Then She Was Gone: A Novel

This author is not in need of yet another review. This novel has well over 122,000 of them, so I am well aware of the fact that one more will not make a difference—either good or bad—and normally I wouldn’t take the time to write a review for a book with this many reviews … but I was deeply affected by this novel, so I decided I needed to write some of my thoughts and feelings about it down. After going through and reading some of the reviews other readers left, I was spurred on even further to share my own. Then She Was Gone is the first novel I’ve read by Lisa Jewell. I am a fan of mysteries and thrillers, and this book was one that was recommended by Amazon because of other books in my Kindle library. It also happened to be on sale—just to be honest—and the synopsis grabbed me. It sounded interesting, so I bought it. I am much like other readers … I don’t always finish every book I pick up. I am a writer myself, so I do for other authors what I hope readers will do for me and push into a book as far as I can before I stop reading. Not every book is for every reader, but this novel by Lisa Jewell was one I found enormously gripping. This story was sad and uncomfortable. It was heartbreaking, and while it wasn’t what one might categorize a typical thriller as some other reviewers stated, it was definitely mysterious and twisty, and I was propelled through the story because I had to know all of the sordid details. To be fair, as I write this review, the categories this novel is listed in are Women’s New Adult & College Fiction, Women’s Divorce Fiction and Women’s Literary Fiction. It isn’t listed in Mystery, or Suspense, or Crime. Even People Magazine says it’s an “acutely observed family drama”. While maybe not a typical mystery novel, it was recommended to me because there are elements of suspense and yes, mystery. Truthfully, I felt that Ms. Jewell delivered a book that was described perfectly by the synopsis, and it was definitely one I had a hard time putting down. There’s no way around it. Then She Was Gone is creepy. It’s gloomy. There were so many things about many of these characters that I didn’t like, that made me angry. I believe that’s one of the many reasons I kept reading—because they were all human. They were real. They did things that were annoying. I questioned them. For instance, I struggled with Laurel because I, too, am a mom to more than one child and cannot fathom loving one of them more than the other. But I’ve known other mothers in real life that are very much like Laurel. None of us are one-dimensional, and Ms. Jewell’s characters certainly weren’t. I wanted to learn more about why they were the way they were or made the decisions that they made, and the story—which is told over a ten-year time span—takes the reader on a journey and shows how the characters change and develop over that time. I believe Ms. Jewell knew the story was an emotionally exhausting one, and I think she wrote it brilliantly. Then She Was Gone made me incredibly sad, as it was meant to. It was not a book that was easy to read. As I stated before, it was emotionally taxing. It was twisted and evil, and yet utterly captivating in ways that are difficult to describe. I am more than happy to rate this book all five stars and will definitely read more from this author—although I do believe I’ll need some time for this novel to settle before I am able to jump into another written by this talented author.

What a compelling and original story. Grabbed me from the start and I found myself carving out time to read every chance I could get. Very unusual story line. At first I was just trying to figure out what was going on and when I finally did, I couldn’t believe it. I like how she changed narrators throughout the book, giving us the different perspectives of the various characters. Anyway, give it a go. You’ll enjoy it.

This book completely blew me away. From the very first page, I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading. Lisa Jewell has a way of weaving together suspense, emotion, and mystery that keeps you glued until the very last chapter. The story of Laurel and her missing daughter Ellie was heartbreaking, gripping, and chilling all at once. Every twist landed perfectly, and the short, punchy chapters made it such a bingeable read ;I flew through it. The characters felt so real, and the emotional weight of Laurel’s grief made the mystery even more powerful. I loved how the suspense kept me guessing but also broke my heart at the same time. By the end, I was stunned, moved, and still thinking about the characters long after I closed the book. If you’re looking for a psychological thriller that’s dark, emotional, and impossible to put down, Then She Was Gone is a must-read. One of the best thrillers I’ve ever picked up.

Words cannot even begin to describe my feelings for this book. This is my first Lisa Jewel book, as I’ve seen her recommended so many times and my Facebook book groups. I decided to give her a try, and I am so happy that I did. This story will always stick with me no matter what, and it’s definitely within my top 3 reads of my lifetime. It is incredibly written, pulls at your heart strings, and one to never, ever forget. I left a book review in my Facebook book group, and over 500 people commented on my review, raving with positivity over this book. A 10 star read, no doubt! If you have not yet read this book, please do! This is your SIGN! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As “who dunnits” go, this isn’t much of one. Because you’ll know rather early on who the murderer is, the book really is about tying murder-mystery plot points together to see if it all makes some kind of logical sense at the end. The good news is that it does even though there are some convenient occurrences that help it along. For the sake of spoiler avoidance, I won’t tell you what they are but, trust me, you’ll spot them too. All that said, perhaps the best part of this book is the study of a what happens to a family when one of its children goes missing. Is the family dynamic strong enough to withstand it or does it fall apart? How do the surviving family members realign or adjust to the gap in the family photos? How does each person move on? That was pretty well explored in this book and I found parts of that very moving. As for the writing style, the pacing was good, the multiple perspectives were deftly handled, and each major character had their own distinctive voice. All in all, I found this a good read and wouldn’t hesitate to read more by this author.

Not my favorite Lisa Jewel book but it was fine. Read it pretty quickly, had it all figured out pretty early on in the book but it was an okay read.

Wow this was such an amazing story though it was predictable. Well written and really touched me emotionally. It was an amazing but sad story. I was hooked after chapter 1.

This book arrived brand new in perfect condition. As far as the story- get ready to ball your eyes out during the big reveal 😭. This was an easy read, finished it in 3 days and didn’t want to put it down. The story was beautifully tied together from beginning to end. It was a little bit predictable but towards the end all the little details and juicy bits were revealed for an edge of your seat experience!