REVIEW: None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense

Read: 30th July 2023

Goodreads

Amazon

Published: 20th July 2023

★★★ 3.5 stars

DESCRIPTION:

Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

MY THOUGHTS:

Her lies could kill you...

Man, what did I just read? Where do I even begin to start a review for this book? I love Lisa Jewell and I'm always excited when she has a new release coming out. I had heard such good things about this book and yet once I was in there I found myself drowning and unable to get out. 

First of all, I loved the format Jewell undertook with this one. Excerpts of a podcast and upcoming Netflix documentary drama. You just know with these interspersed throughout that something big is coming.

"Hi! I'm your birthday twin!"

That's how Josie Fair quite literally stumbles her way into Alix Summer's glamorous Instagram life. Watching her from across the same gastropub both women celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays, Josie can't help but want just a little of what Alix has. And so when she sees the other woman head to the ladies she orchestrates a chance meeting. But a few words exchanged in the ladies wasn't enough...Josie wanted more. And so later that night, after Walter had left their bed, she googled Alix Summer and stalked her social media wanting to find out more about her "birthday twin".

What comes next is not by pure chance. It is all carefully curated and orchestrated by Josie in which she swoops in and offers Alix the chance of a lifetime. A podcast about a woman embarking on a new direction in life, following Josie step by step as she undertakes these changes, from the boring caterpillar that she is and emerging as a beautiful butterfly breaking free.

Of course, Alix has no idea of the avalanche that is about to become her life. The podcast reveals some very disturbing facts and too late Alix realises she might have made a very big mistake. And as Josie slowly inveigles her way into Alix's life, into her home, she is about to discover that her new friend isn't all she claims to be.

This is such a difficult book to review. There is so much that could be said that really can't without giving anything away. Plus I found it very heavy going. Although I managed to plough through it in a day it was somewhat exhausting! I can only imagine what writing it would be like! As it is very character driven there isn't a lot of dialogue throughout which I really prefer, but having said that, this is still a very clever story. But it's not my favourite of hers. 

The story itself is somewhat disturbing, if you were to believe half of what was said because the clue is in the title...which is kind of a spoiler in itself. The entire thing is a tale shrouded in ambiguity and Jewell keeps you guessing the whole way through.

While it wasn't one of my favourites, I still found it addictive and couldn't put it down until the very end. Josie is very much a train wreck of a character. You will love to hate her. And while her initial relationship and then marriage to her husband Walter were certainly not age appropriate, I do believe that Josie knew exactly what she was doing. She was a psychopath with no remorse, no empathy and no regard for others. She was controlling and narcissistic and a very disturbing individual. There was no victim blaming. Josie was a product of first her environment and then of her own making.

Overall, I found this to be a heavy read. It is chilling and somewhat disturbing in parts. But it is also very cleverly done.

I would like to thank #LisaJewell, #Netgalley and #RandomHouseCenturyBooks for an ARC of #NoneOfThisIsTrue in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.

She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.

She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.

She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and three pets. She claims to love the dog best.

Social Media links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

 

REVIEW: The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

The Family Remains (The Family Upstairs #2) by Lisa Jewell

Genre: Mystery, Psychological thriller, Domestic drama

Read: 4th July 2022

Goodreads

Amazon

Published: 21st July 2022

★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)

DESCRIPTION:

LONDON. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones.

DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago.

Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up.

The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts.

Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can't stay buried for ever ...

PREPARE TO BE HOOKED.

MY THOUGHTS:

It's the sequel that fans have been waiting for! The next chapter to the highly acclaimed spine-tingling and creepy "The Family Upstairs" and which needs no introduction. However, do not fear if you have not read the first book - though I do recommend it as it is thoroughly dark and sinister and creepy - as THE FAMILY REMAINS is written in such a way that it can be read as a standalone. 

It's been three years since "The Family Upstairs" was published which means it's been three years since I've read it; which means I've probably read over 600 books since then so I'm hardly likely to remember every nitty gritty detail...but I do recall some. And as I read this book, there were some aspects that took me right back to 16 Cheyne Walk and I could picture that gothic mansion in Chelsea, with its view over the Thames to Battersea, as if I had lived there myself...or at the very least, read the book yesterday. If I had the time I may well have re-read the book but it didn't matter in any case because the story was so well written as well as the bringing in of two new characters that it felt like a completely new story with a twenty five year old cold case at its core.

There was so much left unsaid at the end of "The Family Upstairs" with so many of us wondering what happened to the Lamb children after 16 Cheyne Walk? I can't remember how the book ended but Lisa Jewell has cleverly expanded on their lives in between where it all ended to where they are now. But she has added a new perspective to the story and a new mystery that is very closely linked to the old mysteries left behind.

