Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Okay first of all - Do not read this book at night or when you're home alone! HOLY COW! I don't EVER read this type of book because it scares the crap out of me, and maybe had I known what I was getting myself into I would have never picked it up! But at the same time, the fact that I couldn't put it down must count for something, since it had my complete attention over just a few days! It was like a horrible car accident - you don't want to look, but you just can't turn away either. And to think that this is Chevy Stevens' first published book just completely blows my mind!

This story brings you into Annie's sick, tormented, twisted, abused world of spending an entire year with a psychopath who abducted her while she was showing a house. And the whole time I just kept thinking about Jaycee Dugard and all that she went through. As sick and twisted it was reading about Annie in this completely fictional story, this type of thing does happen to real women today!

What I truly did enjoy about the story is that the author so realistically dives into the pyschological aspects of how Annie had to get inside the head of her tormentor and figure out he thinks so she can best survive. It was intriguing and upsetting at the same time. Jaycee had to do the same thing - survive by whatever means. As humans we can be so much more resilient than we realize.

My friend Debbie at work dropped this one off at my desk saying that she couldn't put it down and I just had to read it. Though I had it on my to-be-read list, I'm not sure I would've really gotten to it without her persuasive nudging. I definitely couldn't handle these type of stories all the time, but every once in a while, during the middle of the day, WITH my husband in the house, then sure I'll tackle a psychological thriller like this one. Whew. Intense people, ridiculously intense!!! And then the ending - WOW, didn't see that one coming!

Description: On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two 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 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.

The truth doesn’t always set you free.

Still Missing is that rare debut find—a shocking, visceral, brutal and beautifully crafted debut novel.