'Elizabeth is Missing'. First meeting

A REVIEW by Gracia Requena

Our first session was on January 13^th  2016.  The book that we chose was ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ which was written by Emma Healey. Part drama, part mystery with a healthy dose of comedy and angst. To be honest, I couldn’t get into it at the beginning, however, I reckon that it’s a must read right  now.

When you decide to read a book, you sometimes want to share your feelings and theories with other people, but it’s not good because you can spoil their reading experience. For this reason, it’s quite exciting to take part in a book club, where you can share your feelings with other readers.

Well, I'll get straight to the point. ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ is not an easy book for B2 level because the language is quite colourful and it’s also very well-written. As well as that, it mixes the present and the past and it makes you feel quite confused once in a while.

It tells the story of Maud who is a seventy-year-old woman with dementia. Most of the time, you are in Maud’s shoes and I have to say that I have become fond of her. Although, while Nuria and I were sharing our a little bit different opinions about the relationship between Helen (Maud’s daughter) and Maud, we agree that it could be really difficult to take care of a person who has Alzheimer or dementia and in some ways, we felt really sorry for Helen.  We debated about this illness, and for both of us, it would be really hard to have it, mostly because you wouldn't be able to do the things that you love like reading or even remember your relatives or  yourself.

During your reading, you discover that Maud’s sister (Sukey) has disappeared, but no one knows where she is. Nuria and I have very different opinions about who is to blame for this.My theory is that Frank who is Sukey’s husband has killed her while Nuria suspects it was Douglas or the mad woman. I suspect that the mad woman is Douglas’s mother, and Nuria agrees with me about that.

One of the main issues in the book is the search for Elizabeth . We have very conflicting ideas. Nuria thinks that Elizabeth is dead and nobody wants to tell Maud about Elizabeth’s death because maybe she won’t be able to face her death. On the contrary, I think that Elizabeth is in an old people´s home or something like that. Who knows!

We need to meet again because we haven’t finished the book, yet. We've agreed to meet next Wednesday, 20^th January 2016. By then, we will have finished the book and we will be able to see if we're right or not.