Chevy Stevens - That Night

As a teenager, Toni Murphy had a life full of typical adolescent a boyfriend she adored, a younger sister she couldn't relate to, a strained relationship with her parents, and classmates who seemed hell-bent on making her life miserable. Things weren't easy, but Toni could never have predicted how horrific they would become until her younger sister was brutally murdered one summer night. Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of the murder and sent to prison.
Now thirty-four, Toni, is out on parole and back in her hometown, struggling to adjust to a new life on the outside. Prison changed her, hardened her, and she's doing everything in her power to avoid violating her parole and going back. This means having absolutely no contact with Ryan, avoiding fellow parolees looking to pick fights, and steering clear of trouble in all its forms. 

But nothing is making that easy—not Ryan, who is convinced he can figure out the truth; not her mother, who doubts Toni's innocence; and certainly not the group of women who made Toni's life hell in high school and may have darker secrets than anyone realizes. No matter how hard she tries, ignoring her old life to start a new one is impossible. 

Before Toni can truly move on, she must risk everything to find out what really happened that night.But in That Night by Chevy Stevens, the truth might be the most terrifying thing of all.

Comment: Two years after having read another book by this author, I've decided to try something else. The blurb of this book intrigued me and that was it!

Toni was a 18 year old, with the usual problems many teenagers have and some more, when a tragedy destroyed her family. She and her boyfriend Ryan were considered guilty of killing her sister Nicole, and were sent to prison. Now that she is out, Toni is still angry and resentful and her relationship with her parents was never the same. But she and Ryan are innocent, although not many people believed them then, nor now. However, one of the key witnesses - a girl from a group who bullied Toni - claims she is sorry. But is she sorry for what exactly? The problem is that after saying this, she seems to have disappeared...

Although two books might not be a very good sample, I'd say that this author has a particular style: heroines who share their stories in first person and who went though terrible/challenging situations. I didn't have many expectations, only the usual ones of getting an engrossing book to read, but this one grabbed me completely and I was both tense and eager to read what Toni would face next. Again, as I had experienced with the other book, the aim here was not to shock the reader, but the anticipation of what would be shared next, and a lot saddened me because I knew something bad might come; still, I also wanted to know anyway.

This author's books are not easy, that seems quite a factual warning. It's not the kind of story with violent scenes or awful descriptions, but reading this also made me a bit sad because some of Toni's choices seem to lead to avoidable problems. But, who doesn't have all the solutions after a problem happens? Often I wish I could have warned her or tell her she should think about what her mother was telling her or what it would mean to say or do this and that... in terms of how she could deal with her sister's murder... well, this lack of awareness is probably the most unexpected part of the novel.

The tale is divided into three moments, two of them more prominent than others: Toni as a 18 year old facing her issues and telling us about what led to the moment she and Ryan went to prison, then Toni already in prison and how she faced it all, and then Toni as a parolee, trying to move on while still feeling angry over the ordeal and the lost years. In the middle of this, the weight of the loss of her family, her sister, her boyfriend and dreams. The story feels quite depressing, there were a few times I even cried imagining myself going through those emotions and losses, but the author does manage to write in a way that was, for me, mostly intriguing.

The only thing we know from the start is that Toni and Ryan are innocent. They didn't kill Nicole, but in 1996, when the crime happened, police investigation wasn't what it is now and they were easy targets. Since the story is told by Toni, we do focus a lot more on her feelings and the harrowing notion she is meeting disaster at some point. It's also distressing to think she lost so much but was still expected to control herself and become a "normal" citizen at some point. Psychologically, this novel was quite thought provoking to me.

When the story finally reaches the end, there is a surprising twist, but I will say it wasn't as unpredictable as that! I'm not primarily a thriller reader but some clues seemed to lead to a very likely scenario, which proved to be right. Despite guessing who and why, the how was still a novelty and I think Toni reacted less effusively than what I expected. The heartbreak, the pain, the unfairness, all these things never left Toni, but it's quite ironic that she was convicted for murder when in reality she is quite a good person...

If this book had been more polished here and there and if the end had been a bit happier (it does end well, but I wanted more!), I'd have upgraded, but in the end, it was still quite captivating. I'll now investigate further, to see if any other title catches my eye...

Grade: 8/10

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