Elizabeth Is Missing in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Nov 14, 2017 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery, british, tragedy, puzzle, twist

Uhmmm... I expected more than this, actually. The premise is pretty interesting- about an old woman who is having dementia and losing her memory day by day.. But she's troubled because of her best friend Elizabeth who is missing, and that reminds her of her own sister who was missing after the World War II.

So the story is basically a double mystery- that connects the mystery from Maud's past and the current mystery she has, and how she tried to solve both mysteries when her memories is declining ...more

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Jul 23, 2014 Chelsea rated it liked it

This was an interesting look at an English woman suffering from dementia. At times confusing, Maude, our central character, becomes confused very easily and forgets her thought or task at hand. She becomes convinced that her friend Elizabeth is missing because she's not at her home. The reader will most likely guess that Elizabeth has either died or is in a nursing home.
Maude's flashbacks make the story a more interesting and worthwhile, but also confusing at times. I listened to this, and it s ...more

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Apr 28, 2019 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: popsugar-2019

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2019: A book about a family

It's hard to say how it really feels to live with dementia if you've not experienced it firsthand but from what I've seen in the people I know who have, this is a fantastic depiction of what it might be like. Poor Maud struggles to remember things she's been told by her carer or her daughter, progressing to forgetting the correct names for everyday objects, not recognising her daughter, forgetting where she's going or how she's arrived somewh ...more

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Jul 20, 2021 Kristin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Poor Maud. She is a senior citizen clearly in the throes of dementia just trying to make it through another day without managing to burn her house down, injure herself, or go broke buying all the canned peaches on the shelves of the neighborhood grocery store. Widowed, with a son who lives overseas, and a daughter and granddaughter who stop by daily after work/school, Maud seems a bit lonely and knows a chat with her best friend Elizabeth will cheer her up. Unfortunately, Elizabeth doesn't answe Poor Maud. She is a senior citizen clearly in the throes of dementia just trying to make it through another day without managing to burn her house down, injure herself, or go broke buying all the canned peaches on the shelves of the neighborhood grocery store. Widowed, with a son who lives overseas, and a daughter and granddaughter who stop by daily after work/school, Maud seems a bit lonely and knows a chat with her best friend Elizabeth will cheer her up. Unfortunately, Elizabeth doesn't answer her telephone, and seeing how both women are elderly, Maud naturally thinks the worst. She walks the short distance to Elizabeth's home, only to find she isn't there either, that the place looks tidied up, probably at the hands of Elizabeth's greedy son who is likely capitalizing on her absence to try to sell off the antiques she has accumulated, though Maud was with her when she bought those 'antiques' and knows they are all junk from the thrift store where they work. Maud returns home, and knows just who would like to hear this juicy gossip, her best friend Elizabeth, but alas, Elizabeth doesn't answer the telephone when Maud calls.
Told from Maud's perspective, the title concept repeats day after day, Maud keeps reminders to herself that Elizabeth is missing, but no one else will believe her. Not her daughter, Helen, nor Elizabeth's son, nor even the nice police officers down at the station. But that doesn't stop Maud from trying to track Elizabeth down, while trying to navigate the world with a brain that is slowly losing its capacity for short term memories. Like many people with dementia, Maud remembers the past clear as a bell, and particularly her sister Sukie, who like Elizabeth, suddenly disappeared, though that was many decades ago.
The 2 tales are interwoven, Maud's detailed recollection of her childhood and how it was shaped by World War II and then Sukie's disappearance, along with the present day, which is an equally detailed account of Maud's search for Elizabeth, though these details are filtered through Maud's foggy mind and are often duplicated or fabricated. Healey's use of the old story establishes Maud as once a very capable woman who is more than a dotty old lady, which I feel is important to acknowledge, and encourage when dealing with a person whose hold on the present is tenuous but has a rich memory of the past just waiting to be explored.
I very much enjoyed the book, though I find it hard to believe Maud's daughter would continue to leave her alone in the home, even with a caretaker who stops by in the morning. Granted, I've never lived with someone who had long-term dementia, though my mom had brain cancer that messed with her mind and it became very apparent when it was no longer safe to allow her to be alone, which was long before she started doing some of the things that Maud does. The climax near the end of the book felt it was a long time coming, but Healey needed that time to lay the framework for the immediate leadup to that moment and the aftermath. ...more

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Apr 10, 2019 Chrissy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, england, popsugar-2019-reading-challenge, unreliable-narrator, suspense, audiobook

Maude is an elderly woman you meet on page 1. She is telling everyone who will listen to her that her friend Elizabeth is missing. She's missing! And nobody seems to be taking her seriously, which is frustrating to her and to you, as the reader. Why won't they listen? Elizabeth is missing.

As you spend more time with Maude, you realize that dementia is setting in and she's a very unreliable narrator. The fact that Elizabeth has gone missing has stirred up some long-buried memories of a trauma in ...more

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Oct 10, 2020 Kate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

An amazing book, so cleverly written with care and empathy. Really gets inside Maud's head and helps the reader understand her train of thought. So glad I read it. ...more

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