Book Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

April 6, 2020

I am kind of obsessed with thrillers. I love being on the edge of my seat and I love not being able to put my book down. I told my dad this and he picked this book out for me for my birthday. It did not disappoint.

This being said, it was not the very best thriller I have ever read, but it was interesting. By page 100 I had already figured the most of it out, which made me feel smart, but also a little disappointed. I kept reading because I wanted to prove myself right.

This is the story of a mom whose daughter, who is also the golden girl of her school and her family, goes missing one day while she was supposed to be going to the library to study for her upcoming exams. She is a brilliant girl who focus’ a lot on good grades so this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, except that she didn’t come home. She had no reason to run away, so her mother is fully convinced that that is not even up for questioning, but still, that is the story that circles. Especially when a couple years after her going missing her home is broken into and a couple things go missing. The mother, Laurel, never really gets over the fact that her golden girl is gone and this leads to a divorce with her husband and an estrangement with her other children. Ellie was only fifteen when she went missing and, while she was the youngest, Laurels children missed out on a lot of time with their mother.

I loved that this book allowed you to see things from the point of view of multiple different views – it was almost written as if it was expected to become a film or a show. There were little surprises that I didn’t expect, but overall I had guessed it right 100 pages in. It was an easy read, not lacking in content or depth, but something that read quickly.

I would recommend