ccceylinn_'s review against another edition
4.0
4.5⭐️ - Lisa Jewell is an amazing writer. Only reason I gave this 4.5 stars is because I found out what happened. Definitely will be reading more of her books!
littlelyre's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
kaykay936's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
asilannabell's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
3.0
monicaokta's review
1.0
Giving low rating not because its a bad book but this is too dark for my liking. Such a tragic story and that epilogue :’(
britperdue's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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
5.0
dasha_8's review
5.0
This was strangely disturbing, in a way I hadn’t expected from this author; but overall a very enjoyable and addictive read. Easiest 5 stars.
nikkihrose's review
5.0
I’m a fan of murder mysteries. There is something about them that holds my attention to the extent that all of my other responsibilities fall away from me and become neglected for much longer than they should be.
But I’ll be honest, many murder mystery novels contain a very specific trope: violence. There’s almost no getting around it. And yet, to an extent, Lisa Jewell has managed to do just that.
Don’t get me wrong, there is still violence, as there has still been unprecedented and unnecessary death in this novel. But it’s not the focus. The violence isn’t what drives the novel forward. It isn’t what keeps readers on the edges of their seats.
Instead, it’s the characters. The life-like characters that Jewell creates and envelopes readers in before they get the chance to put the book down for even a moment.
I was hooked during the prologue. I wanted to know more about these people. They weren’t made up. They weren’t fake. They didn’t just belong on the page. They became people I could see and interact with (okay, not really, but bear with me). They were people I wanted to know more about.
And Lisa Jewell did just this for me. She gave me more. She included me in their lives — their secrets — until I couldn’t do anything but want more. And then she gave that to me, too.
The Plot
Laurel Mack is a mother. That’s her entire identity. She has three beautiful children: Jake, Hannah, and Ellie. Or, she did. Until one day, ten years ago, when her youngest at fifteen years old, Ellie, disappeared.
The police assumed she had run away. They stopped searching. The didn’t take Laurel’s concerns seriously. Her life fell apart.
Her children distanced themselves — or she distanced herself from them. Her marriage became everything she hated until it no longer existed. Everyone who had mattered to Laurel was gone — maybe not literally, but it seemed like it. For many years.
What she didn’t expect was to find the answers ten years later. To be woven into someone’s sick story in a way that everything about her own life simultaneously made sense and made no sense at all. To sit and wonder what her lost daughter must have been experiencing in her last minutes, hours, days, years — who knows how long she had been alive after she had been kidnapped? Who knows by whom? And who expected it to have been someone she had known.
They always say kidnappings tend to happen by those you know personally. Lisa Jewell clearly knew this and dove into the reality of it.
Ten years have passed and Laurel is moving through the motions. She’s attempting to go about her daily life, but she has removed herself from things that could remind her of the life she had once loved.
Now she lives in a small apartment, alone, and makes scheduled appointments with friends in order to keep some semblance of socialization in her life. She talks to her family minimally. Her ex-husband is with a new woman, and she has refused to ever meet her — despite it having been years at this point.
But then she meets Floyd. Floyd Dunn.
They meet at a café. They share some cake — something very uncharacteristic of Laurel, and both Laurel and Jewell reflect on this as it happens. But it’s magical. It’s opening. She — Laurel — is opening herself, and it pulls readers in to see just how much she’ll open up, and what exactly is causing her to feel that now is the time to do so.
Oh, and Floyd has a daughter. Poppy. And Poppy looks like Ellie. Not identical, but far too similar for Laurel to turn away from it.
But there is nothing that could prepare her for the truths that she discovers.
Jewell has a magical ability to weave together a story from multiple different perspectives while keeping her readers riveted. I could not put this book down. At 360+ pages, I finished it in a single day and still wanted more by the time I was done. Each book of hers has this power to envelop a reader before they even know it’s happened.
But I’ll be honest, many murder mystery novels contain a very specific trope: violence. There’s almost no getting around it. And yet, to an extent, Lisa Jewell has managed to do just that.
Don’t get me wrong, there is still violence, as there has still been unprecedented and unnecessary death in this novel. But it’s not the focus. The violence isn’t what drives the novel forward. It isn’t what keeps readers on the edges of their seats.
Instead, it’s the characters. The life-like characters that Jewell creates and envelopes readers in before they get the chance to put the book down for even a moment.
I was hooked during the prologue. I wanted to know more about these people. They weren’t made up. They weren’t fake. They didn’t just belong on the page. They became people I could see and interact with (okay, not really, but bear with me). They were people I wanted to know more about.
And Lisa Jewell did just this for me. She gave me more. She included me in their lives — their secrets — until I couldn’t do anything but want more. And then she gave that to me, too.
The Plot
Laurel Mack is a mother. That’s her entire identity. She has three beautiful children: Jake, Hannah, and Ellie. Or, she did. Until one day, ten years ago, when her youngest at fifteen years old, Ellie, disappeared.
The police assumed she had run away. They stopped searching. The didn’t take Laurel’s concerns seriously. Her life fell apart.
Her children distanced themselves — or she distanced herself from them. Her marriage became everything she hated until it no longer existed. Everyone who had mattered to Laurel was gone — maybe not literally, but it seemed like it. For many years.
What she didn’t expect was to find the answers ten years later. To be woven into someone’s sick story in a way that everything about her own life simultaneously made sense and made no sense at all. To sit and wonder what her lost daughter must have been experiencing in her last minutes, hours, days, years — who knows how long she had been alive after she had been kidnapped? Who knows by whom? And who expected it to have been someone she had known.
They always say kidnappings tend to happen by those you know personally. Lisa Jewell clearly knew this and dove into the reality of it.
Ten years have passed and Laurel is moving through the motions. She’s attempting to go about her daily life, but she has removed herself from things that could remind her of the life she had once loved.
Now she lives in a small apartment, alone, and makes scheduled appointments with friends in order to keep some semblance of socialization in her life. She talks to her family minimally. Her ex-husband is with a new woman, and she has refused to ever meet her — despite it having been years at this point.
But then she meets Floyd. Floyd Dunn.
They meet at a café. They share some cake — something very uncharacteristic of Laurel, and both Laurel and Jewell reflect on this as it happens. But it’s magical. It’s opening. She — Laurel — is opening herself, and it pulls readers in to see just how much she’ll open up, and what exactly is causing her to feel that now is the time to do so.
Oh, and Floyd has a daughter. Poppy. And Poppy looks like Ellie. Not identical, but far too similar for Laurel to turn away from it.
But there is nothing that could prepare her for the truths that she discovers.
Jewell has a magical ability to weave together a story from multiple different perspectives while keeping her readers riveted. I could not put this book down. At 360+ pages, I finished it in a single day and still wanted more by the time I was done. Each book of hers has this power to envelop a reader before they even know it’s happened.
openbookheartmind's review
mysterious
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
2.75
saraahhh447's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0