Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review! For this review, I got into another Lisa Jewell novel, a bit of an older one than I got into last time. Then She Was Gone gave me very similar vibes as None of This Is True in which we get entangled in different character’s lives who all seem to connect in the end.

Main Characters:

• Ellie Mack: Went missing when she was 15
• Laurel Mack: Ellie’s mother who now 10 years since she’s gone missing, is trying to get her life back together
• Floyd Dunn: Laurel’s new boyfriend
• Poppy Dunn: Floyd’s odd daughter who seems to take a quick liking to Laurel due to the absence of her own mother
• Noelle Donnelly: Poppy’s mother and Floyd’s ex, went missing when Poppy was 4 years old

Some warnings for future readers:

• Includes murder
• Includes kidnapping
• Includes sexual assault on a teenager

My Review

I found Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell to be a really strong mystery with so many twists and turns it was hard to put down. It was also a pretty dark story, but I enjoyed the rawness of it and the exposure to cruelty. I enjoyed the book a lot more at the start and felt like it slowed down a lot in the second half. The mystery itself is strong and complicated but once the pieces start to come together it really slows down the pace of the book, and I felt like it dragged on a bit at the end. All together I gave it a 7.5/10 rating.

I thought the characters in this book were super interesting, and in a Lisa Jewell classic way, she gave perspectives from most of the characters so we got a deeper look into what each character was thinking and feeling. I always enjoy really strong character dynamics and in this book, it was definitely a factor. We got to learn more about the characters through how they were presented through one another rather than how they tried to present themselves. I will say though that despite the mystery being complicated and twisty, it wasn’t too hard to figure it out early on. That didn’t take away from the book at all, but as the reader, it was more so just waiting for some of the other characters to catch on.

Another thing I struggled a bit with this book is I wasn’t super connected with any of the characters. Other than Ellie, who I felt a lot of sympathy for I didn’t find myself connecting a lot to the characters. Laurel is a character whom you can definitely be empathetic for, but she wasn’t super likable. She complains a lot, and she can’t seem to appreciate what she does have in her life. Don’t get me wrong her grief towards Ellie’s loss is 100% understandable but even ten years later she still couldn’t seem to accept or appreciate what was in her control, and clung a lot to what wasn’t. I also didn’t love the relationship she would end up building with Floyd. It seemed really strange to me and I had red flags flying early on that she actively ignored. I also really didn’t like Poppy. I know that’s terrible to say since she’s a kid but I found her character to be very annoying. Around the end, I started to like her a bit more but it was hard when she was in other parts because they would become a bit insufferable.

I will say that while I wasn’t shocked by the main big mystery, some other little twists and turns were surprising. I did think the idea though of how far would you go to paint your perfect world, is interesting. In a world that is full of judgements and opinions people often feel they have to follow a certain path to feel fulfilled. When they do it, and they find it doesn’t fulfill anything, people lose their sense of hope. This was a big theme in the book in which the characters are so desperate to create a specific world for themselves that they neglect what’s really important.

Overall despite the downfalls of the book, I would definitely recommend it to people. The fast pace of the book made it so it’s a read you could finish up in a few days. Despite the fact the book slows down at the end the mystery itself is so gripping that you can’t help but want to finish it. I would say though that this book outwardly doesn’t seem like it’s as dark as it would end up being so just be prepared for that.

Summary and Commentary

***Please be aware this section will have spoilers***

The book starts off with Laurel entering her other daughter Hanna’s apartment to clean it. Laurel openly doesn’t seem to like her daughter a lot, and the two don’t seem close. We then get from Laurel that their lack of closeness may have to do with the fact that her other daughter Ellie had gone missing. It had been a large ordeal for the family, and even ten years after she had been missing, no one had really seemed to heal. It may have to do with the fact that Ellie, alive or dead, had never been found. With Ellie going missing, Laurel’s marriage with her children’s father eventually ended, and her relationship with her other children became strained. Laurel seems to really be the one though who hasn’t been able to move on since Ellie went missing. Laurel struggled a lot as well because the police seemed to assume she had run away, but Laurel knew she would never do that.

We then get a perspective from Ellie in the past. Ellie clearly had a bright future ahead of her before she went missing. Ellie was extremely smart and very focused in school. Ellie all in all seemed like a normal girl. Her life revolved around school, family, and her boyfriend. She did seem to put a lot of pressure on herself to do well in school though and convinces her mom to get her a math tutor. Laurel gets her a tutor named Noelle who is a woman in her 30’s. Noelle is a strange woman, but she’s good at her job, so Laurel and Ellie don’t seem to mind. Noelle takes a strong liking to Ellie and becomes interested in not just her studies, but her future. Ellie gets a little too weirded out by Noelle and asks her mom to stop the lessons. I mean I started to think at this part that it was Noelle who took Ellie because most abductions are done by someone you know.

