Never Knowing

by Chevy Stevens
May-July 2014

I really struggled through this one. Immediately, I was turned off by the narrator's voice; it was so affected and forced. Kind of like a bad acting job, but in her defense, she didn't exactly have exciting or intelligent dialogue to work with. The only reason I felt the need to stick it out was because of how much I enjoyed Still Missing.

The main character, Sara, was quite possibly the most annoying protagonist I've read in a long time. Whiny, selfish and just an overall pain in the ass, I would actually find myself clicking my tongue while listening to her antics. Her relationship with her fiancé felt forced. Her attitude with the police was completely obnoxious. None of her relationships were the least bit genuine.

In the same style as Still Missing, Sara is speaking to a voiceless therapist in each chapter. I guess this is Stevens' "thing?" Just because it was successful once does not mean it should be reused. This time it came across as obvious and trite.

The twist at the end was not only expected, but also proved to have no real bearing on the story. It was thrown in as an afterthought. Since I paid money for this audiobook I hung on until the end, torturous as it was. It's funny, I was reading some other reader reviews and it seems it's either a love it or hate it book. The complaints I read were exactly like my own. With so many books out there, I think I need to stop being loyal to random authors. It's one thing to read several titles by an author I consider a favorite, but just because I discover a great new book doesn't mean I need to read an author's complete repertoire. Enough of that.

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