Nearly gone

Name: Nearly gone
Author: Elle Cosimano
ISBN: 9780803739260

Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide

by Elle Cosimano

Reading Level 3-4 IP · Intense · Physical Ages 13+ Heads Up

The text is written at a 3rd grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for teens (ages 13+), and the content is intense and may include graphic or distressing scenes. Its HootRating code, IP, means intense content, mostly physical.

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About This Book

Here's a secret: Nearly Boswell can taste emotions just by touching someone. She lives in a trailer park and knows how to keep quiet about her mom's job and her secret skill. But when mysterious messages start appearing and a dangerous stranger shows up, Nearly's world is about to change—but that's only the beginning.

Themes

MysteryCrimeAdventure Coming of Age

Quick Assessment

Nearly, a teen living in a DC trailer park, finds herself caught up in a serial killer case when the killer begins attacking students and leaving coded newspaper ads that only she can decipher. She turns to a new classmate who is secretly working undercover for the police, and the story builds into a dark, suspenseful thriller. Expect frightening scenes, peril, and mature references to her mother's job as an exotic dancer, so it suits older teen readers best.

Why we rated Nearly gone IP (Intense)

Nearly gone is written at a Level 3-4 reading level across 386 pages. Upper Grades (Ages 13+) is the typical interest range for this book — readers in that age band have the maturity and attention span suited to the story, separate from whether they can decode the words.

We rate Nearly gone as IP (Intense, mostly physical) because the content sits in the "Intense" range — intense conflict including peril, frightening scenes, or emotionally heavy themes. The strongest signals come from emotional weight, physical peril, thematic difficulty — these are the dimensions parents should evaluate against their reader's tolerance.

Specific content flags noted by reviewers: Serial Murder, Criminal Investigation, Mild Peril.

Thematically, Nearly gone explores mystery, crime, adventure, and coming of age — these threads give the book room to mean different things to different readers.

Good fit for

✓ Children in the Ages 13+ range — the maturity and attention span match the story's pacing.
✓ Kids drawn to stories about mystery, crime, adventure.

Maybe not for

! Sensitive readers who get overwhelmed by intense conflict or scary scenes.
! Children younger than 13 — the content intensity is above what most younger kids can process comfortably.
! Readers whose emotional readiness lags behind their decoding skills — this book's intensity outruns its reading level, a classic reading-level-vs-content mismatch.

For Parents

Content Intensity

IP · Intense · Physical

Emotional

Moderate

Physical

Intense ←

Social

Mild

Thematic

Moderate

Reading the HootRating code: the first letter is the content intensity (C = Gentle · L = Mild · M = Moderate · I = Intense · V = Very Intense); the second, when there is one, is the kind of content that drives it (E = Emotional · P = Physical · S = Social · T = Thematic). Reading level and age range are rated separately. How we rate

Heavy themes explored in depth. War, death, abuse addressed directly.