Then She Was Gone
“Stories,” she says, “are the only thing in this world that are real. Everything else is just a dream.” - Lisa Jewell
Then She Was Gone is about a young teenage girl that went missing, and how her mother coped with the loss of not knowing what happened to her precious daughter as she begins to rebuild a life for herself over 10 years later. The storyline flashes back and forth from past to present and tells a very dynamic tale.
I could not seem to put this book down. The creepy aura that seeps into even the most normal moments of the story made me say to myself over and over again that I should just find a stopping point that wasn’t so unsettling, that didn’t make my skin crawl; and then I finished the book. Seriously...You know it’s all leading up to something absolutely abhorrent, but you just can’t look away.
As I started this book I instantly disliked the mother/main character, and began to see this tale as being predictable and wildly improbable. A few chapters into the book, I realized that this is what the author wants you to feel as the story unfolds and the reality of a normal family with their own problems kicks in.
I absolutely loved this book. It was a strange book, and unlike any thriller I had read before. Jewell, the author, really isn’t trying to hide anything from you, except maybe motives and backstory, which she gives to you in scraps and morsels throughout the text (at perfect times, I think). It is a novel deeply fascinated by the lengths people will go, the nature of obsession, and psychological damage. As a reader, I found myself looking for answers to ‘why’ way more then ‘who, what, where, or how,’ because it is the answers to these ‘why’ questions that brings up the most interesting themes in this novel. My attention was captivated throughout.
The narrative jumps around in time, and shifts perspectives from character to character at the perfect moments to ensure maximum discomfort (in the very best way), ultimately giving us a dynamic perspective of What Happened to Ellie Mack.
The writing was gripping and dynamic, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Jewell’s books.
