Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

88 reviews

livvmarks's review

5.0

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

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

beth_s98's review

3.5

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

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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, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content

jasminealizae's review against another edition

1.0

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: Complicated

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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, Injury/Injury detail

amanda_reads13's review

3.5

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder

raine83's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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: Yes

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

Moderate: Rape

laynag's review

4.0

dark mysterious 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: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious sad 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: Yes

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Bit predictable and I realised what was happening as the story went on. I hoped I’d be wrong and there would be a big twist but I was disappointed.  However I did enjoy this and it did keep me wondering what was happening!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment

Minor: Car accident

kbpfaulkner's review

3.0

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping

Moderate: Torture, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage

tetetaeskz's review

3.5

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Torture, Kidnapping, Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy

kande0321's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide, Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage