Then She Was Gone

Product Information

In Lisa Jewell’s thriller Then She Was Gone (2017), an ordinary London family is shattered by the mysterious disappearance of the youngest of three children, a bright, beautiful girl. Ten years later, new evidence is uncovered that the missing teenager was not simply a runaway as supposed, but a pawn in a disturbing plot. Principal characters

Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past. And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Laurel is doing her best to move on with her life. Her teenage daughter went missing years ago, triggering an avalanche of misfortune. The family splintered. Laurel and Paul divorcing. And now, their two remaining children are leaving home at the first chance they get - anxious to live their own lives, away from the oppressive tension within their home.

Table of Contents

He makes mention about what a schlub he is and how incredible Laurel is just for giving him the time of day. I often say that this author is so great because (1) even her strangest characters are 'real' and (2) even her most bizarre plots are 'believable.' This book is the exception to item number 2. The book opens from Ellie’s point of view ten years earlier. Life is going great for Ellie. She’s doing well in school and the boy she’s had her eye on seems to like her too. Her future is bright. From the New York Times bestselling author of Invisible Girl and The Truth About Melody Browne comes a “riveting” ( PopSugar ) and “acutely observed family drama” ( People ) that delves into the lingering aftermath of a young girl’s disappearance. Ellie was fifteen eager to take her exams. Now that she had been tutored in math she was sure she would do well. On her way to the library one evening, she disappears. Her disappearance takes a huge toll on the family, a family that breaks apart as many families in this type of situations often do. Now ten years later, Laurel is willing to take a shot at having a life and love again a series of events will send her reeling. Would she finally find out what happened to her daughter?

Gripping and heartbreaking, I shed more than a few tears as the book came to an end with a gut-wrenching epilogue.

Is it not more believable than a regular person saying she didn't like Floyd because he gave her the heebie-jeebies? EXCERPT: She had no one to call, no one to ask 'Have you seen Hanna? Do you know where she is?' Her life simply didn't work like that. There were no connections anywhere. Just little islands of life dotted here and there. Ellie is not a character headed for oblivion. She will definitely stay in our hearts for a long time. The author created her character flawlessly, and the amount of hardships she had to suffer makes our hearts numb for some time. The amount of courage and character she showed during the challenging experiences will make us love her more. Then She Was Gone is, first and foremost, a mystery. Yet many questions are answered quite early on in the book. How soon did you guess what really happened to Ellie, and if you did, did it affect your enjoyment of the book?

Critical reception of Then She Was Gone was mostly positive. Many reviewers agreed that major characters are for the most part well-drawn. Noelle, for example, is nicely marked by a telling olfactory detail: she smells of “cooking oil and unwashed hair.” Younger characters, like Ellie, Poppy, and Sara-Jade come to life through their words, attitudes and behavior. Laurel, however, at times seems overly gullible. She acts so passively at the beginning it may be difficult for readers to fully accept her as a doting mother whose child has disappeared, and she is so blinded by her new love interest that she does not notice, until late in the game, inconsistencies that should have been obvious. Similarly, some critics noted plot points that seem too coincidental. But, as the Publishers Weekly review put it, the novel ultimately “transcends its plot improbabilities to connect with an emotionally resonant story of loss, grief, and renewal.” Review Sources So, whilst Then She Was Gone is a decent read and far better than some of the more recent and frankly ridiculous psychological thrillers saturating the market place, it holds very little in the way of surprises for any savvy reader and relies on a sequence of unlikely coincidences. I didn’t find this an emotional read as it all felt a little too artificial and implausible for me, from the sentimental ending through to the good grace with which the unfolding revelations seemed to be received. All in all Then She Was Good is an immersive and very readable character driven family drama and offers an insightful look at a family reuniting after the tragic disappearance of one of their number. It was possible, she thought, that Hanna had met a man, but unlikely. Hannah hadn't had a boyfriend, not one, ever. Someone once mooted the theory that Hanna felt too guilty to have a boyfriend because her little sister would never have one. The same theory could also be applied to her miserable flat and her nonexistent social life. Given the wealth of editorial support at Lisa Jewell’s behest, I do think that advising her on the scientific specifics of aspects of this book would have proved beneficial (rate of decomposition of a human body to skeleton form being just one of them).

Prologue

Heathcote, Charlotte. “‘Then She Was Gone’ Review: Jewell Writes Lively and Fluid Prose.” Review of Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell. Express, 28 July 2017, www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/833831/Then-She-Was-Gone-book-review-Lisa-Jewell. Accessed 2 Nov. 2018. This is the third Lisa Jewell thriller that I have read and she has penned another winner! After finishing this book I really had to wait a few days to sort of “SETTLE ME DOWN” as this mystery touched some very delicate feelings in me, more so than her first two books. Call me a snob but in my experience with thrillers, it has been hard to find many with the combination of great writing, past and present POV’s that flow seamlessly together, and create emotions that well up inside of you and really stay with you. Personally, I feel like the author attempted one too many pieces to this puzzle and it just felt like too much.

Blue tells a critical statement related to men and their concept of love in this book. This shows the importance of mutual love. Love is about putting equal effort into relationships. If a person who beholds the concept of unconditional love falls in love with a Narcissist, then the first person's life will be totally destroyed. Even though unconditional love is one of the ideal forms of love, it will be practical only with ideal individuals. Otherwise, we will be able to love unconditionally while others are only ready to accept that love and not to give anything in return. It will turn into a toxic parasitic relationship in no time. This is not a cliched version of fiction with a bunch of peripatetic perfunctory characters with a mandatory twist at the end to consider it as a thriller. I was able to predict the ending by around 30% in the book. This book is the tragic life story of Ellie, which will bring tears to your eyes if you are a compassionate human being. Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter. The basic premise of this story is impossible. Not just bizarre, impossible. Period. There is no way in this day and age that the basic plot line of this book could happen. It MAYBE could have happened in the 1800s, but not in the 2000s. There are simply too many holes in the villain's plan, and inevitably everything would have 'fallen apart.' I'm not saying that the girl who disappears couldn't have disappeared in the manner outlined. That certainly could happen, and probably does more often than we'd like to admit. No, what I'm saying is that the 'mystery' here, the 'plot twist' that keeps the book going, is, simply, not possible. It couldn't be done, not by this villain, not by any other villain who ever existed. As Laurel slowly finds closure, she begins to rebuild her life. She starts dating and it seems as if she has found love again with a single father named Floyd. But something isn’t quite right about Floyd, especially his relationship with his nine-year-old daughter, Polly. The more and more Laurel spends time with Floyd and Polly, she comes to realize that what happened to Ellie was not at all what it seemed.Laurel is your standard grieving mother. I neither liked nor disliked her. In fact, I found her kind of annoying. In chapters from Ellie’s perspective, she repeatedly brings up the subject of blame, thinking of all the moments that led to what happened to her and what she “should” have done differently, or what others could have done to save her. As you read, did you find yourself blaming characters for the unforeseen consequences of the choices they made? If so, in which situations? still, not the worst book out there. i definitely would have loved this more if my predictions had been right, but thats completely my own fault.