Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

109 reviews

hannahvsd's review against another edition

dark tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.75

3.5 stars for writing. 1 star for story and content. I would never have picked up this book if it wasn’t a book club book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

snowhite197's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Grief

shaleen64's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

An enjoyable thriller, that despite being predictable, remained an engaging read.

Whilst none of the characters are lovable in the traditional sense they are well explored which adds depth to the story.

The ending is what both Laurel and Poppy deserved but I couldn't help feeling some sympathy for Floyd. A good entry thriller, but if you enjoy shocking twists and turns maybe give this one a miss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use and Suicide

missmethven's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I’ll start off by saying that the majority of this read for me was gripping and fabulously dark. It was chilling in a way that wasn’t too over the top which I like - for example when Noelle says that she leaves the basement but doesn’t go back for a really really long time - the way that was worded was perfect. 

But it does fall short on a few things. Some of it is a bit far fetched and happens too quickly - for example we find out that Ellie is dead very early on (definitely could have been avoided) and why would Noelle’s mum suddenly go into a deep convo about her private relationship with her daughter and her disappearance with a total stranger or Floyd realising everything was going wrong so admitted it all and then killed himself in the same day (also was Laurel and Poppy meant to just go to the Christmas Eve party and act as if the situation was completely normal?)
I also wish there was more of a twist - I felt so excited by all the what-ifs and how it all tied together but it was quite drawn out so by the time we find out exactly what happened it falls slightly flat, sucking out the tension that was in previous chapters. And don’t get my started on that epilogue 🫠 the final thing that I didn’t really enjoy was the switching of people narrating the story - it’s interesting because although I liked hearing the situation from different perspectives, it didn’t flow well in the end 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, and Death of parent

erincies's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It was a good well written fast read. Only reason I didn’t give it four stars is that I felt the ending wrapped up almost too perfectly for how horrific the dark parts were. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infertility, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Murder

m_moon's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

knitswhilereading's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Brilliant, twisted, dark, sad. A real page turner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

ara_beg's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was sooo fast paced and fun to read, and I REALLY wanted it to be a 5 star read, but in the end it did disappoint a bit. I wish there was more of a plot twist. Personally, I figured out the storyline just by reading the back of the book even before starting to actually read it. I was really wishing that there would be more to it, but in the end there wasn’t anything shocking revealed. The only twist I didn’t see coming was

that Hanna was seeing Theo

, and that wasn’t one bit significant to the storyline whatsoever, actually just a bit confusing why the author put that in there. There were some similar details in the book that just didn’t bear any significance and were a bit unnecessary. 

I feel like the writing was very good and I couldn’t put it down, was really intrigued. But it wasn’t a psychological thriller to me, more just like a devastating story about

a child being kidnapped and abused

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Animal death, Eating disorder, and Miscarriage

hhanock's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Death

Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping

Minor: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Stalking, and Murder