Sunday, September 19, 2010

Review - Still Missing by Chevy Stevens


Book Summary from Amazon

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.


Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.


My Review - 3 More Sugar Please

Friends sorry to disappoint you but I did not enjoy this book, at times I hated it and usually I love when authors make me mad but this wasn't in a good way.  And I expected this to be a possible favourite of the year.

The F word was used way to much to me, i'm not saying Annie didn't have the right to curse but my goodness, each time I was like again, I started to say was it necessary while reading. 

The chapters were done by Sessions with her therapist.  I thought this was a good way to deliver the story.  By Session 2 I hated Annie, I didn't understand why I was hating the character even when she said I know I am a bitch, that still didn't help me feel sorry for her so I was struggling until 50% of the story.  I actually wanted to understand The Freak more than hearing Annie's story, now he was truly a psychopath, The Freak, omg.  Maybe that's why I couldn't get into it because we heard the story only from her really and what I got from it was that she is a really messed up victim, ok, well shouldn't she be.  What I liked about her though, she had some dark sarcasm that made me smile.

And why I didn't really enjoy it, the story is the biggest BS I have ever read in my life, if this happened to someone and they made a movie out of it I would not believe it, what the flip ever.  And there are so many parts in the book I expected just because I knew it had to be 'unbelievable' drama added but seriously way over done.  I would say life in the cabin was believable to me but everything else, from the moment, hmmm, can't say, it would be a spoiler.

Title Talk, interesting title, this is the sentence used with the title, small teaser - Maybe I should put up my own flyers:  Still Missing.  That smiling face belonged to the woman I used to be, not the woman I am now. - This is a small glimpse of what I mean by her dark sarcasm.

ADDITIONAL NOTE after 2 comments - This book is extremely violent with details but this is something I love, the more details with violence the better, that's why I love serial killers with great descriptions but if you can't handle violence on women you definitely should pass.

Would I read something by Chevy Stevens again, probably not, her artistic creative thinking was a little to out there for me.

With that said, I still want to have a discussion with others about the book, so I can vent and possibly you can change my mind, I want to like it more than I did.  Would you join in a discussion, i'll probably keep it up for a week or on my sidebar....
 
I know many of you have read, please post your review in the comments please.  I don't remember anyone else not enjoying it, sigh
 
Thanks for visiting Tea Time with Marce

11 comments:

  1. Oh, no! :( I haven't had a chance to read it but I've come across one other blogger who didn't like it (can't remember who, though) and I remember her saying that it was extremely violent. I'm still willing to give it a go -- I'll definitely pop on by to let you know what my thoughts are!

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  2. Bummer! I have seen mixed reviews on this. I don't know if I will even bother now. I just finished my current read and I am going to start Where Are You Now? by your favorite--Mary Higgins Clark....

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  3. Marce - you're not alone! :-) I was not inpressed either. Sorry, I don't have a review because I have too many others I really want to review but I would enjoy a discussion.....or a rant ! :-D
    At first I found it hard to believe the number of rave reviews but I came to the conclusion these are from readers perhaps new to this type of book. Like me you've a lover of hardcore thriller/suspense and this book doesn't even begin to go there.

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  4. Thanks for the reminder about the violence. I forget that I am minority for loving description of violence, it just makes it more real for me.

    Julie - I say don't bother. I am going to read that MHC again for the bookclub too, enjoy it.

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  5. I don't like when foul language is overused either. It's supposed to be used for shock value and when it's used too much, the shock is just gone. This may not be the book for me.

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  6. I loved this book.

    http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2010/08/still-missing-chevy-stevens.html

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  7. I really liked this book alot.
    After I read it I wondered how many abused women and
    perhaps missing children are really going through this nightmare with some "Freak", like the young girl from one of the states who was repeating raped and bore children.

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  8. I would love to discuss, from what I remember :)

    The violence didn't bother me as I had read books that were much worse... The F word didn't bother me as I'd read much worse...

    I agree though that I wish I could've heard more from The Freak!

    I did enjoy it (4 stars I think?) because I like that it's from a first person perspective, in a therapy session format. I like that it's "raw" with emotion... though was disappoint with the ending or the "big twist".

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  9. LOL
    your honesty made me laugh
    GREAT review!

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  10. I was very disappointed that we never got to know more about the Freak. I had question after question while reading, and was expecting the answer at any moment. But no such thing. The cussing bugged me too - and nowadays before picking a book to read, I scan to see how many F-words are there within a few pages. That said, I did enjoy it for its thrill value, but I can never say that I thought it realistic. The ending was what I struggled the most with. I couldn't put it in the right words, but just as I would say that the ending was shocking, I would also say it was very unrealistic. I'm so glad that you saw the same issue with it.

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  11. So, how did you really feel about the book ? ;) Thanks for your candid review. I've been wavering on whether I wanted to read this one. Think I'll skip it.

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