Fifteen years ago, Caroline and Hunter Shipley's youngest daughter, Samantha, disappeared from their hotel room in Mexico. Despite the investigation and a large attention of the media, no trace of the girl was found. Samantha Shipley has disappeared, and her family must live with the lack of closure.
With the fifteenth anniversary of the child's disappearance rolling around, the news have been flooded with stories about it once more. And then Caroline answers her phone, with a girl on the line that has seen the likeness between herself and the sketches of what an older Samantha may look like. Her name is Lili and she thinks that she might be the missing Samantha Shipley.
Torn between the past and her current present, Caroline isn't sure what to believe. Could this girl be really her missing daughter or just another pointless attempt at chasing after a ghost? And as the lines blur more and more, she learns that the truth may lie closer to home than she thinks...
She's not there contains examples of the following Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: Michelle's harsh words often result in these, especially when arguing with her mother. She asks her questions that hit very close, pointing out the favoritism Caroline seemed to show between her daughters. Michelle asks her if her mother had acted just as desperate if Michelle had been the one to disappear instead of Samantha, and even asks if she has to disappear for her mother to show that she loves her.
- Driven to Suicide: A student of Caroline's committed suicide by hanging several years ago.
- Dysfunctional Family:
- The Tillmans — Mary, Steve, and Caroline — had parental favoritism occur, leading to a son who doesn't really understand his actions have consequences because his mother keeps protecting him from them, and a daughter that heavily dislikes her favored brother and negligent mother.
- The Shipleys — Caroline, Hunter, and Michelle — also had parental favoritism occur, albeit probably unintentional on Caroline's side, and the family broke apart after Samantha disappeared. Michelle has a strained relationship with her mother, with the two of them often arguing when interacting, and her relationship with her father is unsteady. Said father not only cheated on his wife after their daughter's disappearance, but seems to care more about his much-younger, second wife. And is cheating on her, too.
- Evil Uncle: Realizing that your gambling brother was the one to kidnap your child, simply because it seemed the fastest way to get rid of the debt he had with men who don't hesitate to kill because of unpaid debts.
- Grief-Induced Split: Caroline and Hunter's marriage broke down after their daughter Samantha went missing.
- Human Trafficking: The fate of what happened to Samantha. She was handed over to someone who smuggled her over the Mexican border, and eventually sold off for 'adoption'.
- In-Series Nickname: Michelle prefers to go by Micki, a nickname her mother dislikes.
- Insistent Terminology: Michelle makes it clear that the hospice she volunteers at doesn't have 'patients', but 'residents'. She says patients are people you can still cure and help get better, while residents are people that come there to die.
- It's All My Fault:
- Caroline believes that everything that went badly in her life — Samantha's disappearance, her failing marriage, her strained relationship with Michelle, the suicide of a student — is all her fault. Though she relents that part of the blame with the first also lies with her ex-husband, Hunter, who was the one to insist that they go to the restaurant and leaving the girls alone for a few hours.
- Hunter reveals that he's been blaming himself about Samantha's kidnapping because he chose to have sex with Rain, instead of going to check on his two young daughters. Though it turns out that it wouldn't have mattered because, by that point, Samantha had already been taken.
- Michelle eventually admits to feeling guilty and like having had a hand in Samantha's disappearance because she not only wished her little sister gone, but was also awake the night of the kidnapping, and ended up doing nothing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Michelle is very abrasive and blunt towards everyone, easily arguing with her mother, though a part of that comes from bitterness over having felt unloved compared to her sister. However, Michelle's attitude comes from not wanting her mother to keep living in the past, and she's kind to those that need it. She stayed with a young resident, and even telling her that she believes in Heaven, despite not doing so, just to be a comfort while the resident is dying.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: Caroline insists that she's nothing like her mother, who was overprotective to her, but showed clear favoritism towards her younger brother, and it's a sore spot to be compared to her. But her behavior does show that, much as Caroline insisted otherwise, she did seem to inadvertently favor her second child over her first one.
- Missing Child: The premise of the book revolves around a child being whisked away from her family, with the parents having no idea where she is or what has happened to her. The fear, the guilt, and not knowing what actually happened end up breaking the family apart.
- My Greatest Failure: Caroline and Hunter blame themselves for having chosen to favor eating at the hotel's restaurant for their anniversary and leaving their kids alone instead of staying in on their anniversary to watch the kids. Hunter mostly because it was his idea to do so, while Caroline blames herself for letting him persuade her to agree.
- Narcissist: Mary Tillman, the mother of Caroline and Steve, gets described as being a mean-spirited narcissist. She's very good at playing one child against another, favoring one and constantly dismissing the other, and her harsh tongue does nobody a favor in this.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Although their marriage was very unhappy and ended in divorce, when Beth returned to San Diego and checked into a hospice because of her incurable brain tumor, her ex-husband never left her side until she died. Most believe it was a too-little-too-late attempt at making up for lost time and failure to show his love before. Turns out he was keeping her drugged up and making sure she wouldn't reveal to anyone about their involvement in Samantha's kidnapping.
- Mary begins to act noticeably colder, if not harsh, to Michelle after she says that Lili is the missing Samantha, when she was previously doted on. Michelle is confused by this, but Caroline all but tells her that this is her grandmother's true nature. Favoring one over the other.
- Parents Know Their Children:
- Discussed by Caroline, who always thought that she would be able to feel an instinctual bond or some gut feeling, if she were to ever meet Samantha again. But when she meets Lili in person, she feels nothing and cannot tell if she really is Samantha or some other girl.
- And a grandparental version occurs with Mary, who sees Lili and just smiles, telling everyone with certainty that this absolutely is Samantha. Turns out she's right.
- Something Only They Would Say: "Come to your Uncle Stevie." ends up becoming the key to unlock repressed memories, revealing the truth behind Samantha's disappearance.
- The Unfavorite:
- Caroline considers herself the unfavorite and gets a lot of proof, citing that her overprotective mother ended up ignoring her in favor of her younger brother, Steve. Said younger brother can never do wrong in their mother's eyes and keeps being protected, even when he screws up. The photo album depicting Caroline and Steve growing up shows Caroline barely got a picture taken of her, except for maybe an arm visible on the edge.
- Michelle felt this way when compared to Samantha. She was a clingy and needy brat, whereas Samantha was a quiet, sweet baby, and Michelle felt like her mother always favored her little sister more. When looking at photo albums, Caroline wonders if Michelle was right upon seeing that she, too, ended up taking more pictures of her second child than her first one.
- Unreliable Narrator: Invoked when Caroline recalls the events of the night of Samantha's disappearance, but 'playing all the parts' this time around. Though she admits that she has no idea if that really was what everyone thought.
