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A review by talesandcupsoftea
Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
4.0
Honestly, this book broke my heart. The story is told from the POV of an elderly protagonist with a memory disorder (it’s never actually specified but she seems to display symptoms of some form of dementia.) I instantly fell in love with the protagonist Maud, and everytime she forgot or repeated something I actually wanted to cry.
Most of that comes from the fact my Grandma is unfortunately suffering with Alzheimer’s, so having an insight into the mind of someone with this was really quite upsetting. And I found it very easy to relate to the frustrations of her relatives which just made me even sadder!
The plot of Elizabeth is Missing follows Maud on her hunt for her friend Elizabeth, after all, she has a note in her pocket that tells her she’s missing...
Intertwined with this mystery is the story of Maud as a young girl in post-WW2, when her older sister went missing.
I probably enjoyed the younger storyline to the older one (mostly because the older one made me very sad) but the parallels between the two and the manifestation of her disorder meant that the two timelines were intertwined in a very interesting way.
Due to the fact there are two mystery storylines in the plot, you get two reveals at the end. I won’t give any spoilers but I have to admit I was disappointed with one of them, the other was quite shocking and unfortunately I wanted more info as it was only very briefly mentioned
In conclusion, this book made me oh so very sad for my Grandma, but also made me commit to calling her every day which can only be a good thing. It was both a heartwarming and heartbreaking story, and I’m very much looking forward to watching the BBC adaptation (although they seemed to have cast Maud as a lot grumpier than I imagined which makes me so sad) as it’s a great story with a thoroughly lovable protagonist.
Most of that comes from the fact my Grandma is unfortunately suffering with Alzheimer’s, so having an insight into the mind of someone with this was really quite upsetting. And I found it very easy to relate to the frustrations of her relatives which just made me even sadder!
The plot of Elizabeth is Missing follows Maud on her hunt for her friend Elizabeth, after all, she has a note in her pocket that tells her she’s missing...
Intertwined with this mystery is the story of Maud as a young girl in post-WW2, when her older sister went missing.
I probably enjoyed the younger storyline to the older one (mostly because the older one made me very sad) but the parallels between the two and the manifestation of her disorder meant that the two timelines were intertwined in a very interesting way.
Due to the fact there are two mystery storylines in the plot, you get two reveals at the end. I won’t give any spoilers but I have to admit I was disappointed with one of them, the other was quite shocking and unfortunately I wanted more info as it was only very briefly mentioned
In conclusion, this book made me oh so very sad for my Grandma, but also made me commit to calling her every day which can only be a good thing. It was both a heartwarming and heartbreaking story, and I’m very much looking forward to watching the BBC adaptation (although they seemed to have cast Maud as a lot grumpier than I imagined which makes me so sad) as it’s a great story with a thoroughly lovable protagonist.