Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

66 reviews

nekoprankster218's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This was a fine book. There wasn't much to really grip me, to make me feel super strongly even months after putting it down, beyond a few moments I thought were good "whammys" - but I wasn't disappointed either. I will say that it gets heavy at times; and while the ending is an oddly calm resolution, it is not completely happy either.

I see a lot of reviews saying that this book was predictable, even quickly predictable. I have to disagree, although I acknowledge that it might just be because A. my brain is weird when trying to guess things and B. I don't read this kind of book often. By a third into the book, I was spread between multiple different theories;

fellow readers, can you believe I was leaning towards Poppy being an "abused-to-age-regression" Ellie, and Floyd was a DDLG freak? I was also, until the Noelle POVs started, leaning heavily that Floyd was more involved in the case than he was: that maybe he was the one to do the killing of Ellie, or that he either ordered or manipulated Noelle into getting him a young girl to abuse, and even awhile into the Noelle POVs I was wondering if he was going to be more involved in the plot to turn Ellie into a forced surrogate.

By the halfway mark, the theories were getting trimmed down, but I still wasn't 100% sure what the final answers were going to be until they were on the page before me.

I think part of it was that so many little things were building up the image of Floyd being more sinister than he turned out to be. I did question if Blue's "vibe check" was a red herring. But then I was thinking that Floyd was perhaps an abuser of Poppy, that he had a darker ulterior motive for Laurel. It came across that it was odd for Floyd to be keeping Poppy from the Donnelly family (altho in hindsight it makes more sense). He was lying about things. It seemed like not all about Poppy was healthy. Laurel felt the need to text Hanna and Paul about her whereabouts, and I thought that was going to come into play in the climax. Yet, despite him being a liar and a stalker and a fraud... Everything still ended up fine? He was just trying to reunite Poppy and Laurel? And then he just exited the picture, without even facing Laurel and telling her everything in person? I was expecting a more dramatic confrontation, and not getting it after what felt like a whole lot of build up, was more anti-climactic than "ooh, what a twist!"

If there is one thing I do agree with the lukewarm and negative reviews, everything wrapped up too nicely and neatly. However, for me, it's not to the point that it's lowered my opinion of the book. Even as I write this, I even find myself going: "Yeah, I guess with this ending, a lot about the build-up still makes sense, and I see what the author was going for with the final twist."

There is one thing I did notice and liked about the story:

there felt like a theme of "obsession" that tied all the core characters together. Of course, Noelle was obsessed with Floyd and Ellie, and that became the catalyst for everything. Laurel was obsessed with Ellie, and it contributed to the ruining of the Mack family and her own life, with her finally learning how to let go... although I feel like some lines about Poppy in the final chapter feels a bit like history repeating itself, whether the author intended it or not. Ellie has some bits of it - as pointed out at the start, her obsession with math grades put her on the path of becoming Noelle's victim, although it's still more minor than other obsessions. Even Floyd is not immune: he became obsessed with Laurel, becoming a bit of the stalker Noelle was towards him, albeit differing from her in that he still let go in the end.

Overall, the book wasn't the best, but I still recognize it as being solid and not a waste of time either. Maybe not everything worked out as I'd hoped, but it didn't fall apart into a mess.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent

There are sections of the book narrated in first-person by the main antagonist and it veers a lot into unreliable narrator-territory, but I think sometimes it's genuinely hard to tell what is the truth and what's their delusions as they go on. Also while I'm not going so far as to tag pedophilia, the main antagonist has an unhealthy obsession with a child that gets uncomfortably close.

But as the antagonist said, it's not *really* sexual, and at times it veers into "I don't want *her*, I want to *be* her".

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

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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting

badflowerbee's review against another edition

5.0

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

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Vomit, Alcohol, Classism

chloefay's review

4.5

dark sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment

soumya248's review

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The starting of the book was rather difficult to comprehend and follow but as the book went on it becomes extremely captivating, addicting and pulls you into the story like a finely woven web.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment

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

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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol

oxandco's review

4.0

fast-paced

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One that you can’t put down! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping

Minor: Rape

vazquezm's review

4.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Dementia, Stalking

hgootz's review against another edition

3.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I initially picked this book to be my last book of 2024, but instead ended up my first finished read of 2025. This was not a bad read to begin 2025 with. Then She Was Gone was a book that had moments of predictability,  times where I “I knew it” as a revelation happened, as well as “I should have seen that coming”, but also moments where I was on the edge of my seat, or feeling of shock where I had to take a moment to soak in what happened before I could continue reading. It was also so interesting to have the different POVs presented in this book and get the different perspectives as pieces of the story were lining up together.  Towards the end it definitely gave me vibes similar to the Netflix show You. This book in the end kept pulling me in and made me stay up until after midnight on a work night to finish it, so I can’t say it didn’t hook me. I don’t think I’ll go back to re-read it personally, but would recommend it to others. I’m glad to have chosen this as my second psychological thriller and can’t wait to explore more of this genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Abandonment

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual assault

aahegedus's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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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This book is twisted and constantly leaves you on the edge of your seat. It starts out a bit slower, but then you can not put it down!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy

Moderate: Dementia, Death of parent