The Night She Disappeared

By: Lisa Jewell

“Her life was perfect. But it was matte, not gloss.”

Tallulah and Zach were young parents to baby Noah. They lived with Tallulah’s mother, Kim, and her brother Ryan. Their relationship hadn’t always been easy, but Zach had decided to take Tallulah out for a nice dinner where he was going to propose. During dinner, Tallulah texted her mother to let her know that she and Zach were going over to a friend’s house.

Tallulah and Zach never returned. Kim spent the next year and a half trying to figure out what happened to them, and where exactly they were.

Fast forward and meet Sophie, a novelist of a detective series who moves from London to the countryside with her boyfriend, Shaun, who had become the head teacher at a prestigous school. Sophie has a hard time settling in to continue writing her next novel. She sees a sign outside in her garden that says “Dig here.” She finds a clue to Tallulah and Zach’s disapperance. The investigation into finding out what happened to Tallulah and Zach reignites.

The beginning of the book pulled me in. However, I think now after having read three of Lisa Jewell’s books that she may not be the author for me.

At first, there are three different timelines occurring until two of them meet up and becomes one. It was honestly very confusing for me to keep track of the three timelines. Once it went down to two timelines, I was no longer confused. However, is this how every author writes now? One chapter in the present, the next in the past, then the present, then the past? I’m getting sick and tired tired of reading books like this!

The book seemed very long and drawn out for no reason. If they had stuck to only two timelines in the beginning and then narrowing it down to one, maybe it wouldn’t have been so boring in the middle! It just felt so slow.

The characters did feel fully developed, I was never left wanting to know more about a specific character. The author did a great job of keeping Scarlett mysterious – you could never figure out when she was being authentic.

Overall, it was just “eh” for me.

But if you like to read Lisa Jewell books, you can find it here.