Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

222 reviews

legacyx's profile picture

legacyx's review

5.0
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Without giving too much away, some women will do anything to keep a man but find one who actually likes them. 🤦🏽‍♀️

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

A book club selection, not one I would've picked up independently. It goes quickly, perhaps 3-4 sittings. Things move along slowly as you're introduced to a family deep in grief, a mother who lost her favorite child, and well, she finally meets a nice man.

Of course there's links to her lost Ellie, glorified in her absence, practically ignoring the existence of her other children. Laurel is living in a fog and only beginning to come out of it with Floyd, a mathematics professor & writer. He has 2 daughters, one is struggling through young adulthood and the other is a precocious/obnoxious/creepily intelligent child who LOOKS JUST LIKE ELLIE---I'm sorry but how is that not grounds enough to be like, "sorry I'm gunna head out byyyye." There are so many moments of eerie overlapping memories, vague at times but they become more poignant and stark. Like girl why are you shrugging this off?
Finding out what happened to Ellie is fucked up. I have no other description. I actually had the thought of it simmering in the back of my mind as things unfurled & hoped to God I was wrong...but I wasn't. Sad as heck. I also wondered aloud about why I'm considered weird for preferring fantasy novels when people like books like this. Where captivity is suffocating. Where some deranged person destroys a whole family's life (even if it sounds like Laurel was deep in resentment towards her bore of a husband before Ellie disappeared). But okay, here we are. The end is sad, there's closure but it's ultimately a tragedy.

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was so fucked up. Heartbreaking and devastating don't cover it. Absolutely loved it.

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chloefay's review

4.5
dark sad

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dark sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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hewbear13's review

3.5
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Depression and sex. This book disturbed me by all the sex I went into it not knowing. It kept me intrigued but it also made me feel depressed because the whole thing was unsettling. Check trigger warnings there is a lot. There is also a decent amount of romance. I predicted it when I read it but I thought it would be Floyd’s sperm. Overall 3.5 stars.

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heer_pluisje's review

3.75
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

I listened to the audiobook. It was less tense than None of This Is True, rather medium-paced and not too predictable. I liked the speaker as well.

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kdes621's review

3.0
dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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annawilt's review

4.5
challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings