Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

54 reviews

nuh_thaan's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The thrills were so good with this one! It was such a fun and fast paced read. Even though I could predict some of the things that happened, it was a good time!

As we started to learn about the connection between Floyd and Noelle, it was very easy to sense that Noelle couldn't get pregnant. All the pieces fell into place as you knew the set up from the end result in the beginning of the book, but not necessarily the how or why.

How Ellie became pregnant really surprised me! I thought that Floyd was going to play a bigger part in that with Noelle, but it was really just her that was completely unhinged. The fact that she bought sperm and inseminated Ellie was appalling.

I also thought the end of Part Four was fascinating where Floyd was giving Noelle a gift, but Part Five really dropped the ball. It was too happy and easy for the characters. I wanted more drama and for it to keep up pace with the rest of the book. The fact that Blue said Floyd's aura was dark felt like it didn't really come into play.

Poppy was also an interesting character and acted so much older. I was hoping we'd find out more about why Floyd made the decisions she did.

Definitely recommend this one for people looking for a fast, fun, thrilling read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, and Torture

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

mengzhenreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Pretty good, I thought the writing was really solid. The characters, Laurel's grief, and Ellie's disappearance felt really palpable and it was consistently well written  throughout the novel. It was definitely predictable, and its quite easy to figure out what happened when the book begins so while the writing was enjoyable, this book didn't really do anything new or innovative in the thriller-mystery genre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Confinement

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment

livvmarks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Definitely a dark and very heavy read, but also a great mystery with many twists and turns that will leave you on the edge of your seat!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Abandonment, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Torture, Stalking, Mental illness, Infertility, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Miscarriage

jasminealizae's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Plot was all over the place, in a bad way. Poorly thought out. 30% of the chapters could have been excluded. Do these authors get paid per page or character count? How can we switch to a POV of a character who is dead, but is being written as if she’s confessing all of her sins from the future? It was very confusing and unjustified. The ending made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

What was the reason for Floyd to have confessed his wrongdoings in a letter to Laurel, then take a train to another town just to kill hisself? Surely, he could have just killed hisself without fleeing to another town. Especially since it’s not like he committed suicide in a different city to prevent Poppy from finding out, because she ends up knowing shortly after the fact. For Noelle to have been so “obsessed” with not only Ellie, but also Floyd and wanting a child with him, it felt very forced to have her kidnap Ellie, hold her hostage, rape and impregnate her with SOMEONE ELSE’S sperm, not even Floyd’s 🤦🏽‍♀️ just to let Ellie die, and not take care of her child. Noelle was written to be this psychopath who is strange, quirky and really obsessive, but it all felt incredibly underdeveloped. As if the author did no research and thought that having Noelle do these weird/quirky things was going to be enough to get that idea across to the readers. It wasn’t. Prime example would be the hamsters.

Everything felt forced to me. The relationships, the character’s flaws, the timelines, the interactions, the abuse/neglect, literally everything. This book really solidified the fact that I hate reading books that have children in them. Poppy is nine-years-old but is written having much too mature vocabulary and conversational skills, and made entirely too aware. The backstories were extremely flat as were the characters. The connection between SJ and Laurel was for what purpose?

Other than for SJ to be the one to “egg” Laurel on to continue looking into the disappearance of Noelle by telling Laurel she saw Noelle’s stomach completely flat when Noelle was allegedly very pregnant. Poppy’s “cousins” and “grandma” storyline’s were unnecessary. The last nail in the coffin for me to officially “one star” this book was Hannah and Theo. Why make Hannah and Theo (Ellie’s boyfriend) become a couple and get married? As if the whole situation isn’t strange enough. Having Ellie get kidnapped, raped and impregnated by Noelle her math tutor, Noelle do all of these terrible things to Ellie just to secure her relationship with Floyd. Floyd date Ellie’s mother Laurel, while also raising Ellie’s daughter as his own despite knowing it’s not his child and how she was conceived. Then just when you think this is complicated enough, why not have the boy Ellie was dating when she died get married to her sister. What?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Infertility, Mental illness, Violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Confinement, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, and Death

middleagedbookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Great on audiobook. I recommend speeding it up to at least 1.25x, because the narrator speaks veeeerryyyyy slow. Other than that, the narration is amazing. 

I got very frustrated with Laurel a few times. I realized while reading this book, that I do not care for naive women (or men for that matter) in a story. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders, shake her, and ask her “what are you thinking?! Are you really that stupid?!”, a few times. Maybe I am being too harsh though… I tend to assume the worse about a person, where most people assume the best, I think 🤷🏼‍♀️

Anyways, overall, a great mystery thriller, and I would recommend. Even made me get teary eyed at the end… which is saying a lot, for quality of storytelling. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Mental illness

lapluie8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is the first novel I read by Lisa Jewell and it did not disappoint! I was captivated from the very beginning. I was running scenarios and trying to answer WHO, WHAT, WHERE & WHEN. I rated it a shy of 5 stars just because it started to get predictable in the middle. I do love the POVs of the characters.  However, I’m curious to know the POVs of the others’, like the father, the sister, the brother and the boyfriend.. But overall, I enjoyed  reading it. A page-turner for me! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Infertility, Kidnapping, Stalking, Child death, Grief, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Rape

kacieherbel's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide

autumnwhite's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Torture, Kidnapping, Cursing, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

pippamillerxoxo_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Stalking, Abandonment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Murder, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer and Death of parent

mlthomas234's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book absolutely devastated me, in a way I was not expecting or prepared for. First, it’s an excellent thriller from start to finish. The storytelling is layered, the characters are complex (not to mention deeply flawed), and the emotional pull only gets stronger as you move through the story, up to the very last words. 

Other things I liked: the differences in narrative voice are very well done. Though the story begins to shape up fairly early (in the first third) I was still fully engaged throughout the rest, as answers only opened up more interesting  questions. The writing itself was also very lyrical and nice. Read this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Stalking, Violence, Grief, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent