Book review “Then She Was Gone”: Captivating and fast-paced

The cover of the paperback edition of Then She Was Gone features black branches on a gray background and a few pink flower petals that look like they’re being blown away by a sudden gust of wind. The effect is ominous, which is why I bought the book on a recent visit to a bookstore without even reading the blurb. The book is thick, but the font is several points larger than normal and the chapters are short, so you’ll probably read through it quickly. I finished the book in two days. I probably would have finished it in one day if I hadn’t had work commitments that couldn’t be postponed. It helped that the plot was engaging.

Fifteen-year-old Ellie Mack is Laurel’s favorite child, even though she knows a mother shouldn’t have a favorite child. But Laurel doesn’t feel the same connection to Hanna and Jake as she does to Ellie. Then one day, Ellie disappears. She tells Laurel she’s going to the library to study, but she never gets there. The police think she ran away. The disappearance has all the hallmarks of a runaway. But Laurel refuses to believe it. Ellie wouldn’t just give up on her dreams and run away. She was a brilliant student and was looking forward to her final exams. She had a wonderful boyfriend, Theo. She wouldn’t just abandon him like that.

The event tears Laurel’s family apart. She blames her husband Paul for not trying harder to find Ellie. She looks at Hanna and wonders why it was Ellie who disappeared, not her. Hanna and Jake leave home at the first opportunity, and Paul tells her that he has met someone he would like to start over with. Laurel lives in the hope of finding Ellie. Then she meets a man named Floyd who blows her away. He has a nine-year-old daughter named Poppy, who is brilliant. Plus, she’s the spitting image of Ellie. What happened to Ellie? And what role does Floyd play in all this? As Laurel digs around, she unearths something far more sinister than anyone could have ever imagined.

Then She Was Gone follows a pattern that most thriller writers use. It is predictable as a result. There are only a handful of characters, so you can guess what might have happened. But the how and why keep you glued to the pages. I wish Hanna’s relationship with Laurel had been explored in more detail. It could have been a great portrayal of a complex mother-daughter relationship and how in any relationship driven by both compulsion and love, there is always more than meets the eye.

Lisa Jewell is suddenly a hit in my reading circles. Everyone is talking about her and everyone has read The Family Upstairs. Her latest book None of This is True is also being discussed. Some celebrities have also recommended it on Instagram. Then She Was Gone got me out of a reading slump and I will definitely read more of her works when I can’t concentrate on reading. Then She Was Gone was a gripping story that kept me hooked. I was on edge the whole time – caught up in Laurel’s horror world. It would be nice to have that feeling running down my spine again when reading a book.

thriller

Then she was gone

Lisa Jewell

Published: 2017

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Number of pages: 426, paperback