CW: Abuse / Specifically Abuse of a Young Girl

**I won’t discuss this in my recap of the book, but if you choose to read this book, the content warning is needed**

Last month, I primarily read mysteries and thrillers. I found a used copy of Then She Was Gone at my local bookstore. I have heard raving reviews for Lisa Jewell’s books, so I figured I’d give this a shot. This was such a fast-paced, dark thriller to read.

Laurel Mack has been without her daughter, Ellie, for almost a decade since her disappearance. The grief of losing her daughter and not knowing what happened to her has kept Laurel from moving on. As Laurel goes about her routine, she meets a man in a cafe with whom she begins a relationship. She meets his daughter, Poppy, who is identical to Ellie. This leads Laurel into a harrowing investigation of Ellie and what happened to her all those years ago.

I loved Laurel as a character. She starts to see the cracks in her relationship early on. Instead of being consumed by this new romance, she continues to investigate Ellie’s disappearance and whether someone Ellie knew could have played a role in her vanishing. Laurel is intelligent, kind, and imperfect, and was a character I enjoyed reading about. The way she handled her grief seemed realistic, especially with putting her other daughter, Hanna, on a pedestal to replace Ellie. Laurel has her flaws, but she’s also a genuinely good person.

This isn’t the type of thriller where there’s a plot twist towards the end of the book. It’s revealed early on what happened to Ellie through flashbacks. The reason Then She Was Gone was so engaging was the tension of seeing the full story and how Laurel was going to uncover what happened. I tend to prefer thrillers where there is a plot twist at the end; however, the way Jewell wrote the book felt more like a countdown to when Laurel would figure out the truth.

Then She Was Gone was a well-written thriller about a mother desperate for answers and how Ellie’s disappearance has put a dark cloud over the Mack family. This was one of the darkest thrillers I have read. With the content warning, I can fully understand why some readers would avoid this book. However, Then She Was Gone is well worth the read.