Review: Then She Was Gone

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m not sure why the reviews on this are so seemingly over the top. Granted, this was a quick and easy read, with likable characters. Beyond that, however, I just felt myself kind of shrug my shoulders when I closed the cover. It was...just “eh” for me.

Jewell can definitely tell a story, that I will give her. She is a talented wordsmith, and she is able to bring characters to life in a way that many authors fail to achieve, even though those same characters seem sometimes to step beyond their boundaries and into the author’s flight of fancy. For example, Poppy behaves like a forty year old woman, whilst at times falling back into what would be considered typical for a nine year old. I’m not talking about moments of maturity, I’m talking unbelievable scenes of “uh uh...no way” . It was additionally*****spoiler alert***** completely out of character for the grandiose gesture made by Floyd, followed by his romanticized, and once again out of character, suicide.

My added ambivalence is borne of what I perceived to be a mundane plot that was fairly transparent less than halfway through the book. The “twist” at the end was hardly more than a quarter turn that didn’t in any way make me pause for even a second.

Overall, I’d give this author another try—it was a book that kept the pages turning, even if I wasn’t always buying into,the premise!

View all my reviews