Thursday, November 11, 2010

Still Missing - Chevy Stevens

Still Missing
Still Missing
By Chevy Stevens


A story about a woman who is abducted and taken to a house where she is abused in many horrifying ways can really be a toss-up. There would have been so many ways to let the horrors of the story take over and make it unreadable or to get caught up in the drama and have it be just a predictable abduction story. Luckily, none of that happened here.

Chevy Stevens crafted a heartbreaking and unique story that horrified but also had me laughing out loud. I could not put this book down. The entire story takes place in the therapy sessions Annie goes through, so we know she got away from her abductor, but that fact doesn’t take away from the suspense of the story, it may, in fact, add to it because more questions arise as she tells her therapist more and more.

Although Annie is obviously disturbed and embraces her self-proclaimed bitchiness, I love her! I could hear her voice and feel her personality lifting off the page during every therapy session. She rants about what happened to her while she was captive as well as the present day events taking place between the therapy sessions. She was so real to me as I read the story.

I will warn you that this isn’t a story for the faint of heart. Stevens goes into details of Annie’s abduction that are difficult to read but not overdone, making it more readable, while also more real (which is both good and bad in this situation). All of the difficult reading is worth it in the end because it makes for an incredible story that comes to life with the pain, sorrow, joy, confusion, anger, and intensity that you would expect from this type of an event. Still Missing is an extremely powerful book.

**Source: ARC from publisher

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A heartbreaking story that makes you laugh out loud is very hard to pull off. Character is really the key and it sounds like Annie was a strong and likable enough protagonist to carry the horrifying aspects of the story. Intriguing review!