Chevy Stevens - Still Missing

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

Comment: I had this book in the pile for years. I remember I saw a positive review about it in someone's blog but, well, time flies and there are distractions everywhere is what I can say...

In this book we follow Annie, a realtor in Canada, while she tells us about her therapy sessions, in the aftermath of having been abducted and abused for one year before she managed to escape. The day she was abducted, she had normal worries in her mind, but a promising last visitor at the open house she had been working in could be the positive detail to change things. Unfortunately, her life did change but for the worse and her nightmare began. While she managed to escape, she can't let go of the effects of her abduction and her relationship with others is practically lost. Besides, she just can't seem to forget that her abductor had watched her before the kidnapping and had one picture of her which he should not have found... could it be that his plans were not his alone after all?

After finishing the book, which was the author's debut, I've read a few negative reviews (always so fun) and I must say that it feels as if some readers were a bit harsh with the critiques. Although one could see the negative aspects and the details which could be improved, I still felt engrossed in reading this and discovering what came next. It's true the execution wasn't perfect, but in terms of idea and characters, it wasn't that bad in my opinion.

Annie shares her story through the therapy sessions and this means there are actually two voices, sort of, in the storytelling: Annie talking to the therapist, using the "you", and the text written as if Annie is telling what happened in first person. I can understand the tactic but using the "you" feels a bit odd and I believe this might be one of the elements which many might change, especially since the therapist is a silent listener and never has any interaction on the page with Annie.

The plot is not complicated, Annie is now free and in therapy, trying to go back to her life, which proves too hard when she can't let go of the effects of her abduction. We also learn a lot about her personality and family life, and we can understand she hasn't always been seen as very bright nor does she have such a good support system, except perhaps her boyfriend Luke and best friend Christina. However, her experience affected Annie and how she can deal with these two, being her life now lonely and she feels she had to push others away, she can't easily cope.

Annie's family, in particular, are too difficult, mainly her needy mother and we see how their relationship isn't very balanced, which does affect Annie's attempt to recover. What I liked the best was how Annie is so focused on doing what is necessary to get past her trauma and how step by step she thinks about what might be next for her life. In the meantime, she wants closure and while the abductor is no longer a threat, she can't ignore the fact he looked for her on purpose, she was his intended victim all along and not a random pick as she initially thought.

The "thriller" part of the novel is, in my opinion, mostly focused on these thoughts by Annie and how the police who helped when she escaped do something too, to help her find the truth. As the story advances and we start connecting the dots at the same time as Annie, I must say a few things became really obvious but that told me the author had a good plan all along. I'd say the problem is that the way this is developed is not the best, and the twist wasn't as spectacularly delivered as it could. On one hand, I liked that this wasn't this major evil plan meant to scare the reader, but yes, the execution could have been way better.

For me, the pages where Annie describes her terrible experience weren't all difficult to read, almost as if by telling things instead of us being with her in that moment, made it less impacting somehow. But there were several details which I think had an interesting psychological connotation and I liked discovering what would happen next. The end for Annie is not perfect, but kind of hopeful, which I think suits the plot and what Annie went through.

Grade: 8/10