The Missing Person's Guide to Love

by Susanna Jones

A haunting tale of a woman revisiting her past, with shattering consequences Isabel, Owen, and Julia were childhood friends. But when they were 15, Julia disappeared without a trace—an event that had a devastating impact on the others. Years later, Isabel returns to her hometown in the north of England for Owen’s funeral. She hadn't seen him since they recklessly burned down the local supermarket together; he was sent to prison and she, just shy of her 18th birthday, to a young offenders' center. Isabel suspects that Owen was responsible for Julia’s murder, and she’s hoping finally to find some kind of resolution. Feeling cut off from her husband and child in Turkey, and awash with unexpected memories, Isabel ventures further into the murky depths of her past. But nothing is as it seems—either past or present—and as Isabel’s world unravels we finally realize the stunning, shattering truth.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Thriller

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

"Susanna Jones was born in Hull in 1967 and grew up in Hornsea in East Yorkshire. She studied drama at Royal Holloway, University of London and then spent several years abroad, including two years in Turkey and five years in Japan. She taught English in secondary schools, language schools, a steel corporation and worked as an assistant editor and presenter for NHK Radio.

In 1996 she studied for an MA in Novel Writing at the University of Manchester and now lectures in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She lives in Brighton where she is a co-creator of The Brighton Moment.

Her work has been translated into over twenty languages and has won the CWA John Creasey Dagger, a Betty Trask Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize." (susanna-jones.com)

Reviews

[Mary Lou · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes there is only a very thin line between mysterious and ethereal or simply irritating

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

After enjoying two other books by Susanna Jones - her debut The Earthquake Bird, and her most recent When Nights Were Cold, the latter being one of my favourites of 2012 - I was keen to read more by the author and bought a cheap copy of this, her third novel, on eBay. The Missing Person's Guide To Love (an unnecessarily twee title in my opinion) is about Isabel, a woman who returns to her home town for the funeral of her former friend Owen. Both Isabel and Owen left the town in dubious circumstances following the disappearance of their friend Julia, and in the intervening years Isabel has become convinced that Owen was responsible for Julia going missing; that he may even have murdered her. Though Isabel now lives in Istanbul and is initially reluctant to return to her former home, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea that she must uncover the truth about what happened to Julia, leading her on a dreamlike journey through past and present.

I loved the way the story was written from the first page: I was fascinated by Isabel and immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding Julia. The wonderfully realised setting brought to mind a line from the blurb for Jenn Ashworth's Cold Light, referring to how that book brought a 'surreal edge to its portrait of a northern town' - I actually think Jones achieves this far more successfully here. The town is both instantly, horribly recognisable and disarmingly surreal. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement - the plot is incredibly compulsive and the fact that it progresses oddly is all part of the appeal.

However, there is a significant problem with this book: the ending makes very little sense. A lot of spoiler-laden questions will ensue under the spoiler tag as I am CONFUSED. My understanding of the ending was originally that Julia ran away to Maggie's home, and Maggie gave her a new identity, Leila - who Isabel always believed to be an imaginary character. A short time afterwards, Isabel attempted suicide, and Maggie took her in also, encouraging her to live the life 'Leila' might have had so that she could spread her wings and become more bold. But if this was the case, I still thought a lot of the story made little sense. I didn't understand what role Mete and Elif played in this - was Maggie trying to say that they were the same husband and child that Julia/Leila had? That would fit in with the fact that Isabel couldn't remember how she met Mete, but how could it possibly make sense when Mete was sending her text messages and she had clear memories of their life together? How could Maggie have 'given' Julia/Leila's idenity to Isabel, and why did she keep saying that Isabel had actually died? I guess the implication was that Maggie had somehow faked Isabel's death to get her parents out of the picture, but HOW, without a body/funeral?? How could Julia have left the country without being found or recognised when she was only a teenager and would have needed her passport etc? What about when Isabel left the guest house and looked back to find it was where she used to live - was this supposed to mean her parents' old home had been turned into a guest house and she'd chosen it for this reason, or that she was staying in her old home and had totally imagined the guest house part, or WHAT? Was Isabel mad? Was Maggie? Was Isabel just lying to the reader throughout? Was Isabel a ghost?!

