Hello friends, happy Wednesday I hope you’re all having a good week so far! Today I’m going to be reviewing Camilla Grebe’s novel, After She’s Gone.

This novel was originally published in Swedish and was translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel

You can read my review of book one: The Ice Beneath Her

After She’s Gone by: Camilla Grebe: Out in a small town, late at night, in the dead of winter a woman stumbles out of the woods, unaware of who she is; Jake who likes to wear women’s clothes in secret finds her but is unable to help her. The woman gets away, but leaves behind her diary, a diary that contains the key to an murder investigation she’s been working on. The woman is identified as Hanne, who works the police, yet she can’t remember a thing from what happened; Jake realizes once he reads the diary only he can help solve the case. Gripping from the start, this novel had so many complexities to it; the layers are what really stood out along with the really dynamic characters. This was another great novel from Grebe; she was able to really write from the mindset of a small town and the people who live in it. This perspective really played a huge role in this novel, especially for our two main characters. The reader had a love hate relationship with them because one had these problematic thoughts and inner monologues, and was trying to get away from the small town without shifting her mindset, while the other was too afraid to live his true self because he was stuck in a small town. The character development and growth in this novel was so well done. Watching these characters from where they start to where they end up was truly something; they really learn to find themselves, despite the hard truths they may have to face. It was good to see characters from Grebe’s first novel in this one, they really amped up the story as they played a great deal in this novel. Even these characters had so many different layers to them that really made this novel feel fully rounded. Again, Grebe seems to have gotten into the psychology of these characters to create them so truly flawed, yet completely human. As for the plot of this novel, aside from the characters being deeply developed, was fast-paced and full of action; there was never a dull moment, something was always happening. The reader enjoyed that this story was told in, mainly, two points of view and they were of characters we’re just meeting. It gave the novel a fresh perspective and let the reader gain access to the case in two completely different ways, which was brilliant. Grebe always seems to find a way to really get the reader in the end, but this novel truly did it; the reader didn’t see this twist coming. There were very small hints that that she placed throughout the novel, but when the crashing reveal happened it really shifted the perspective, not only for the reader, but for this character. The character has to relearn a lot of what they thought of the world, and the way they think. The reader truly believes that it was a great message to get across to readers, you can’t control how you’re born into the world, but you can control how you live and perceive it because it could have been you.