Where, oh where, do I start?
I love Lisa Jewell's work; she has been a bright beacon of light in the chaos of 2020 for me. And this novel hammered home why I enjoy her work so much. The story is predominantly told through the perspective of a woman whose daughter went missing years ago and hones in on her grief, her self-blaming, her self-imposed isolation, her shutting down of so many emotions. That's Laurel. Divorced post-loss of her beloved eldest child, Ellie, Laurel hasn't dated... until she meets Floyd. He is charismatic and charming, and his daughter Poppy just so happens to be the spitting image of Ellie when she was young. As the story unfolds, we learn about what really happened to Ellie and why her discarded bones came to be found many years after the fact. We also learn the roles that Floyd, Poppy, and Ellie's eccentric former tutor Noelle play in Ellie's life and death. The reader even gets head-hopped into the minds of a then-living Ellie, Elle, and - in the end - Floyd. This all helps piece the story together, bit by bit. Then She Was Gone culminates with Laurel's sense of closure, something that she needed in order to truly move on with her life. Family dynamics shift in the midst and aftermath of tragic loss, and Jewell excels at conveying these emotions while keeping the reading lured in with a slowly unraveling mystery. BUY NOW on Amazon
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jen
Archives
October 2020
Categories |