Back in the present Laurel, who has gotten no new information about Ellie’s disappearance for a long time, gets a call. It’s detectives from the police, and they need her to come in to speak with her. This of course causes Laurel a lot of panic and she wonders if they have found her body. When she gets to the station her ex-husband Paul is also there. The police let them know that they’ve found Ellie’s bag ditched out in the woods. Some hikers found it and brought it in. The strange thing though is that in Ellie’s bag was Hanna’s passport. The passport had only gone missing 4 years ago, so it’s very weird. Laurel’s home had been broken into four years ago, and there was some thought that it was Ellie who had done it. She needed more cash to keep hidden and hit up her family’s home. I thought that was weird though, and personally didn’t believe it, seemed too risky for her to do that if she was still alive. Hanna’s passport doesn’t help though as the police think she took it so she wouldn’t get caught trying to leave the country.

We then get another look into the past, and it’s clear that Noelle was not happy with Ellie ending the lessons. She is obsessed with Ellie and starts following her around places. One day Noelle gets the confidence to talk with her. Noelle offers for her to come back to her place and to take some practice tests with her. Ellie agrees not thinking that this math tutor would be obsessed with her. So clearly Noelle kidnaps her, but for what reason was my question. I get she’s mad that she cancelled the lessons but what would taking her do? She would get to keep her as her student forever?

Not long after Ellie’s bag is found, her remains are found. My heart broke for Laurel and Paul, and a part of me was really hoping that Noelle would maybe still have her alive all these years later. Laurel now has the closure she has been waiting for all these years. It’s not satisfying though because it’s clear someone killed her, and who and why became the big question.

A month after Ellie’s remains are found, and they have buried her, Laurel is trying to get her life back. She’s trying to get back into a somewhat regular routine, and just trying to feel alive again. When in a café one day she meets the dashing Floyd Dunn. My radars were up about this guy instantly because he seemed to come on really strong. I know some people are like that but I hate that so it just made me cringe. Laurel, however, after being alone for a long time, eats it up. A part of me was happy for her though. She deserved to feel desirable, and like she could find happiness in the world. Laurel learns that Floyd has two daughters one 21 and the other 9, two different moms. His youngest stayed with him full-time as her mother wasn’t in the picture. Laurel liked him a lot and found him to be kind, and gentle. She also liked his interest in her. Before she leaves the café Floyd asks her on a date.

Laurel decides to jump out of her comfort zone and take Floyd up on his offer for a date. On the date, Laurel learns that Poppy’s mother isn’t in the picture due to her going missing five years ago. She dropped Poppy off at his house, and no one has seen her since. Laurel felt a connection to him knowing that both of them have gone through similar experiences. The two plan a second date to be had soon. The two seem to be getting more and more connected. Floyd brings Laurel back to his home which I found weird. His eldest was watching his youngest at his home, Laurel’s home was empty. It just seemed really early to be introducing her to the kids on a second date. I was seeing those red flags again for sure. Laurel however doesn’t seem to mind meeting his kids so early, so I mean she’s clearly cool at moving at a fast pace like he is. When she meets Poppy it’s clear that Poppy is a bit of an odd kid. Only being 9 years old she acts way above her age and has this odd adult-like confidence about her that a kid shouldn’t have. It seems that her relationship with her dad is odd too, he often treats her well above her age and doesn’t seem to have a lot of discipline in the house. Laurel also notices that Poppy’s looks remind her of her daughter. Laurel takes a quick liking to Poppy and that may have been why. I am not saying she’s replacing her, but it probably helps to have another girl to give her motherly love to.

Laurel decided to have a big family supper to celebrate her and Hanna’s birthdays. It will be a weird dinner considering she doesn’t see her son often and has never met his wife, doesn’t have a great relationship with her daughter, and then her ex and his wife. Laurel calls Hanna to see how she would feel about Laurel bringing Floyd and Poppy. Hanna is a bit weirded out by how quick the relationship has moved but doesn’t seem to care either way. Later that afternoon Laurel takes Poppy shopping. Her true motive is the hope of finding Poppy some clothes that aren’t so adult and are more kid-like. The two get to know each other a bit more and Laurel starts to see that below this strong persona that Poppy puts on she actually has a lot of pain and insecurity under neither. Apparently, she never felt loved by her mother, and desperately just wants to be a part of a big loving family.

