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Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

332 reviews

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

Lisa Jewel took me on a twisty, horrifying journey. The characters were complex and mysterious, everyone has secrets and the relationships feel so real and tender, especially the mother daughter relationship throughout. 
I knew pretty much the way the story would unravel from early on but that didn't lessen the shock, sadness or horror at how the life of Ellie Mack ended and the family struggling to come together again, but also the beauty of the moments when they finally did.
My favourite Lisa Jewel so far.

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rgetch06's review

4.5
challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Take this review with a grain of salt, at least in the pacing department, because this was the first time properly listening to an audiobook, which obviously takes much longer than regularly reading. That probably warped my perception of its pacing.

I read this book for my book club and I was not entirely looking forward to it. I'm not in an era of my life where I'm looking for mystery as a genre and I'm not really into true crime, which is what this seemed to be adjacent to at first. This seems similar to the other thriller/mystery I've read for my book club, The Silent Patient, where the author thought up the twist first then wrote the book around it. Like the author thought, hey, wouldn't it be fucked up if
a teenager was kidnapped and forced to have a baby?
That's my book, now I just have to write the rest of it. Maybe that's how all mystery/thriller books are, and if so, I just don't love that kind of storytelling. 

I think this story would've been great as a novella or maybe even a short story. I didn't need that much detail. I'm sorry.
The descriptions of Noelle keeping Ellie in her basement just felt like torture porn at some points.
I guessed that there was maybe a supernatural explanation,
like Poppy being a genetic clone of Ellie or something
, I think just because I wanted to escape how sad it actually was. If I wasn't reading this for a book club I think I might've DNFed it. I can appreciate and enjoy emotional stories but I was struggling to get through
Noelle's POV
and struggling to enjoy myself at all. It was satisfying at the end of course but was it satisfying enough to make it worth it? I don't know. I don't think so. 

I teared up at one point when
Laurel left her apologetic voicemail to Hannah. That was the most touching part to me. And Hannah's wedding made me tear up as well. Along with Ellie's letter in the epilogue.
Even if I didn't completely love the story at that point, I had spent so long with the characters that I couldn't help but care for them.

I get that Noelle is literally unhinged and all that but, really, all that for Floyd? Because he wrote some math jokes??? Girl raise your standards. All that for a man??? Delusional behavior. Goofy even.


And when Laurel was watching the video Floyd left her at the end all I could imagine was her going "I don't give a shit about your childhood just tell me about how your ex killed my daughter please. Jesus Christ." Like, do you think she cares about your life story?? She's got other shit to worry about. Anway-


At the end of the day, I have to give this book props for the emotion it was able to inspire in me, even if it sometimes felt like too much. My primary purpose for reading is enjoyment, and I will admit that I sometimes would rather read something fluffy and light than something with more depth and sadness if it's going to ruin my day. I've got enough shit to worry about it my own life. But I'm sure people really into mystery and abduction stories would really love this book. And shoutout to Helen Duff who narrated the audiobook on Spotify, I loved your voices. 

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ellieisreading's review

4.0
dark mysterious 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: No

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tetrootz's review

3.75
dark mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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twiller's review

3.0
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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akoyareads's review

2.5
dark emotional sad slow-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

 
This book didn’t read like a thriller, there was no thrill or suspense, just sadness and desperation for answers. I think that the plot being predictable was intentional. that Everyone told their side of events connecting all the pieces like a lifetime movie.
This book was so devastating I almost cried at the end when I read Ellie’s letter, because she was never given a chance.I had so much hope that she would return to her family even after her remains were found.
But Laurel was a horrible mother and her apology to Hanna felt so so shallow because we knew it truly meant nothing. She still thought that it should’ve been her that was taken, she still thought that Hanna wasn’t as beautiful as Ellie. And even tho I pity Hanna for having such a horrid mother I think dating my missing little sister’s bf is a bit trashy. One great lesson that needs to be learned is that there aren’t just horrible men out there, but women too. Women that will do vile things for the validation of men, those are the women you stay away from because they will go to the earths end for a crumb of 
male validation. 
There was no silver lining to the book just poppy being passed around from one sad shell to the next, and then both trauma dumping on her. You don’t tell her the actual truth about her mother but u tell her that the man that’s been raising her for all those years took his life because of guilt? That didn’t make sense to me.

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jrosek5's review

4.75
emotional mysterious 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: Yes

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dark mysterious sad medium-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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