Overview:
On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend.
One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite area for long walks and [read more…]
Would I Recommend It?
Yes.
Thoughts?
I had one of those moments where I’m thinking about the book an hour or so after finishing it. And I’m going over the storyline and then it finally hits me. Oh! The burnt smell! That smell connects back to that event. Ah! So. I liked that. Liked having that revelation after finishing the book. (Not a major plot thing revealed here.)
I’m not one of those readers who reads a mystery strictly to solve the mystery. So I know a lot of people can’t deal if they can somehow guess the ending halfway through. To me as long as the characters are intriguing and their stories are believable or heartfelt then I’m pretty much in to enjoy it all. I started to form an idea of the ending little more than halfway through, but didn’t guess all the pieces and it definitely didn’t stop me from turning the pages.
I found it hard to not keep reading chapter after chapter as it alternated between key characters and the varying timelines closed up on what happened the night she disappeared and what is happening in the present day. I was definitely sucked in. (The alternating timelines are easy to follow.)
This was the 2nd book I’ve read by Lisa Jewell. I liked Then She Was Gone even more than this one, but that one was much darker themed. I like that Lisa doesn’t shy away from dark themes: child abuse, rape, domestic violence, etc. But she approaches them in a way that’s not gruesome. Like, the thing happened and it’s horrible, but instead let’s now agonize over the horrific psychological aspects of how it’s affecting the characters who are/were close to the victim.
Lisa appears to like to write about mom and daughter bonds and family interactions. She does them so well that she doesn’t alienate people like me who cringe at good mother and daughter interactions. Also, she can weave in a baby and make them a focal point of the story in such a way that it doesn’t at all make me wanna pull my hair out. Or puke. Or cringe. What was the recent disaster mystery I read with overly too much baby this, baby that, baby, baby, baby? Oh yeah, The Lying Game. So, thumbs up to Lisa that she’s got the vote of a non-kid-loving-non-mom reader.
Quotable Quotes:
“Darling seemed to her like something you called a wife you’d run out of genuine enthusiasm for. Darling was what her friends’ parents called each other. Darling was old.”
This just made me laugh. Still makes me laugh. Just super simple and funny.
Book:
The Night She Disappeared
Author:
Lisa Jewell
Genre:
Fiction | Mystery | Drama
My Rating:
3.5 Stars
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