Book Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Title: Then She Was Gone by

Author Lisa Jewell

Stars: 4 1/2 stars

Review:

I loved it and hated it at the same time - this author is talented and will make you think long after you finish this book.

Wow! this book grabbed me just a few chapters in and then turned dark really fast.  At one point I was not sure how deep or bizarre the book could get.  How can someones thinking be so convoluted and evil?  How could another person allow a person to do what she did?  Well, it started to get less psychological thriller(this would never happen in real life) and more believable as I continued to read.  The characters were struggling and I had great empathy for the mother especially since I am a mother.  Her life had been tossed and turned and she was adrift with nothing to anchor her to this world.  Her husband could not support her because she was lost and he could not figure out how to reach her.  Her other children could only watch as she drifted further and further from where they were and from who she had been.  What would you do if one of your children just disappeared without reason?  This book will make you think and some of those thoughts are terrifiying. Closure is so important and this book really showed that aspect of human nature.  You cannot always move on without it.  Also, if you have information even if it seems small you need to tell someone - you will understand once you read this book.

I read this book in less than 3 days because I had to know what happened to Ellie.  I would have read it faster had I not had to work, be a mother, and do all the other things that are necessary for this life to support a family...bummer somedays when you find a really good book. 

I give this book 4 1/2 stars and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery that can be graphic at times.  This book was bizarre and yet not too bizarre like I started to think it was getting.  Unstable people seem to attract unstable people making some situations pretty scary, to say the least.  I had not read this author before but I will look at her other books and see if they are as good as this book.  

Make sure you have time to read this book when you get about 1/2 way because you will begrudge putting it down for any reason.  This would make a really scary movie because it could happen - happen to anyone.  This is not something out of the realm of possibilities and that is what scares me the most about this book.  It is good, but it is tense and will keep you wondering how could this happen and what if it happened to me?

Thank you Lisa Peters for your Review.

Synopsis:
THEN
She was fifteen, her mother's 
golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. 
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone. 

NOW 
It’s been ten years since Ellie 
disappeared, but Laurel has never given up 
hope of finding her daughter.
And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet. 
Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter. 
Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away. 

Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age.
And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back. 

What happened to Ellie? Where did she go? 
Who still has secrets to hide?

Hardcover, 426 pages

Published July 27th 2017 by Century

About The Author:


Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.

She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.

She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.

She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and her silver tabbies, Jack and Milly.