Then She Was Gone

Product Information

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Lisa Jewell for an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I read a Lisa Jewell novel last year and connected immediately with her writing style, tone, and voice. When Then She Was Gone showed up on NetGalley last month, I immediately requested it and added it to my reading queue for April. I really find myself enamored with Jewell's characters, plots, and settings, so much that I've added ten of her other books to my TBR and hope to read a few more later this year. Even though most parts and big twist are predictable, it was well written, breathtaking, fast pacing, captivating reading which ended in 5 hours. My heart truly hurt for ... yes the readers know which character I’m talking about. That character’s heart wrenching story will haunt me for a long time. Along the way, Laurel notices some strange coincidences. For example, Noelle disappeared around the same time Ellie did. Furthermore, Floyd’s other daughter said she saw a pregnant woman who didn’t have a baby bump at eight months pregnant. That woman was Noelle Donnelly, and it appeared that Ellie was her tutor before she vanished. In addition to that clue, there are several things about Floyd and Poppy that seem unusual or even wrong in some ways. It seems like they’re coached on what to say and do because of how self-assured Poppy is at times. Moreover, Floyd lies about Noelle when Laurel asks him questions about her whereabouts during their investigation into Ellie’s disappearance. Floyd writes books about mathematics and number theory. On their next day, he tells her he Googled her and knows about Ellie. They sleep together. Laurel meets his kids, and is floored when she realizes Poppy looks just like Ellie. Poppy and Floyd have a very close relationship, which unnerves Laurel a little. But overall, Laurel is much more excited and happy due to her relationship than she has been in a long time.

Overall Summary

And Hanna, girl, really?! Now what was the point of that honestly? I'm so annoyed and weirded out by that tbh. I can see why, with a better plot, Jewell is a great writer. The relationships and characters were fleshed out and interesting. Laurel’s pain over her missing daughter is palpable and realistic. The loss of Ellie felt like a real thing, not something that exists only inside a book. It's a shame, though, that we know a major aspect of Ellie's fate almost immediately, seeing as this is probably what I would have cared about most. Thank you so much to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Lisa Jewell for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. Laurel takes Poppy to meet Joshua and see her old house. Poppy is hesitant, but then eager to meet her relatives. However, she refuses to enter the basement, saying she was told never to go down there. Her mom had told her there was a monster there. For this review and our full Traveling Sister review please visit Brenda and Norma’s fabulous blog:

You know, how you get to forty and you suddenly stop giving a sh** about all the stupid things you worried about your whole life. Well, nine year old Poppy is already there." I think this book has one too many pieces to the puzzle trying to make it mysterious where I feel it would have been better to just focus on on one or two things. Some things were just weird and again I will reiterate WTF was the point in the Hanna thing? Of all the options it had to be that one? And the ending with Laurel? Ehhhh.I would listen to a friend's concerns, regardless if she believed in Mother Nature or the Great Pumpkin. Then She Was Gone was fine as an undemanding beach thriller, but I wouldn't recommend it for readers looking for something new and innovative. In chapters from Ellie’s perspective, she repeatedly brings up the subject of blame, thinking of all the moments that led to what happened to her and what she “should” have done differently, or what others could have done to save her. As you read, did you find yourself blaming characters for the unforeseen consequences of the choices they made? If so, in which situations? beautifully told… the reader is taken from heartbreak to hope via a series of twists and turns worthy of the best thrillers LivingEDGE

Laurel is immediately taken with Floyd's youngest daughter, Poppy, who is beautiful and wise beyond her years, truly an old soul. But Laurel cannot shake just how similar Poppy looks to Ellie, and how at times, when Poppy speaks, it is like she's in the same room with her daughter. As questions start to form in her mind about Floyd and what secrets he might be hiding, more and more her questions about Ellie's disappearance begin surfacing again. Did Ellie run away, or did she run into danger somehow? And why do Poppy and Ellie seem so similar? While there are a few key plot twists, there weren’t any that really caught me off guard. There’s a few instances of plot points where seems like the book is pointing in a specific direction, but since it’s a mystery, I kept expecting to be wrong about it. When it turns out it’s exactly what you think it sounds like, that’s a little disappointing.

Epilogue

As soon as their relationship become serious and she forms true bounding with Poppy, she surprisingly finds out the birth mother Noelle of Poppy who left her is the same woman who has tutored her daughter Ellie. And Ellie wrote at her diary that woman gave her creeps and she didn’t want her tutoring anymore.