The above paragraph consists of my own thoughts directly after finishing the book: after Googling it and reading through some comment threads, it actually seems the most likely explanation is that Isabel and Julia were both fictional characters created by Maggie, and never existed outside her head - or alternatively, Maggie actually has multiple personality disorder. I find this theory very frustrating as, if true, it kind of negates the point of the whole book. It does make sense of a lot of things, particularly the last couple of pages, but at the same time it's such an absolute cop-out that it might as well be one of those 'they woke up and it was all a dream' endings! As much as I enjoyed reading this story, I can't give it any more than three stars because I found the ending so unsatisfying. I adored the style, of course, and the plot had so much promise, but the conclusion let it all down.

[Yvann S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Summary: Isabel returns to the moors of England for a schoolfriend’s funeral. The disappearance of her best friend aged 15 has never been resolved, but she has always suspected the dead man. Isabel now lives in Turkey with a husband and a toddler. Can she solve the decade-old mystery on a quick trip home?

This was a perfectly pleasant read until the ending at which the mystery was revealed… in a pretty pedestrian manner. It seems as though the author got to the end with all sorts of issues unresolved and decided to solve the mystery and throw in a twist and tie everything up in the space of 4 pages. Not happy at all with the ending (feels like a really cheap ending to a well-sustained mystery).

The main body of the book was all right – I liked the Turkish influence, and Jones describes the stifling town of the English countryside well – very few stay behind, and those who leave might as well be dead as far as the residents are concerned. Of course there’s an eccentric aunt who lives in London – I rather liked her. The mystery was sustained, although not really developed (the girl goes missing near the start of the book, all the motives and potential attackers are laid out almost straight away, and then there are no further developments for ages), for the whole book.

Not worth the time.

[Zanna Hugo · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a plot that started out so promising and had me hanging on every word, the one word that comes to mind upon completing this book is CONFUSED!

Honestly, I was about to recommend this book to a friend up until ten pages from the end and then it all just fell horribly flat...like a cake in an oven that was opened too soon.

Still. Breathtaking writing and a wonderful knack suspense. Just a pity about that unsatisfying ending. 😞

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. It is a very clever and well written book, which keeps you thinking and guessing right to the very end.

I only realised part-way thru reading it, that I had read the book years ago. The cover of the book is just beautiful and really appeals, hence the desire to pick it up again.

I would highly recommend it.

Am now going to try more of this author's books.

[Kate Reid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was just barely holding on to the story as I read as it was quite confusing with changing timelines etc- but the ending just absolutely ruined all the curiosity I had about what happened to the missing girl!

[LLA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Met veel zin aan dit boek begonnen maar helaas sloeg de nieuwsgierigheid al snel om in teleurstelling of zelfs irritatie. De flashbacks en flashforwards volgen elkaar in sneltempo op. Ook het warrige brein en de bijzonder vreemde interacties maken dat dit boek geen aanrader is.

[Angela Avison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book until the ending. The ending made the rest of the book no longer make any sense.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent and cleverly written story but the last 20 pages fell flat with lots of new ideas that were poorly thought out .

[Key · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing

[Rebecka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite disappointing after Earthquake Bird. I knew something was up, and that the story as is couldn't be "it", but, hmm, no, it didn't quite work. Plus, everyone was just so weird.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an absolute quirky little book! I wish I could recall where or where I picked this paperback up. I discovered it on my bookshelves when looking for a book to jam in my pocket for a recent vaation. The cover though not striking in itself, somehow drew me in. I loved the title and liked that it was about a missing girl, 15 year old Julia, who vanishes without a trace. Her childhood friend Isabel has never given up hope of finding out just what happened to Julia. Many years go by and Isabel returns home for the funeral of another school chum, Owe. Isabel is determined to find the answer to Julia's disappearance once and for all.

The story is mostly told from Isabel's pov and can be hard to follow as time shifts from present to past and back yet again. Perhaps it was not the best book for a vacation where my concentration was distracted. I found myself lost at time and re-reading passages more than once.

All in all The Missing Person's Guide to Love was satisfying enough and it took me quite some time to figure out the what, as in "what is going on".

The cover has a promotion from Elle stating "Exquisitely written yet utterly chilling, this will keep you gripped from start to finish; a potential book-group classic". I'm not certain I quite agree but certainly, see for yourself.

[Bibi Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I realize I have always been able to know what happened to Julia."

My sense of the "solution" to this mystery is similar to that of a few other readers: the characters are characters in a book by Maggie, or in early drafts of such a book. Section iv is a chapter written by Maggie and I think that is where the reader is supposed to begin catching on. This is not a Gone Girl type of twist; more like the one in Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills.

