A review by emmad861
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

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

3.5

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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