At the big family supper, things are a bit awkward but Floyd and Poppy actually seem to be nice additions. It’s clear that Laurel struggles to envision or admit how her life got to this point, but she seems to be starting to be okay with how it’s presenting itself. She likes how Poppy seems to fit in with the family, and brings a light to the table. The next morning Laurel is getting ready to leave Floyd’s house. She picks up the mail by the front door and recognizes a name on one of the letters. It’s Noelle Donnelly. She just can’t seem to place the name where she recognizes it. Then it clicked, she was Noelle’s tutor. What a strange connection that Floyd’s ex and Poppy’s mom, was Ellie’s old teacher. Small world I guess. I started to wonder if maybe Floyd was also involved in the kidnapping of Ellie, given that it’s been mentioned like 20 times in the book so far that Poppy looks like Ellie. That night Laurel’s son and his wife call her. They essentially just call to tell Laurel that they got weird vibes from Floyd and to be careful. Laurel, who just met her son’s wife the day before, finds it to be a load of crap. I thought this was very odd though and if I was her I would have paid a bit more attention to it.

Later on, when Laurel is at Floyds his oldest daughter Sara-Jade is there. Sara-Jade needs some advice so the two go off to chat alone. The conversation ends up coming around to Ellie and Sara-Jade seems to have a lot of opinions as to what she thinks happened to her. Sara-jade starts to say something about Poppy’s mom but the two are interrupted by Floyd. Laurel is desperate to know what she was going to say, and if it had something to do with Ellie, and knows she’s going to need to talk to her again. The next day Laurel goes to SJ’s work to find out the rest of what she was going to say. The two go out for lunch and SJ tells her that she never liked Noelle. She was obsessive and weird and always wanted to alienate SJ. SJ admits that when Noelle was 8 months pregnant SJ had seen her in the home when she thought no one was around, and her bump was gone. She never knew what to do with the information, and it was all very weird to her. So the question now becomes if Noelle didn’t have the baby who did? I mean it’s glaringly obvious who did. It’s Ellie, it has to be. My question now was how involved was Floyd. Did he rape Ellie and get her pregnant?

We now get a perspective from Noelle. She is a lady with a lot of issues. Major insecurity issues that she tries to cover up with a go-with-the-flow attitude and hypersexuality. Despite wanting to be beautiful and desirable, Noelle doesn’t take good care of herself. It’s clear her and Floyd’s relationship was always an extremely unhealthy toxic one. When Noelle got pregnant and lost the baby, he was happy. He then made sure to let her know that would never happen again. To put it simply Floyd hated Noelle and used her purely for sex, he did not like her at all. Why he continued having sex with her I am not sure. I think a part of him liked the obsession and crazy, made him feel wanted. It became clear to Noelle that the only way to keep Floyd around long-term was when she was pregnant before she lost the baby, so this time she just couldn’t lose the baby. SJ never took a liking to her and she hated this. She wanted her and Floyd to have a child who would like her and would make Floyd like her more.

Laurel now wondering if there is a connection between Noelle going missing and Ellie going missing wants to dig more into Noelle’s life. She calls the number to Noelle’s old home phone, not expecting her to answer. It turns out that Noelle of course isn’t there, but that her family members have been living in the home to keep it well kept until she comes back. It seems that no one in her family has heard from her in a very long time. Noelle’s cousins invite her over when she mentions she’s connected to Floyd and Poppy. Noelle’s cousins by all accounts seem very normal, and want to know if at maybe some point they could meet Poppy. Laurel desperate to look for any clue of where Noelle went asks about the house. Her cousins offer to show her around as the house has some peculiar things. In the basement, one room has been decked out. It’s clear someone was staying there at some point and my guess was Ellie. There were also like 20 dead hamsters in cages which was super weird. Laurel finds a tube of lip chap that seems to come from a set. Obviously, it’s significant to her because she takes it from the basement.

Back in the past with Noelle, she explains her desperation to get pregnant, and her lack of ability to. With Floyd trying hard to not get her pregnant, and her miscarriages every time she does, she starts to think about her love for Ellie. Such a young vibrant girl, who realistically she wanted to be, she starts to see that Ellie would be a good surrogate to make her perfect baby. Noelle discusses how she got Ellie into her home and then drugged her. She had the perfect space to keep Ellie locked up in the basement and planned to do that. All though she had the motive of a baby is clear that Noelle also just really wanted Ellie to like her. She tries hard to impress her despite the terrible situation Ellie is in, and when Ellie doesn’t reciprocate she gets angry.

Back in the present with Laurel, the next day she takes Poppy out for lunch. The two continue to get closer, and Laurel considers telling her about her family. She isn’t sure how to drop to her though that she went to her mom’s house and met her cousins. Laurel eventually works in that she meets Poppy’s family and asks her if she wants to meet her cousins. She does so Laurel takes her over to her mom’s old home. Poppy meets her cousins and nothing really significant happens. When Laurel is in Poppy’s room later she notices that some candle sticks that were stolen from her home some years before. This clearly makes her wonder if it wasn’t Ellie who broke into the house but Noelle. Given that Poppy says she got them from her it definitely seems like she was the one to break into the house. But why?

