Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I never turn down adult thrillers, so I jumped at this book as soon as I saw it. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell is an adult psychological thriller that follows a mom after her daughter disappears, as she tries to simultaneously move on and figure out the events of that fateful day.

Ellie Mack disappears at age fifteen without a trace, and shortly afterwards, her family falls apart and her parents divorce. Now ten years later, her mother Laurel is still trying to come to terms with what happened but maintain a life of her own. One day while out in town, Laurel meets Floyd, a gentleman about her age. The two of them hit it off, eventually becoming a couple. When Laurel meets Poppy, Floyd's young daughter, the similarities she sees between Poppy and her missing daughter Ellie are uncanny. But the coincidences and connections don't stop there. Do Poppy and Floyd have something to do with Ellie's disappearance?

Even for a thriller, I read this extraordinarily fast. The plot pacing is perfect and you continue to get just enough key information to keep you trekking through without losing steam. The story is told in multiple points of view so you get a lot of insight into each character's thought process, and I thought the characters were well developed for the most part. Without spoiling anything, I will say that some things that happen in this book are pretty disturbing, but I think that is true for most thrillers. 

It was predictable and easy to figure out, but I think it was supposed to be, since it was more of a gradual release of fairly obvious information versus a big surprise reveal of whodunit. That being said, it was still very enjoyable, and there was a small surprise at the end even still. I've never read any other books by Lisa Jewell, so I don't know if all her thrillers are written like this or not. I do have to note that as someone who is typically let down by the ending of books, I was surprisingly happy with the ending to this! I loved the story itself a lot, and really enjoyed that the way you learn a ton of information explicitly through the story is different from your average thriller. 

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

A big thanks to Atria Books for an ARC of this great thriller. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell releases on April 17th, so be sure to pick up a copy!