Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

570 reviews

lkdodd's review

5.0
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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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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surharstoner's review

2.0
dark sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

slow and kinda predictable, one of the characters is insufferable and it feels like you hear from her a lot. I also may have just not liked the narrators voice choice for her.

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azp's review

3.0
challenging mysterious sad tense slow-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

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kindle_crazed's review

3.5
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated

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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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sebnebula's review

3.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Lisa Jewell is a master in atmospheric writing, characterization, and making the most mundane moments so provocative and visceral. However, the mystery itself was over-explained and didn’t leave anything to the imagination, which it could have benefitted from. Can’t wait to read more from her!

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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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