Book Review: Lisa Jewell's The Night She Disappeared

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an advanced copy of Lisa Jewell’s The Night She Disappeared, in exchange for an honest review.

On the outside, it appears that despite being a young mom, Tallulah has her life on the right track. She lives with her mom, Kim, who helps with childcare, allowing Tallulah to attend classes at a local college. Zach, the father of her baby is attentive to his child and wants to marry Tallulah. No one notices how possessive Zach can be and that Tallulah is not interested in pursuing a relationship with him.

At school, Tallulah meets Scarlet, a rich and troubled classmate who lives in a creepy mansion at the edge of the village. Tallulah and Scarlet begins a secretive and unlikely friendship. Tallulah and Zach attend a party at Scarlet’s mansion and go missing the following morning. A missing person’s case, turns into a cold case, leaving Kim bereft, yet holding out hope for any information about her daughter.

A few years later, Sophie, a crime writer moves into a cottage of a nearby boarding school with her fiancé, a professor at the school. On a walk of the grounds, she finds a mysterious note to dig in the ground, where she unearths an engagement ring. The ring and a series of other mysterious notes clearly intended for Sophie, lead her to begin to pice together the puzzle of Zach and Talulah’s disappearance.

I’m a huge fan of Lisa Jewell and i’ve read most of her novels, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to read her latest. I enjoyed The Night She Disappeared and it was a quick read, but from a mystery stand-point, it wasn’t as strong as some of her other novels. The character of Sophie and her solving of the mystery was almost too convenient and therefore, the less interesting aspect of the story.

The strongest and most dynamic aspect of the story was the relationship between mother and daughter, Kim and Tallulah. Tallulah’s relationship woes and path of self-discovery as a young twenty-something were very relatable and made me connect to her character. I’m forty-four, but it brought me back to that time in my own life. Initially the intrigue and mystery surrounding Scarlett and her gothic mansion were engaging, but as more of her was revealed, it was less interesting.

Although this wasn’t my favorite of her novels, I’m still a huge fan of Jewell and recommend her books to anyone looking for a good mystery.

Book Review- Lisa Jewell's Then She Was Gone

Thank you to Atria Books for providing me with a copy of Lisa Jewell's novel, Then She Was Gone, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Ellie Mack is a beautiful, smart, popular teenager, who seems to have everything going for her. One day, on her way to the library, she disappears and her case goes cold. A decade later. Ellie's mother, Laurel, begins to date a man named Floyd, whose daughter, Poppy, bears a striking resemblance to Ellie. Laurel begins to revisit her daughter's disappearance and discovers new facts of the case. Can Laurel finally find out what happened to daughter? Does Poppy hold the key?

LIKE- I've read several of Lisa Jewell's other novels and I was very excited to be granted a copy of Then She Was Gone. Jewell is masterful at crafting great suspense and mysteries. However, where she really shines is with her characters. She has a gift at tapping into the human psyche and creating relatable, multi-deminisional characters. 

Characters are what shine in Then She Was Gone. I was most drawn to Laurel, the grieving mother who not only lost her daughter, but also saw her marriage collapse under the weight of a missing child. Laurel is just getting her life back together when she meets Floyd and is shoved back down the rabbit hole of her daughter's case. Her anxiety and grief is palpable.  

We do not learn Ellie's fate until late in the story, but she is the narrator in some of the flashback chapters. Of course as a reader, our bond with Ellie is not going to be strong, like her mother's, however these chapters do serve to give us a clearer picture of Ellie and give us a chance to connect with her. Jewell is equally great at writing adults and children, letting us see Ellie's frame of mind and motivations. 

Then She Was Gone heads to some very dark places and is a story that made me anxious. I saw a blurb comparing it to Gone Girl, which was a little misleading. When I think of comparisons to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, I think that the story must have an unreliable narrator. Then She Was Gone has narrators under duress, but they are not unreliable. I read another that compared it to Alice Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones, which is a much better comparison with regard to both theme and tone. 

DISLIKE- I anticipated the twist early on and kept hoping that it would not be what I was expecting. It's not that the story wasn't intriguing, but it's always a little bit of a let down when you manage to figure out the twist early on. I did not anticipate the creepy, disturbing aspects of the twist. It gave me chills. 

RECOMMEND- Yes! Jewell is such a marvelous writer that I have to recommend all of her novels, including Then She Was Gone.