Then She Was Gone

Lisa Jewell

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

How many times as a kid ourselves have we heard our parents tell us to keep them informed of where we were going and of course as kids we just thought our parents were being ridiculous? On the other hand if you are a parent how many times as your child is growing up have you let them know to bring you up to speed because of the horrible news that make you want to shield your child from it but still give them their freedom? Then there are people in between these two points, who as we’re growing older and probably wiser understand the concern that we might have disregarded as kids. Well, then she was gone is a story of a fifteen year old girl, Ellie Mack disappearing one day out of the blue and her mother’s journey through the next decade of finding an answer to where her daughter is and what happened. To add to the mystery, the guy Laurel Mack, Ellie’s mother has recently started seeing has a daughter, Poppy who has an uncanny resemblance to her golden girl, Ellie.

As it’s mentioned on the cover, this book is “an acutely observed family drama…”. The author has done a fabulous job of observing the nitty gritties of a functional family. Each character is well sculpted because of which the suspense has an added depth. Somewhere in the one third of the book, I knew part of the suspense already. I credit this mostly to reading a lot of mystery and thriller novels and tv shows. For me, the mystery novels have now become more of why did this happen instead of who/whom. If the characters are well defined, the suspense is foolproof.

For me the true twist of the story was when you see certain characters being placed in a similar situation and the shocking revelation of the actions they take. It’s often said, think positive thoughts, good things happen. The more negative thoughts you imbibe your mind with, the worst of the situation your mind conjures for each situation and that does shape you as a person to some limit. Life is not all black and white definitively. But one important thing in all is family. There’s no bond truer than family and I might be mistaken but this stands true for me. They’ll listen to every wrong doing, every momentary lapse of judgement you’ve had and show you the right path. They’re a sounding board and they’re the ones that will stick through thick and thin.

In all I would say this book made me introspection on a lot of things as I was reading through it. It took me about 2 days to finish this wonderful read but it’s sure to stay in my mind a whole lot longer. Thank you Lisa Jewell for this beauty. It’s a book I’ll treasure for ages to come.

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