Spoiler-Free Review: Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey Date Started - 3/1/2018 Date Finished - 27/1/2018 Genre(s) - Contemporary, Mystery Synopsis: A mystery, an unsolved crime and one of the most unforgettable characters since Mark Haddon's Christopher. Meet Maud ... 'Elizabeth is missing' reads the note in Maud's pocket in her own handwriting, and the one on the wall. Maud's been getting forgetful.= She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she's made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey, years back, just after the war. A fast-paced mystery, an unforgettable voice: you will laugh and cry but you'll never forget Maud. I brought this book back in 2015 and it's been sat on my TBR shelf ever since. There's been a couple of times where I thought about picking it up, but there was always something else that was more appealing. I never tend to read adult fiction, let alone mysteries, so this was something quite different for me and I think that's why I put it off for so long. With a new year just starting, I decided to bite the bullet and finally start it.
In Elizabeth Is Missing, Maud the main character had dementia and I have never read about a character with this before, so I was quite interested to see how tis would work out. I think the condition was explored well in the book and you really got to see the effects it had on Maud's life as well as her families'. There was confusion and repetition in the story to show her condition, but I feel it was taken too far at times and it effected the pace of the story. It felt that the story was going nowhere and it was getting too repetitive that I ended up struggling and sorting of forcing myself to read it, chapter by chapter. I enjoyed the mix of the two mysteries, Sukey and Elizabeth and the past and present changes as Maud remembered or reflected on different memories. The inclusion of Maud's family in the story was quite important and I thought that the way Emma showed the different characters and their feelings worked really well. For example, Maud's daughter Helen showed her frustration at Maud's confusing, but it also showed a caring side as she tried to sympathise with her mothers' condition. As I finished the books, I felt that there were so many characters and side-stories that we never got to get an ending to. In some ways this worked well, but then there were pages wasted talking about someone or something that didn't matter in the final outcome. I found that after finishing, I was left confused as to what had happened. I understand the ending is meant to be left slightly open as Maud herself would see it, but I think it was rushed a bit and parts just weren't clear enough. I felt that I wasted so much time pushing through the main portion of the book to have the ending rushed. I loved the idea of the story and went in with quite high expectations, but found it just sort of fell and disappointed me. I am glad I gave it a go as it did highlight dementia and its importance. I think it had a lot of potential within the storyline, but I just found it quite difficult to get into and for the story to start moving. Overall, I'm glad I gave it a go and it's encouraged me to go out and read some more mysteries. Rate - 2.5/5 If you've read Elizabeth Is Missing, let me know your thoughts in the comments as I'd be interested to see what some other readers thought. Also, make sure to leave any mystery or thriller suggestions in the comments as well, so I can try some out. BYE! GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24179216-elizabeth-is-missing BD - https://www.bookdepository.com/Elizabeth-is-Missing/9780241968185
2 Comments
8/27/2019 11:43:31 am
aww it's a shame that you didn't like it all that much. I've been wanting to read this for a while but never been too sure whether I'd like it :)
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AuthorHello and welcome to Books With Beth! I'm Beth and on this blog I share a mix of all my bookish thoughts through reviews, book tours and hauls. Have fun! Categories
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