Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

[ashnance]

When a young girl goes missing, her mother is utterly broken. A decade later, she is not fixed. The scars have not healed and life has not begun again. All Laurel Mack thinks she needs is answers. Mainly, WHAT HAPPENED TO ELLIE? Unfortunately, the more answers she gets, the more questions she finds herself needing answers to. Then She Was Gone is not only the story that details the adventure to finding those answers, but the story of how those answers can change lives.

After a huge development in an otherwise-stale investigation, Laurel feels she can finally start living again. She meets a wonderful man who makes her feel alive – something she hasn’t felt in so long. He is caring and attentive and enthralled by Laurel and her family. And he has a daughter. One whose resemblance to Ellie is striking. As Laurel waffles back and forth between comfort and alarm, these answers start to take on a face of their own – one not as pretty as her dear Ellie.

For this book, it is as important to understand what it is not as what it is. The book is not a mystery novel promising great twists. It is hardly a mystery novel at all. But what it does is it bridges that gap between a self-realization novel and a suspense novel. Despite the truly terrible things Laurel experiences, she ends up better than where she started. Each character shows development, improvement, and change over the course of the novel.

My favorite part of Then She Was Gone was the way Jewell expertly released character perspective. Rather than your typical run-of-the-mill perspective wheel, Jewell does not allow you access to a character’s mind until you’re nearly craving it. You don’t know you’re starving for that character’s thoughts until you get a taste. I found myself enjoying the new perspectives the best. After getting accustomed to a certain voice, it’s refreshing to hear the flip side of things.

Despite enjoying the book overall, there were some things that I did find disappointing. There was much foreshadowing that lacked appropriate follow-up. Expectations and reality did not match up – not meaning a twist – but a slight disconnect. Additionally, I find it difficult to get sucked in by a book that has no likeable characters. Of course, there is the protagonist – and you do root for her – but no one is particularly likeable.

I would rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars. Understanding that this book is not a twist-driven mystery, I enjoyed the slow-burn release of the truth. I found the intricacies of the whole story to be subtly surprising and intriguing. The misplaced foreshadowing and the failure to develop likeable characters are the reason I cannot give a 4-star rating.

[Amanda Chubb]

I love Lisa Jewell and her writing style. I’ve read several of her books and they never fail with her slow burn twits. Most of her books leave me wanting more and me trying to imagine what I would do if something unimaginable would happen to me.