Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

 

This book was gripping. It had me going from beginning to the end. I didn't see the end coming. This was a 5 star read, until towards the end when we find out one of the characters was impregnated with a turkey baster basically. So I'm like, yeah, of course I didn't see that coming. I don't even know if that's possible. So I took off a star. If you could bypass that, then this was a fun book.

Then She Was Gone is about a high school girl Ellie's disappearance. It's been 10 years and there's been no leads. Ellie's mother Laurel still can't live a normal life due to it, and has a bad relationship with her remaining kids, Hannah and Jake because of this. Her husband Paul also filed for divorce for the same reason. Laurel meets a man named Floyd, who flirts with her and seems to be a nice guy. They start dating. This brings some liveliness to Laurel's life combined with the discovery of Ellie's remains, she's more ready to move on with her life, and she mends her relationship with her other kids, her mom and her ex-husband. She learns that Floyd has a daughter, Poppy. But Poppy looks awfully similar to Ellie. She then finds out that Floyd's ex, Noelle who is Poppy's mother, is also missing. She realizes Noelle was Ellie's math tutor. This part of the book is very exciting because at this point, we aren't sure if Floyd is the bad guy! We are nervous every time Laurel goes to Floyd because we are afraid something bad might happen! Laurel knows this too and sometimes considers not going there but she clearly likes Floyd very much. (Spoiler alert: Floyd had been studying Paul's mannerisms and styles to win Laurel over.) Thinking it can't all be a coincidence, Laurel believes Noelle's missing person case is related to Ellie's. Laurel goes to Noelle's old home and finds mysterious cages in the basement and 3 locks on the basement door. We find out what really happened. Noelle was obsessed with Floyd, who wanted to leave her. She kept trying to trap him by getting pregnant, but she kept miscarrying. She abducted Ellie and kept her in the basement, then bought some donor sperm from the internet, drugged her, and got her pregnant with a turkey baster. She kept Ellie in the basement, with some cages full of hamsters for her to take care of as the only form of entertainment. Ellie gave birth and got postpartum infection. Instead of taking care of her, Noelle locked the basement door and never bothered to check on her until way too late. She presented the baby to Floyd, but Floyd still doesn't want to be with her. They got into a big fight, and Noelle told Floyd the truth, that he's not the father and Ellie is the mother. Floyd in a fit of rage, kills Noelle. Floyd loves the little girl, raising Poppy as his own and eventually starts searching for Ellie's mother. At the end of the book, Floyd gives Laurel a taped confession and tells her everything, and leaves Poppy with her. He also told her he truly loved her. He kills himself.