too cliche, such a shame

And Then You Were Gone – R.J. Jacobs

Mystery, thriller, fiction.

Rating 4/10

Emily and her boyfriend Paolo go on a fishing trip together. They are happily enjoying their day but the next day he goes missing. His remains are not found, and he is claimed as dead. She mourns the loss and moves onward with her life. Later on, Paolo is found to be alive but the circumstances of his disappearance don’t make sense. Until he tells her some shocking news that alerts her that her life is in danger. He tried to warn her subtly, but she had to learn the hard way.

The idea of the novel and the synopsis caught my attention but after reading the first hundred pages, felt like a copy and paste cliché. This novel was too cliché and not even with a fresh twist. The whole disappearance because lives are in danger scenario has been overdone. I didn’t bother finish reading because I predicted the outcome because I am all too familiar with this cliché. I was satisfyingly right but disappointed in this novel.

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Hidden Evil

Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell

Contemporary women, suspense, family life, fiction

Rating 8/10

Laurel Mack loved her daughter, Ellie, who was bright and smart. Suddenly one day, she becomes missing. Laurel had the police keep an ongoing investigation to look for any evidence to see if Ellie was alive. Numerous incidences give hints to her daughter being alive and or presumed dead. The police contact Laurel and tell her that they found remains of her daughter, signs of a horrific death. This news puts Laurel into shock and depression of the worst kind. Laurel slowly moves on by dating this guy she met, Floyd, at the coffee shop. Both chat and he told her about his kids, and she tells him about her kids. When she comes over to his house, Laurel sees Poppy, who looks like her daughter who was gone. After some consideration and sudden realization, she sees the dark and ugly truth.

I grabbed this book from the shelf because I saw online that this novel was popular. I see a little why this novel was popular or is popular. Horror and suspense are always a good read but throw in some mad women and kidnapping, it’s a bestseller. Not that I hated this book, I enjoyed the novel. I personally thought the novel’s length could be longer and more in-depth with each character’s backgrounds. Yes, this was Laurel’s tale, but the author included other points of view that, at first, didn’t make sense of whom was telling the story until there was contextual clues that the perspective changed. Otherwise, this was a great book and I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the suspense fiction genre.