Beginning in June 2019, a bag of skeletal remains washes up on the banks of the River Thames that was discovered by a somewhat enthusiastic mudlarker. Not quite sure what a mudlarker is...it sound more like a bird than anything else...lol And enter dogged but very likeable DI Samuel (not Sam) Owusu who is called in to investigate the discovery. And thus opens a can of worms dating back to the mid-90s and the house of horrors in which innocent, malnourished and tortured children had escaped before the triple suicide of their parents with their leader and a crying baby, Serenity Lamb, were discovered.

Then we step back in time by about a year to July 2018 and Rachel Rimmer is awoken by a phone call from French police to inform her that her husband Michael has been found dead in the basement of his Antibes home. As he was stabbed they are treating his death as murder but there are few leads as to who may responsible. So how does his death link to the discovery of decades of human remains fished out of the Thames?

To tell this story accurately and to build the bigger picture, the author takes us back yet again to 2016 when Rachel met Michael and the courtship that followed resulting in a whirlwind marriage. This part of the story unfolds gradually in alternating chapters up until Michael's demise. 

Meanwhile, in between the present day 2019 and three years prior, we meet a grown up Lucy who now has two young children and has recently moved in with her now grown up, yet still slightly obsessed, brother Henry. We are also introduced to Libby Jones who was that defenceless little baby Serenity left in her cot once everyone else had escaped or died. She was adopted and had a loving home and has only just recently reconnected with her birth mother, Lucy. There's a story there, which unfolded in the first book but readers' memories are refreshed with the circumstances in this thrilling sequel.

And then there is Phineas. He was the god that Henry adored and aspired to. Since escaping 16 Cheyne Walk two decades ago, he has kept himself under the radar living a quiet life and doing what he loves. Yet when he gets wind of a planned family reunion, he panics and escapes yet again before they can track him down. But fragile and lonely Henry has other plans...to find Phin at all costs. But what does he have planned for the reunion he has in mind?

Yes, there is a lot going on in this book but each of the stories are connected and are expertly woven together with a skillful hand. The alternating timelines that go back and forth in the beginning may seem overwhelming but you soon pick up who is who and what is what. My only complaint with this is that with each chapter a header should have been included to indicate whose narrative it was as it wasn't always clear until a little way into the chapter. Only Samuel's was titled but I feel everyone else should have been also. Having said that, aside from Samuel, it is only Henry that has a first person voice with everyone else in the third person. It kind of made him seem a little more human or more of a villain...who knows? One is never quite sure what to expect with Henry. But after the childhood those children had to endure, it is not at all surprising.

I must note that I did find one aspect a little far fetched in that Lucy's son Marco took on the role of someone senior in years. I don't mean because of his upbringing but the way in which the conversation between he and Kris Doll in Chicago ensued - it was like two adults conversing when in fact Marco is only 11 years old. And Lucy sat back and let Marco lead the conversation in their attempts to track down the elusive Henry who had skipped town on the trail of the even more elusive Phineas. I just found it a little far fetched.

THE FAMILY REMAINS is not a mystery or thriller as such. Yes, there is a murder investigation as well as the death of Michael Rimmer in France woven into the story, it is more of a family drama with some loose ends that need tying up. What this book gives readers is the closure that "The Family Upstairs" didn't.

A dark and intense read, THE FAMILY REMAINS is compelling and addictive from the very first page and is bursting with trauma, abuse, murder, rape, blackmail as well as exceptional story-telling where every thread are expertly woven together. And above all, closure.

Lisa Jewell is an exceptional writer with her ability to weave clever twists into intricate plots with multiple timelines and THE FAMILY REMAINS simply shines in this regard. I was almost sad to leave them behind. And although this is the end of the line for these characters, I can still see another story blossoming at the end. But to do so would probably spoil the enigma so it is best left as it is.

I thoroughly enjoyed THE FAMILY REMAINS far more than I thought I would. I loved "The Family Upstairs" but this one was a little more diverse. Not better, just different.

I would like to thank #LisaJewell, #NetGalley and #CenturyPublishingUK for an ARC of #TheFamilyRemains in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.

She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.

She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.

She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and three pets. She claims to love the dog best.

Social Media links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

REVIEW: Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Genre: Psychological thriller

Read: 22nd January 2022

Goodreads

Amazon

Published: 6th August 2020

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

YOU DON'T SEE HER. BUT SHE SEES YOU.

MIDNIGHT. In the bad part of town, where cats prowl and foxes shriek, a girl is watching...

