Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

102 reviews

read_with_loren's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Predictable and terrifying in the sense that I’m sure people like Noel probably exist and that makes me see the world as a little worse than I previously did

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, and Sexual assault

baileyridgway'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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

mbattiest's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Fairly predictable twist, as I had a feeling I knew what was going on about a third of the way into the book. Still entertaining enough that I couldn’t put it down, and finished in about 24 hours.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Grief, and Death of parent

meluelmil's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Really, really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down, but I also kept stopping to write my thoughts and theories so I could look back on them and see if I was on the right track. I LOVE that the story was well concluded and the loose ends were all tied. AND IT ALL MADE SENSE! There were lots of surprises and scenes that made me gasp out loud without a lazy explanation (read: “it was mental illness” or “it was all a dream” or “it was all a coincidence”). Great story, great execution, great epilogue!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Abandonment

lorenaslibrary's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

 2023 book club read #1

quick notes:
- this woman writes some very twisted books lol
- easy to guess where the story was gonna go
- again, really messed up

Spoiler: it reminded me of the movie Don't Breathe (2016)

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, and Sexual assault

laruru's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.75

I enjoyed this thriller and liked that the plot twist is somewhat hinted at in the beginning, but you read the entire book hoping your predictions are wrong, the book is pretty dark and twisted. It was a little slow in the beginning, basically an extended version of the blurb - Laurel meeting Floyd and his daughter who looks exactly like Ellie. But the story picks up around part three and things get interesting. I liked the change of POVs, each one gave a different vibe to the story. Overall, a quick and easy read, would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Stalking

corinnemarycox's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape

biblio_millie'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? No

2.5

It’s a decent book but I knew what had happened at about 40% in and the rest was just finding out the details and character development. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Rape

beth_s98's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

jasminealizae's review

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