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leelah 's review for:
Still Missing
by Chevy Stevens
The old adage "Less is more" was never more true than with this novel.
The story follows a kidnapping of Annie Sullivan, by a very disturbed man who kept her for more than a year in a secluded cabin and aftermath of her escape.
So, to go right into why I opened this review like I did:
if this book was dealing only with kidnapping and Annie's struggle to go back to normal after surviving ordeal like that, stripping it off cheap twists it would be maybe a decent, powerful story. There wasn't a need for twist, for cliche "cop sleeping with victim" thing or for "real culprit" to be unmasked. Real evil is simple: things happen because there are people who harm, who are evil, who are disturbed, psychopaths.
They don't need a reason, they just need an opportunity.
Freak, as Annie calls him, is living his own version of family and forcing her into his twisted fantasy using rape and fists- was the cheap twist really necessary? Are we so desensitized that author believe a kidnapping story should be even more shocking and convoluted for reader to be affected? I don't think so, but this didn't seem to me like it was written by someone who was trying to tell the best story born out of the idea, but rather the more provocative and with the twist reader won't see coming.
Choosing to be straight up and graphic with all the ugly details of rape and beatings and not shying away from really dark places Annie's mind go throughout the novel, Stevens has already done enough to affect the readers, on many levels. These simple, yet horrifying stories are viscerally real exactly because they are so simple, because they seem like it could happen to anyone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Making it to be some elaborate scheme which doesn't even make sense and relies to much on possibility was such a mistake and I was disappointed Stevens went this route.
The writing is mediocre. Because the story seemed very focused, told in first person pov, I thought maybe it's so bad on purpose. It wasn't.
Author wrote it like traumatic experience Annie had made her unlikable, ironically not-ironic and talking like a disgruntled PI from country noir novel. The story started as an idea since author was realtor herself, but... in my opinion, Chevy Stevens simply doesn't have the chops to write emotional nor psychological canvas of person who goes through something like that. And that's kind of a must when you are writing an entire novel from point of view of such person.
I can see why this book has fans, but I find books dealing with similar themes like [b:Room|31685789|Room|Emma Donoghue|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472239721l/31685789._SX50_.jpg|9585076] or, even better, [b:Living Dead Girl|2954411|Living Dead Girl|Elizabeth Scott|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1314272108l/2954411._SY75_.jpg|2983897]* to be more worth my time then this sensationalist cheap twister.
*caution advised- this book is incredibly hard to read.
The story follows a kidnapping of Annie Sullivan, by a very disturbed man who kept her for more than a year in a secluded cabin and aftermath of her escape.
So, to go right into why I opened this review like I did:
if this book was dealing only with kidnapping and Annie's struggle to go back to normal after surviving ordeal like that, stripping it off cheap twists it would be maybe a decent, powerful story. There wasn't a need for twist, for cliche "cop sleeping with victim" thing or for "real culprit" to be unmasked. Real evil is simple: things happen because there are people who harm, who are evil, who are disturbed, psychopaths.
They don't need a reason, they just need an opportunity.
Freak, as Annie calls him, is living his own version of family and forcing her into his twisted fantasy using rape and fists- was the cheap twist really necessary? Are we so desensitized that author believe a kidnapping story should be even more shocking and convoluted for reader to be affected? I don't think so, but this didn't seem to me like it was written by someone who was trying to tell the best story born out of the idea, but rather the more provocative and with the twist reader won't see coming.
Choosing to be straight up and graphic with all the ugly details of rape and beatings and not shying away from really dark places Annie's mind go throughout the novel, Stevens has already done enough to affect the readers, on many levels. These simple, yet horrifying stories are viscerally real exactly because they are so simple, because they seem like it could happen to anyone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Making it to be some elaborate scheme which doesn't even make sense and relies to much on possibility was such a mistake and I was disappointed Stevens went this route.
The writing is mediocre. Because the story seemed very focused, told in first person pov, I thought maybe it's so bad on purpose. It wasn't.
Author wrote it like traumatic experience Annie had made her unlikable, ironically not-ironic and talking like a disgruntled PI from country noir novel. The story started as an idea since author was realtor herself, but... in my opinion, Chevy Stevens simply doesn't have the chops to write emotional nor psychological canvas of person who goes through something like that. And that's kind of a must when you are writing an entire novel from point of view of such person.
I can see why this book has fans, but I find books dealing with similar themes like [b:Room|31685789|Room|Emma Donoghue|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472239721l/31685789._SX50_.jpg|9585076] or, even better, [b:Living Dead Girl|2954411|Living Dead Girl|Elizabeth Scott|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1314272108l/2954411._SY75_.jpg|2983897]* to be more worth my time then this sensationalist cheap twister.
*caution advised- this book is incredibly hard to read.