On one level I understand why people were irritated by the book. Section iv gave me a moment of "WTF, have I really not been reading this book closely?" And the way it played out with stuff about Julia's height vs Isabel's and so on seemed kind of unnecessary. But I loved the moment that was being described-- having to return to a place and a time that was "sad for you" as one character put it and confronting the different ways that people viewed it. That felt real to me despite any revelation that the characters were characters in another character's book, and that some were only alternates of others, discarded along the way to creating a very (in my mind, and judging from the brief summary) inferior book . (The one by Maggie, I mean.)

I really wish that Jones had written more books.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I liked about this book was that it was British and it was a homecoming story. There's nothing like a funeral to pull people together. In this case, the funeral brings back memories of the mysterious disappearance of Julia Smith, the best friend of Owen (who's funeral is happening) and Isabel. Isabel has come back in from her new life in Turkey to dig around and try to find out what really happened to Julia. Intertwined with her Aunt Maggie's thoughts, the book moves along at a reasonable pace. What I loved was the ending. Even though I was kind of expecting it, it still confirmed and didn't leave loose ends. So if you're into mysteries it's a good one. And if you're not into mysteries (and I'm really not) it's a pretty light one.

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read the last chapters twice and still did not get it! Now, I am quite prepared to accept that the fault could be mine. I found it pretty convoluted and perhaps I've just missed it. The point is, however, that much of the story lacks substance and a lot of narrative is meaningless. There is just no call for describing the whole business of putting a kettle on to boil. Team that with a lass dressed rather nicely for a funeral, in her high heels and all, spending a whole day and taking up three quarters of the book trudging around a muddy lake, rowing across it... going to the funeral... indulging in detective work and interviewing locals... digging up a muddy allotment (once wiping mud off high heeled shoe). Oh, No. I've said too much already. But, as I said, it could just be me.

[Firipa · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a confusing structure. The story keeps jumping in time, recent past, past and present with out any clear order, making the reading not so enjoyable. The story in itself was alright, but minus a few details, I could guess what it was coming and it didn't make much sense out of the book.
Overall it was an alright book, the best being the well developped characters, but unless you decide to read it by yourself, I wouldn't recommend it...

[Arlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Left me with lots of unanswered questions

...1. who was the leila who was staying with isabel's husband in turkey?
2. if everyone is hugging isabel, she can't be a ghost, can she?
3. if isabel is really julia, why doesn't anyone recognize her?
4. if maggie has multiple personality disorder, why do people recognize "her" as the other characters?
5. if maggie is all the lead characters, how do all the characters interact with each other?

[Nirmala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I finished the book it left me wondering what had just happened. Who was dead and who was alive and who was the narrator.

I found that the beginning was very promising and I am not so sure about the ending. But I think I may have to re-read this one, to a form any real opinion about this book.

[Vivienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that on the initial reading I felt somewhat perplexed by the book but found that once I had given it a couple of days and then returned to reread a few key chapters that it fell into place.

A remarkable almost dream-like narrative.

[sisterimapoet · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fell a bit flat for me. Perhaps I've read too many child disappearance stories that I'm getting picky. It felt muddled. As if it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. And the twist was a bit of a whimper rather than a whoop when it came.

[Mew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely tale, interesting characters and storyline. The people seemed real and the situations were familiar. However, it was let down by the end which seemed flimsy and left me feeling perplexed.

[Maria]

It's a very unusual novel, and it is quite spooky to read, which I enjoyed. I think the ending was meant to be interpreted more deeply, but I thought it was odd & a bit of an anti-climax. I'd recommend it just for the strange reading experience.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm rather torn. I loved it at first when I thought it was a mystery, then as it went on I didn't like the twist.

Overall, it was a let down for me, but I'm glad I finally read it as it has been around my apartment for ages!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, well-written with an ending I never expected. Like 'Earthquake Bird' this book scares a little and thrills a lot.

[Lorna DH · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew and then I knew again.

[bex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember being very moved by this book even though it is a few weeks ago that I read it.

It was a little unusual--not what I expected towards the end--but very well-written and emotional.

[Natasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely bizarre! I found the prose forced and there were so many holes in the plot it seemed like a cheese grater. Am I missing something?

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a sinister undertone to this book; a feeling that nothing is quite as it seems. Although I found the book compelling, I didn't understand the ending, which made it an unsatisfying read.

[Yvette]

The suspense was building up nicely and I was really enjoying the book - until it came to a confusing and disappointing end.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable - with a twist at the end that I did not see coming!!!!!