My new boyfriend’s daughter looks creepily similar to my dead daughter

Yup, that’s pretty much the plot of this novel.

While browsing through Pinterest, I stumbled upon a book recommendation for a thriller, mystery, or horror. The book had a tagline that read, “A missing girl, with her buried secrets,” which piqued my interest and made me curious.

“ Ten years after her teenage daughter goes missing, a woman connects with a charming single father, but she is still haunted by her child’s disappearance”

“Then She Was Gone,” published in 2018 by Atria Books, is one of Lisa Jewell’s best-selling novels. With well-written prose and an engaging plot, the mystery of what happened to the character Ellie kept me on edge throughout the book. The ending was satisfying, and the story’s alternating past and present timeline was easy to follow. A must-read for mystery fans.

This book also deals with the trauma of losing a family member, grief, and emotional detachment. Laurel’s feeling of missing her ‘golden girl’, made her somehow lose the connection with her other family member. As if time had stopped for her. She stopped taking care of the house and her remaining children. Her marriage ended, and her husband has a new girlfriend. In the end, when the truth is revealed, Laurel has come to a realization that apparently, she’s not the only one that feels sad or lost. They are all coping with their sadness of a family member’s disappearance in different ways.

A turn of events started happening for Laurel when she met Floyd and his daughter Poppy.

Overall, this was such a reading experience. I haven’t read any English books again, since 2017, but this is a good start, and I am currently reading Lisa Jewell’s “The Family Upstairs”. I might write a review about this book… or not.

Originally published at https://matchalatteflavor.blogspot.com on March 9, 2021.