Stevens, Chevy: Still Missing

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Chevy Stevens' debut novel Still Missing is a breathless nightmare of a book. It tells the story of real estate agent Annie O'Sullivan, who is kidnapped by a stranger during an open house she's hosting. Annie narrates the painful story of what happened during and after her abduction in a series of sessions with a therapist. Annie's captor is a violent control freak who terrifies her into obeying his exacting rules: the punishment for disobedience--for, for example, urinating at other than the prescribed time--are severe. (The details may be disturbing to some readers.) But freedom, when it finally comes, offers less comfort than one might suppose. And it remains to solve the mystery behind her abduction: Why her? And why did her captor know so much about her?

Still Missing is written in conversational prose that makes for a quick read. And it's a book that you won't want to put down. Although we know from the start that Annie ultimately survives her abduction, the plot is nonetheless gripping because we don't know how she survives, or whether her ordeal is really over when she gets home. My only complaint about the book is that the voice of the narrator when she's telling her story to the therapist is very different from her voice in the conversational passages that frame her recollections. I assume this is intended to differentiate the earlier, stronger Annie from the damaged goods she is in the present, but some of her recollections are more recent, so I don't think that that differentiation quite works. Also, the voice of the damaged Annie seems younger than that of a 32-year-old woman. I found this jarring, but otherwise this one is a really good choice for when you're in need of a page-turner.

Comments

[Brooke]

1.

Just knowing that her abductor is a control freak is a proof that Chevy Stevens' experience is nerve wrecking.