When Saffyre Maddox was ten, something terrible happened, and she's carried the pain of it ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn't, and now she hides and watches him, learning his secrets, invisible in the shadows.

Owen Pick is invisible too. He's never had a girlfriend; he's never even had a friend.

Nobody sees him. Nobody cares.

But when Saffyre goes missing from opposite his house on Valentine's Day, suddenly the whole world is looking at Owen.

Accusing him. Holding him responsible for Saffyre's disappearance...

INVISIBLE GIRL: an engrossing, twisty story of how we look in the wrong places for bad people while the real predators walk among us in plain sight.

MY REVIEW:

Despite it's gripping prologue that leaves you on the precipice of wanting more, what then played out I wasn't sure if I would enjoy INVISIBLE GIRL as much as Lisa Jewell's previous thrillers. But I should not have doubted because while I initially thought it a slow start the beginning was actually laying the foundations for a solid thriller that left readers questioning just what the hell was going on. I mean, seriously? And then just when you think you know what is going on, the shift changes again leaving your head spinning going...what the...?

While it is not my favourite that Lisa Jewell has penned - "Then She Was Gone" topped that list - it is a good solid thriller that will keep you guessing...even when you think you know how it is going to play out. But besides being a thriller, it is also a thought-provoking story of abuse, misogyny and sexual assault. The main players being: a suspicious wife, a dodgy husband, a creepy neighbour and a 17 year old girl who has thus gone missing. So what happened on that Valentine's night? Who is responsible for the missing girl's disappearance? Someone saw something, surely. Or someone isn't telling the truth.

Saffyre Maddox is not your typical teenager. She has no real friends, is not interested in boys and spends most of her time roaming the streets of a Hampstead village predominantly at night. She's the invisible girl no one sees. But when she was 10 years old she suffered something so traumatic it altered her perspective on life, on people, on everything. And so she self harms as a consequence. She received therapy from child psychologist Roan Fours for three years before he deemed her progress to be so improved she no longer needed him. But Roan had barely scratched the surface and Saffyre's issues were so deep-seated they remained unresolved. And in a bid to heal herself, she begins to stalk Roan and uncovers something she never expected to find. And then she disappears...

Cat Fours is a middle-aged middle class wife married to Roan with two teenage children - Georgia (15) and Josh (14). They are currently renting a flat in Hampstead while their own house in Kilburn is being restored. But despite her smiles, Cat isn't at all happy and, not for the first time, suspects Roan of having an affair. In fact, it's not even the first time he's had an affair. His behaviour is a little off coupled with the late nights and early starts and endless amounts of running he does, something just doesn't sit right. She thought, when looking for temporary premises, that Hampstead would be a nice quiet and exclusive place to live for the duration...until she hear the news of sexual assaults on women nearby. And when Georgia calls her one night on her way home from the Tube, scared that someone is following her, Cate fears for her daughter's safety whilst someone is out there targeting women.

Owen Pick is a non-descript man with no friends and is a 33 year old virgin. He has something of a sad family background, leaving him feeling awkward and out of step in social situations, and has lived with his aunt in Hampstead since he was eighteen. Things get even worse for him when his drink is spiked at a school disco he is chaperoning and he makes untoward advances and inappropriate comments to some of the students, and is thus suspended. Everyone thinks Owen is strange, weird, creepy even - the girls at school, the neighbours, a woman he inadvertently bumped into on his way home, even his aunt. And the girl across the road keeps giving him strange looks whilst he just stares blankly at her, wondering what it is he has done. And then things go from bad to worse for poor Owen when Saffyre goes missing and she was last seen outside his house.

How these people's lives intersect in this dark and somewhat disturbing tale unfolds through the eyes of Saffyre, Cate and Owen both before and after Valentine's night around which this story revolves. The narrative is dark and it is chilling and I had no idea who would come out of it unbroken...if at all. What is essentially highlighted in this book is not only the obvious but the vulnerability of people like Owen and how susceptible they are to predators of a different kind. I especially sympathised with Owen because he was so incredibly awkward around people, he even admitted that women terrified him, and yet he was in the frame for Saffyre's disappearance. But is he guilty? Or is it the work of the serial predator around the neighbourhood who has been assaulting women? Or something more sinister?

The other characters all have their redeeming and even less redeeming qualities but they each played a part in this disturbing thriller where no one is who they appear to be. Cate was a protective mother hen, suspicious of hubby Roan, who himself was decidedly dodgy anyway. Then there is son Josh who appears to be sweeter that sweet son but what is he really hiding? And Georgia's friend Tilly who claimed she was assaulted as she left their house and then retracted her assertion...is she telling the truth or hiding something? Everyone in this book, pretty much, is hiding something. Nobody is who they appear to be.

