The Night She Disappeared - Lisa Jewell
So I'm kind of a unrepentant Lisa Jewell enjoyer - I've read a good chunk of her books, I think Then She Was Gone (the first of her books that I've read) or None Of This Is True are likely my favourite of what I've read so far. I want to say that I liked this book with some critiques though.
As always I think Lisa Jewell has a real talent for writing page-turners, I ended up finishing this in two days because I have a hard time putting her stuff down once I start. I think that she's great at capturing regular people and the little intricacies that come from relationships, particularly between mothers and daughters. She just comes up with randomly unhinged, borderline Gothic shit??? I generally just really enjoy how bizarre and out there a lot of the plot elements to her thrillers have; particularly her villains. I'll admit that a good way into the book, I already drew some conculsions on what happened - I guessed that Liam killed the man who attacked Scarlette, I guessed that Zach was killed in the house and hidden + Tallulah was alive; but that didn't impact my good time.
So generally I was just vibing and having a good time because I'm already a fan. I really enjoyed Tallulah as a character, I felt it was really easy to care about her and empathize with her. Her mother Kim was also heart-breaking to see from the perspective of - I felt like a lot of the background on why she wanted her and Zach to thrive was easy and believable to understand. Probably my favourite parts were those that involved Tallulah's perspective or Kim's. I didn't have any problems with the alternate timelines because it's a pretty common trope for Jewell.
One thing that I will say from a Lisa Jewell fan perspective:
Spoilers for Then She Was Gone
That book and this book have a lot of similar plot beats. Between the missing daughter, the mother trying hard to find her while agonizing and the underground hidden place where she was kept for a time? Idk this feels like a less good Then She Was Gone?
But this book really has more problems than the average Jewell book to me - I feel like in this case there was far too many spinning plates that didn't allow much explanation on things that could have used a bit more information? I really did not like Sophie or her story. Mystery/Thriller Writers involving themselves in real crime is one of my least favourite tropes, genuinely gives me the ick so I was already kinda like ughh when it was decided that this was the route we were going.
I just thought she was...bland? And I didn't care about her or what was going on with her boyfriend? Why did her relationship go to shit in seconds after moving? Like comically fast? Why did she not notice immediately that the 'dig here' thing was a plot point from one of her own books? That shit was stupid and it definitely knocked some enjoyment off for me.
I don't know how to feel about Scarlett, on one hand, the fact that she was difficult to read was interesting and evocative but the strange summary of "she didn't know how to love right because she was never shown" feels reductive?
Why did Scarlett's mother immediately jump onto the "hide a murder and hostage a random person" for her daughter plan? We had two scenes with this character and I have no idea why she jumped to the absolute extreme to help Scarlett out? I guess it's more juxtaposition against Kim but she uprooted with her son too? They all just were on board with taking Tallulah? Also why didn't Tallulah just straight up say to her lovely mum "yo Zach is actually being controlling and possessive, I don't want to be with him"? Especially to protect her baby? She even mentioned that her mother wouldn't care about her being gay?
Also you cannot burn bones with just fire :cringe: Though I'm glad that Liam got his revenge in the epilogue, I did genuinely feel bad for him basically for the whole book. I mean they gave him BUBES AS A NICKNAME.
I'm not sure what to make of the police either? Especially if there was talk about the weird tunnels?
"What's this about weird tunnels under your house?"
"Idk lol"
"Oh ok then"
Was that all??? I'm fairly sure that for the investigation into a missing mother they would turn the place that they were last seen over? They apparently searched the woods surrounding the house over and over but they couldn't get clearance to pull up floor boards?
It's a 3.75 ⭐ for me, I did genuinely have a good time, it's just the few little things that bothered me.
