Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

 A psychological study of grief and loss.

When Laurel Mack loses her favorite daughter, Ellie, a gifted 15-year-old who was the light of her life,  she drowns in grief that destroys the family that includes two older children, Hanna and Jake. Some believe she ran away but no sightings or trace of Ellie were ever found. Although the police investigated and countless appeals were made, the case went cold. 

Now, it’s 10 years gone and not much has changed as Laurel has never moved on. Then she meets a man, Floyd, and tentatively begins a relationship. It’s a shock, however, when Laurel first meets his nine-year-old daughter, Poppy, who looks a lot like Ellie. (I think you can guess where this might be going). Laurel gets close to Poppy and Floyd with some disturbing questions that bring her back again to what happened to Ellie. 

Told in a then and now format with alternating viewpoints, this is not a typical twist heavy psychological thriller as it is more a slow burn study of a mother’s trauma and grief. I can’t say as that I liked Laurel very much because her obsession with Ellie also estranged her other two children because of the favoritism. Part of the uniqueness of the plot is due to the structure when the central mystery of Ellie’s fate is revealed about halfway through. This shifts the focus from “what happened” to the more sinister “how and why” and was far more disturbing. Some extremely fractured and damaged other characters, Laurel’s new focus on Poppy as perhaps a substitute daughter, sociopathic delusion and the desperate obsession of those seeking love all combine to create a chilling, if a bit melodramatic, picture of broken lives. I found the conclusion to be overwhelmingly sad on many levels. Haunting is a good word to describe the tone of this book. 

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC provided by the publisher. The narrators, Helen Duff and Gabrielle Glaister, did a decent job of bringing most of the characters to life but were sadly lacking with the male voices. At times there seemed a bit of a miss with the accents as well. Overall, however, the production did enhance my enjoyment of the book.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre and tags - psychological fiction, mystery, missing teen, family drama, sociopathy and obsession