And then there is that ending...BAM! What the...?

Upon re-reading the last lines, I was like...Lisa Jewell, you have redeemed yourself with that ending!! And best of all, those short snappy chapters keep the pace moving along nicely even when it starts off slow. 

Perfect for fans of dark and twisted thrillers.

I would like to thank #LisaJewell, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #InvisibleGirl in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.

She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.

She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.

She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and three pets. She claims to love the dog best.

Social Media links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

REVIEW: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (ARC)

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Genre: Psychological thriller

Read: 13th August 2019

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(release date: 8th August 2019)

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Genre: Psychological thriller

Read: 14th August 2019

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42448034-the-family-upstairs

★★★★ 4.5 stars

UPDATED REVIEW!!

It's no secret that Lisa Jewell has gained notoriety within the thriller genre and most definitely within the publishing world in general. Her ability to mesmerise readers with intriguing plots and captivating storytelling makes her one of the most successful voices of the domestic thriller. So following the success of her previous bestsellers, she has set the bar pretty high with THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS and the hype leading up to its release. It was only natural that I anticipated a masterful tale complete with riddles and twists and complexities to keep me gripped right up to the end. So...what happened?

Imagine inheriting an eight bedroom property in the heart of Chelsea - an incredibly affluent area of London abundant with multi-million dollar homes. Would it change your life? 

Libby has always known she was adopted and upon turning 25 she had always expected to receive a token of some kind from the trust of her biological parents. She did expect this. Upon receiving notification of her bequest she is shocked to discover that she has inherited the massive house - 16 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea - that once belonged to her parents. A house that is shrouded with a mysterious and tragic history. Libby had no idea just what she would discover when she opened the door to the dilapidated boarded up old house. Within its walls are the secrets it holds and has never told.

When Libby was 10 months old - known then as Serenity - she was found alone in her cot in the upstairs room of the Chelsea mansion. Her parents - Henry and Martina Lamb - were found dead and decomposing, an apparent suicide with apparent links to a cult. Her brother and sister, Henry and Lucy, were nowhere to be found. Nor were any other members of the household living there at the time.

Lucy is a single mother with two children to different fathers - Marco and Stella - and a dog, Fitz. She lives hand to mouth in the south of France, sleeping in doorways and under motorway bridges. But life hasn't always been this way. She was once the daughter of a wealthy family and lived in a beautiful mansion in Chelsea with her brother Henry and their parents - Henry and Martina Lamb.

Henry is a budding sociopath, somewhat quirky, and maybe a little crazy. But deep within him is something just a little off. Maybe his brain is wired differently because while he can appear charming and attractive at times there is a darker side of him that you don't want to mess with. And is everything as it appears? Was he a victim of circumstance? Or is there more to the story that he has neglected to share with us? 

Between them - Libby, Lucy and Henry - they are the three voices of this somewhat twisted tale of complexities. In typical dual timeline fashion, the story unravels in the past and present, manipulating the reader in classic Jewell modus operandi. 

Lucy's story is a painful one which she keeps locked firmly in the past but it is clear from the start, that whatever happened within those walls all those years ago, have made a huge impact on the woman she is today. And slowly but surely, through hand to mouth and perseverance, she finally makes it back to England with one goal in mind. The baby is 25. 

Henry is a little different. From the moment David and Sally Thomsen took up residence with Birdie and Justin in their house, along with their children Phineas and Clemency, Henry has felt a burning attraction to Phin, despite being only 11 years old at the time. He is obsessed with him, watches him, emulates him; wants to be like him. And one night, he becomes Phin. But despite his odd tendancies, it is through Henry we see what is really happening at 16 Cheyne Walk. It is through Henry's eyes, you get a real sense of what life was like for the children within that house. And while you may not connect with him, you do feel for him and the others.

When Libby inherits 16 Cheyne Walk, she fully intends to sell it. What does she need with a huge mansion in Chelsea with all those rooms and no one to fill it? But before she does, she wants to know what happened there. She wants to uncover its secrets and learn what truly happened to her parents on that night 24 years ago and what happened to her brothers and sisters. She teams up with Miller Roe, who originally covered a story about the house and what happened within its walls, as they begin their search for the truth. Little did she know, that delving into such secrets would result in uncovering even worse secrets that had been buried even longer than she had been alive. 

