Publisher: Pamela Dorman BooksPages: 303
Received: Received a copy from the publisher through Netgalley
Release Date: July 16, 2013
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Goodreads Synopsis:
For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”: a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism.
Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar. Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail.
Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors—who hold their own deep grudges against her. When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.
My Review:
I was very intrigued when I first heard about this book, I love a good mystery/thriller read, but this book was much more than that, and I actually found it to be quite disturbing to the point that I had a lot of problems getting through it. I really wanted to get through the mystery of the book, I wanted to find out about this man who has ruined so many peoples lives.
Sarah is still struggling years later to get past the incident and live a normal life, when all of a sudden, everything is brought up again when the girls' abductor is up for parole. With this, Sarah begins a journey to find out more about this man, and keep him in prison. I was interested in the mystery of what has happened over the past few years and who are all these people that have worked with him and known him the best. What I did enjoy was watching Sarah grow as the novel continued on, she is able to get herself together little by little and she throws her insecurities to the wind to get justice, not only for herself but for her friend Jennifer as well.
There are a lot of secrets hiding out in this novel, Sarah is hiding something, how she was able to save the girls years ago. Understandably, these girls don't want contact with one another after everything, it brings back reminders, and yet as the mystery deepens, these girls begin to want to help one another because the idea of having their captor out is a much worse possibility. In many ways this is a book about confronting your past, even though it may be the most difficult and dangerous thing.
The problem I had with this book was how disturbing it was, there were so many points where I could not continue because I was just disgusted at the torture being done. Honestly, this book was very dark and twisted and I just couldn't get into everything that was going on. The book goes darker and darker as you continue on, and there were so many parts where I just did not want to continue with the story. I will say in some ways despite the twisted and disturbing parts, I am partly glad that I continued on with the story and got to the end of the mystery, I was shocked and Koethi Zan definitely brings about an ending that readers don't really see coming.
Honestly, in many ways this was an interesting novel, but in the end it just didn't really appeal to me. There were too many parts that just became too much and I couldn't get past these terrifying ideas.
For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”: a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism.
Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar. Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail.
Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors—who hold their own deep grudges against her. When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.
My Review:
I was very intrigued when I first heard about this book, I love a good mystery/thriller read, but this book was much more than that, and I actually found it to be quite disturbing to the point that I had a lot of problems getting through it. I really wanted to get through the mystery of the book, I wanted to find out about this man who has ruined so many peoples lives.
Sarah is still struggling years later to get past the incident and live a normal life, when all of a sudden, everything is brought up again when the girls' abductor is up for parole. With this, Sarah begins a journey to find out more about this man, and keep him in prison. I was interested in the mystery of what has happened over the past few years and who are all these people that have worked with him and known him the best. What I did enjoy was watching Sarah grow as the novel continued on, she is able to get herself together little by little and she throws her insecurities to the wind to get justice, not only for herself but for her friend Jennifer as well.
There are a lot of secrets hiding out in this novel, Sarah is hiding something, how she was able to save the girls years ago. Understandably, these girls don't want contact with one another after everything, it brings back reminders, and yet as the mystery deepens, these girls begin to want to help one another because the idea of having their captor out is a much worse possibility. In many ways this is a book about confronting your past, even though it may be the most difficult and dangerous thing.
The problem I had with this book was how disturbing it was, there were so many points where I could not continue because I was just disgusted at the torture being done. Honestly, this book was very dark and twisted and I just couldn't get into everything that was going on. The book goes darker and darker as you continue on, and there were so many parts where I just did not want to continue with the story. I will say in some ways despite the twisted and disturbing parts, I am partly glad that I continued on with the story and got to the end of the mystery, I was shocked and Koethi Zan definitely brings about an ending that readers don't really see coming.
Honestly, in many ways this was an interesting novel, but in the end it just didn't really appeal to me. There were too many parts that just became too much and I couldn't get past these terrifying ideas.
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