2014 in exchange for honest review