Penguin Books Australia Blog Tour Stop – Book Review: The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

Published in Australia on the 20th July, 2021 by Century, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Add The Night She Disappeared to her Goodreads TBR:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55922299-the-night-she-disappeared

Purchase Links:

Booktopia:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-night-she-disappeared-lisa-jewell/book/9781529125788.html

Angus & Robertson:

http://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/the-night-she-disappeared-lisa-jewell/p/9781529125788

Dymocks:

https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/the-night-she-disappeared-by-lisa-jewell-9781529125788

Amazon AU:

Format: Trade Paperback

Australian RRP: $32.99

ISBN: 9781529125788

Genre: Crime Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense Fiction.

Page Count: 480

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sypnosis from Penguin Books Australia –

“Mum, there’s some people here from college, they asked me back to theirs. Just for an hour or so. Is that OK?”

Midsummer 2017: teenage mum Tallulah heads out on a date, leaving her baby son at home with her mother, Kim.

At 11pm she sends her mum a text message. At 4.30am Kim awakens to discover that Tallulah has not come home

Friends tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a pool party at a house in the woods nearby called Dark Place

Tallulah never returns.

2018: walking in the woods behind the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started as a head-teacher, Sophie sees a sign nailed to a fence.

A sign that says: DIG HERE . . .

A cold case. An abandoned mansion. A family hiding a terrible secret.
Prepare to be hooked. Lisa Jewell’s latest thriller is her best yet.

My Review:

A huge, huge thank you to the fabulous team at Penguin Books Australia for having me on the review tour for this wonderfully wicked Thriller, easily one of my favourites this year! Also, thank you for sending me a gifted review copy to read and review as part of the blog tour, all thoughts are my own.

So, as I often like to do, I started this new Thriller right before I went to sleep, which is never a good idea if one’s hoping for a decent night sleep, because once I started The Night She Disappeared, I didn’t want to put it down! Even though I felt my eyes getting sleepy, it’s like nope, one more chapter, then 100 pages later…

Needless to say, this book absolutely had me hooked! Goodness gracious, it was so dark, gritty and disturbing and all kinds of compelling! Instantly, I was drawn in to that absolutely terrifying prologue, describing arachnophobia, with someone confined to the dark, just, goodness, so chilling! The scene was set right away for an absolutely bone chilling read!

From quite early on in The Night She Disappeared, I felt like I’d stumbled upon my new favourite Thriller! I’d so been looking forward to this book, having absolutely loved Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs and this latest gem absolutely did not disappoint! Having practically binged it across three sittings, I feel the slight throes of a book hangover coming on, because wow, oh wow!

Lisa Jewell weaves time jumps so freaking brilliantly, swinging the reader into the past with Tallulah, into the present with Sophie, and in between with Kim! I absolutely loved every one of these characters narrations, Kim especially really tugs at your heartstrings, as she’s the Mother of Tallulah, who’s been looking after her missing Daughters’ young son, not knowing what happened to Tallulah and having to try and cope with the fact that Police had filed away Tallulah and Zach as a cold case, yet she knew that her Daughter loves Noah (her son) more than anything and wouldn’t leave him! I found myself absolutely engaged with what was to come next and I definitely found that I couldn’t predict a single thing that was to be revealed!

Let’s talk about the characters though, because I can tell you what I did know, or at least what I had a strong haunch about – that Zach was a questionable character! I mean, he absolutely loved his and Lula’s son, yes, but goodness me there was definitely an intensity about him! Not wanting to go into the intricities of the story, but I definitely couldn’t tell what would come as far as his character! Did he have a part to play in Tallulah’s disappearance? Did he meet a grizzly end? I just didn’t know!

As I type, I’m still mulling over Scarlett’s character, like, what even?! I find myself pondering her motives and agenda throughout, I mean, she’s spoilt, entitled, privileged…yet, felt unloved by both her parents, finding the need to enclose people in her orbit when it suited her, manipulating them to her needs. Yet, what happened to her and her family?! What did she do?! What about the strange TM tattoo that adorned her perfectly pedicured toes, doubly why did she find the need to hide it from Kim?!

Questions, questions, questions! Trust me when I say you do not want to miss The Night She Disappeared, I cannot assure you enough that it will have you so strongly captivated and enthralled and you’ll be pondering what happened to Tallulah and Zach (but namely Tallulah!) – I cannot tell you enough how many times I was hoping, hoping that we’d read a tearful reunion between her, Noah, Ryan (Tallulah’s Brother) and Kim, it’s a Mother’s unwavering love for her missing Daughter and her desperation to find her that really added to the emotional depth within The Night She Disappeared, quite simply put, my favourite Thriller novel, actually, I cannot wait to recommend it to everyone, it’s a complete must read and I absolutely cannot wait to read Lisa Jewell’s other books!!

Happy Reading,