Now I had begun reading this book when I had heard it involved animal abuse, and while I can tolerate abuse of almost every other kind, I cannot stomach the abuse, torture or painful deaths of animals in graphic detail - especially dogs. I got five chapters in, had met Fitz the dog, and before long I was envisioning him meeting an untimely torturous end. When I posted my original review on Twitter, tagging and apologising Lisa Jewell, she contacted me and was saddened I felt I couldn't continue the book based on what I had been advised about animal abuse. She then went on to tell me the exact nature of the "animal's demise" and assured me that is as graphic as it was. 

So feeling somewhat relieved after speaking with the author herself, I decided to give it another and picked it up from where I left off. I soon became completely encapsulated within the story and didn't want to leave. And when I did reach the point of the said animal's demise, I found it featured very very briefly in the story - no more than half a dozen lines - and that it wasn't graphic at all, as it was really only mentioned in passing. I was also relieved to discover that Fitz made the journey to England with Lucy and the children, and remained alive and well throughout. I don't believe I am giving away any spoilers when I say that.

Needless to say, I was so glad that I decided to give THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS another go, and boy, was I ever!! The entire tale was enthralling, psychological, twisted and creepy. There are many twisted characters in this book - some of whom you will love to hate! And one of which will remain with me for some time to come for his complete need for control of everyone, whilst reaping everything for himself. He so got under my skin and will remain there for some time to come.

THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is a creepy and disturbing tale with that ominous and atmospheric feel that encompasses the reader completely. For me, I found that it was a completely different tale than one of which Jewell has delivered in the past.

Lisa Jewell is a master storyteller and her tales are always encapsulating - claustrophobically so - but intriguing. And THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is no different...except that it feels even more claustrophobic given the direction of the storyline. But don't take my word for it - grab a copy yourself and jump right in! You won't be sorry...

I would like to thank #LisaJewell, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK and #Cornerstone for an ARC of #TheFamilyUpstairs in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Read: 26th May 2018

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

★★★★★ 5 stars

I really don't know what else I can say about this book that hasn't already been said. It is a fantastic psychological thriller. Brilliant. Heart-stopping. And yet sad. 

Ellie is 15 years old when she disappears on her way to the library one day, and thus begins a frantic search for her - to no avail. Ten years later, there is still no clues as to her whereabouts and what exactly happened to her. Though it became fairly obvious early on what happened - or rather, where she disappeared to - it is from then on we get the slow unravel of WHY? As the book is told from various perspectives - from third to first and then back to third person again - we begin to form a picture...but not until Laurel meets Floyd and his 9 year old daughter Poppy. Pretty soon after that I suspected what had happened, but without the finer details at this point which all began to fall into place the further I read on.

This book delves into the life of a family torn apart by the disappearance and/or death of a child/sibling and just how it affects and changes the family dynamics. Laurel pretty much loses her family, what is left of it, as she falls apart in the wake of Ellie's disappearance. She stops being a mother and a wife and merely becomes a shell of a person who can't function without her daughter - the apple of everyone's eye. To see a parent react like to just one of their childrens' disappearance it must be so devastating to the remaining children and the spouse to witness the affect it has on them - kind of making them feel somewhat less important. I mean, in Laurel's dialogue in the book she even secretly says to herself of her eldest daughter "It should have been you, not Ellie." I mean, she didn't have to say it out loud, I'm sure Hanna felt those vibes off of her mother - and that would have been incredibly devastating to feel that your mother loved your sister more and wish it had been you and not her that disappeared. That's cold. While I couldn't really warm to Hanna (as the perspective we got of her was really Laurel's) I could feel her pain at having lived through that. Is is any wonder she had closed herself off from her mother. Within 3 years of Ellie's disappearance, Laurel's family had fallen apart. Her remaining children both moved out of home, putting enough distance between them and her, and she and her husband divorced. By 10 years later, from all accounts, Laurel was pretty much a lonely person. But instead of falling back on her family and them sticking together through such a devastating ordeal, she turned her backs on them as if she were the only one feeling the loss because she was her mother; she had given birth to her. But that didn't make their pain any less real. The dynamics explored here were both revealing and painful.

In the early days of Ellie's disappearance, I began to wonder and suspect. Then when my suspicions were confirmed and then 10 years later Laurel meets Floyd and Poppy -a light bulb goes off in my head and I think "THAT'S IT!" I began turning the pages as quick as I could read them to reach the point where my further suspicions were confirmed and it is then we learnt the finer details of Ellie's disappearance.

The ending? I loved the Epilogue. That was a wonderful finish. Even after all that had happened to her, Ellie got the last word. She got to tell what was essentially HER STORY.

This is my first Lisa Jewel book and it sure won't be my last. A brilliant read. A must for fans of this genre!