Back with Ellie and Noelle in the past, we find out why Noelle had all those hamsters. She bought them for Ellie. Why I really don’t know. She does these weird things that expose what a child Ellie is but then tries to treat her like an adult in other parts. It seems like she wants to be a mother to Ellie, but also her best friend. I think she doesn’t actually have a clear idea of why she took Ellie, she’s just impulsive when it comes to what she thinks she needs. At some point in Ellie’s stay with Noelle, Noelle drugs her and using donated sperm she purchased, inseminates Ellie. I mean how horribly fucked up. Taking a 15-year-old girl to make her your baby machine, I mean is disgusting. I felt so terrible for Ellie, poor girl hadn’t even had sex yet let alone having a baby. That would be so scary, to wake up one day with some baby in your stomach that you have no idea where it came from. As Ellie got more pregnant Noelle got more abusive. Once she gave birth Ellie suffered a terrible depression and often wouldn’t want to be around Noelle for the baby. Ugh, I just felt so bad for her, no wonder she was so depressed. Noelle essentially leaves Poppy in the room by herself to starve and die, and she does. I mean I wasn’t sure how Noelle was going to get rid of Ellie but did she have to do it in the most cruel way possible? Like shit at least make it fast like how terrible.

Noelle had broken into the home to make it seem like it was Ellie. She hoped to find her passport but could only find Hanna’s which explains why it was in the bag. She just wanted to make it seem like she had really run away. She took the candle sticks because she wanted to bring a piece of Ellie’s home into hers. It’s also clear that Noelle was not made for motherhood. She can’t handle Poppy and I would argue that she really started to dislike her. Despite this, she knows Poppy is her connection to Floyd and would never give her up. Noelle planned to take Poppy to Ireland where she was from and hoped that Floyd would follow her there and they could create their own family. When Noelle went to tell Floyd she was going it turned out that Floyd had other plans. He worried that Noelle was neglecting Poppy and didn’t want Noelle to be alone with her. When Noelle out of anger breaks the news to Floyd that neither of them is Poppy’s parents, he flips and pushes her. We don’t know if he kills her but I assumed he did.

One day when Laurel is alone in Floyd’s home she goes snooping in his office. She finds out that he has a ton of news articles on Ellie, Laurel and her husband. She knows that he knew who she was when they met. She starts to wonder if it may be a guilty mind that made him want to connect to her. What his connection to Ellie is, she isn’t sure, but she knows there has to be one.

We then get a perspective from Floyd. He explains that he never meant to fall in love with Laurel, he just wanted to get to know her. When Noelle told him neither of them was Poppy’s parents, she also mentioned that a young girl named Ellie was her real mother. It wasn’t until he had seen a crime show focusing on Ellie’s disappearance that he realized, and saw that his own daughter and this girl shared quite a resemblance. He spent a lot of time trying to deny and hide from the truth but he couldn’t. He wanted to get to know the family that his child actually belonged to, but he also didn’t want to lose Poppy. Back with the perspective of Laurel, she arrives at Floyd’s home to go to her family’s Christmas supper with them. Floyd gives her an envelope, and tells her to read it and that he will be back with the rest. In the envelope is a letter in which Floyd tells her the whole story. He also tells her that he’s recorded a video in his office to watch. He tells her that once he met her he realized what a strong and amazing person she was. He saw how she could be good for Poppy. He never meant to trick her or lie to her, but he hadn’t expected to fall in love with her (eye roll). While she has been watching this he has made his exit, and he won’t be coming back. He wants Poppy to stay with her grandmother now, and to be a part of their family. He tells Laurel he already told Poppy that Laurel was her grandmother but how much else she wanted to tell her was up to her. I felt like this was so lame and very cowardly. I mean maybe that was the point but the whole time I was thinking come on Floyd grow some balls.

The book ends with Poppy being integrated into Laurel’s family. It’s not Ellie but everyone is happy to have a piece of her back. Floyd ended up shooting his brains out (again cowardly) and he told Laurel where the police could find Noelle buried in his garden. It just felt like a bit of an unsatisfying ending, and maybe that was because no one had to answer to all the pain that had been caused to Ellie. I know everyone who could is dead but it seemed unfair that she never got justice for what happened to her. I wished that Floyd had lived and at least had to deal with some consequences. I mean over all it wasn’t a bad ending just not my favourite.

I hope you enjoyed this review! What did you think of Then She Was Gone if you’ve checked it out before? What did you think if you have read others of Lisa Jewell’s work? Feel free to check out all my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!