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bafahl's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Absorbing dark read, but slightly predictable ending.
meloches's review against another edition
3.0
As soon as I read the synopsis of The Never List by Koethi Zan, I knew I needed to bring this one to the top of my TBR pile. Lucky for me, my library had a copy!
Sarah and Jennifer, childhood friends, have a list they compiled to keep them safe. The Never List is made up of safety suggestions, “never walk home alone” and “never leave a drink alone” but one night, when they accept a cab ride against their best instincts, they find themselves held captive with two other girls in a dungeon like cellar. Years later, Sarah is still struggling to live a normal life and deal with survivors guilt but when her abductor is up for parole, Sarah can not longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail. Working with her other survivors, Sarah must enter into a world of secret cults and torture to unravel a case more horrifying than the one she has lived.
As twisted as this one sounded, it seemed to be right up my alley!
Initially, I was extremely impressed with the pacing. This book captured my attention instantly and I was glued to the pages. Zan clearly is an incredible story teller and I found myself sucked into Sarah’s PTSD and her trauma; it really gave me a similar vibe as Final Girls by Riley Sager, which I had found to be incredibly entertaining.
Unfortunately, this one did continue to impress me. I wanted to keep loving this one but the ending fell completely flat for me. I felt like there were a few instances that just became too convenient and unrealistic. I don’t mind when things line up a bit for a nice tidy resolution but things started feeling quite far fetched.
Overall, I felt like it was worth the read but wasn’t blown away.
Sarah and Jennifer, childhood friends, have a list they compiled to keep them safe. The Never List is made up of safety suggestions, “never walk home alone” and “never leave a drink alone” but one night, when they accept a cab ride against their best instincts, they find themselves held captive with two other girls in a dungeon like cellar. Years later, Sarah is still struggling to live a normal life and deal with survivors guilt but when her abductor is up for parole, Sarah can not longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail. Working with her other survivors, Sarah must enter into a world of secret cults and torture to unravel a case more horrifying than the one she has lived.
As twisted as this one sounded, it seemed to be right up my alley!
Initially, I was extremely impressed with the pacing. This book captured my attention instantly and I was glued to the pages. Zan clearly is an incredible story teller and I found myself sucked into Sarah’s PTSD and her trauma; it really gave me a similar vibe as Final Girls by Riley Sager, which I had found to be incredibly entertaining.
Unfortunately, this one did continue to impress me. I wanted to keep loving this one but the ending fell completely flat for me. I felt like there were a few instances that just became too convenient and unrealistic. I don’t mind when things line up a bit for a nice tidy resolution but things started feeling quite far fetched.
Overall, I felt like it was worth the read but wasn’t blown away.
readinggrrl's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fast paced thrill ride by a first time author. The Never List had me holding my breath along with Sarah as she struggles to break through her PTSD in order to help find her friend's body. She figures if she can find the body she can have more evidence against the man who kept them lock up and hopefully keep him from getting paroled. The more she digs though the deeper the rabbit hole seems to go. And what she stumbles on opens a whole new horror that she never expected. From the downright creepiness of what happens to them to the true horror of it all and finally to the damage that she discovers it did to her is all brilliantly woven together.
The other characters slowly come alive but it isn't really until the end of the book that you start to learn the true story of what happened in that house and how coming to terms with it is going to change Sarah's neatly ordered life.
The other characters slowly come alive but it isn't really until the end of the book that you start to learn the true story of what happened in that house and how coming to terms with it is going to change Sarah's neatly ordered life.
akristawithak's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this until the end. I just didn't find it super believable.
But the premise was quite creepy.
But the premise was quite creepy.
brandy_wine's review against another edition
4.0
Okay, so to start off, let me just say I am not a big fan of when people compare books to another book. It may have some similarities, but at the same time it may turn people away because of that alone. Just as people would think "Oh, if you like this book you will like that book." Others may think... "Yeah, I didn't like that book so I am not going to bother reading this one." Anywho... I have not read any books by the authors that this one is being compared to so I had no preconceived ideas.
I liked this read. I was drawn in and wanted to know where things were going to go. We know that Sarah and her best friend Jennifer are taken, no matter how hard they try to avoid anything bad happening to them. This book is about the fact that Sarah gets away and the man who took her is up for parole. She is asked to go and speak at his hearing to try to keep him locked up behind bars. She is getting these letters from him while he is in prison, but the last one she gets spikes her interest. She starts in on her own little investigation.
That alone, I know happens from time to time because law enforcement may not have the opportunity or availability to look into things as fast as a person who has nothing else going on and can't stop thinking about things. She takes off and starts asking questions. Now I will say that there were moments that had me so sucked in because I wanted to know what was going to happen and what she was going to find out. But at the same time I did think in the back of my mind...REALLY? How can she do all this alone and how can the FBI agent, she talks to from time to time just pass on information he knows he shouldn't knowing she is putting herself in harms way. I know for a fact that would not happen. They are not allowed to do that, if by chance things slip out I would think that he would have someone with her if he knew she was digging. And well he knew.
So there were twists and turns and I some I just knew were coming. Others, though I didn't see at all. I was sucked in there towards the end that I couldn't put it down because I needed to know what was going to happen. I understand this is just a book, but there were moments that I had to just roll my eyes and wonder why they would do some of the things they did. I mean, come on! THINK! But I guess that is part of the thing that drew me in.
It was a good suspense read and I enjoyed it.
But just a fare warning... it is a little on the darker side and more taboo I guess. I know for people who don't read books with kidnapping and forced brain washing and what not may find this dark and taboo. But reading some of the books I have, this is not that dark and I don't find it taboo at all. But it was still good I thought.
I would love to read a book about everything that happened while she was captured. Day in and day out. That to me would be a dark read!
I liked this read. I was drawn in and wanted to know where things were going to go. We know that Sarah and her best friend Jennifer are taken, no matter how hard they try to avoid anything bad happening to them. This book is about the fact that Sarah gets away and the man who took her is up for parole. She is asked to go and speak at his hearing to try to keep him locked up behind bars. She is getting these letters from him while he is in prison, but the last one she gets spikes her interest. She starts in on her own little investigation.
That alone, I know happens from time to time because law enforcement may not have the opportunity or availability to look into things as fast as a person who has nothing else going on and can't stop thinking about things. She takes off and starts asking questions. Now I will say that there were moments that had me so sucked in because I wanted to know what was going to happen and what she was going to find out. But at the same time I did think in the back of my mind...REALLY? How can she do all this alone and how can the FBI agent, she talks to from time to time just pass on information he knows he shouldn't knowing she is putting herself in harms way. I know for a fact that would not happen. They are not allowed to do that, if by chance things slip out I would think that he would have someone with her if he knew she was digging. And well he knew.
So there were twists and turns and I some I just knew were coming. Others, though I didn't see at all. I was sucked in there towards the end that I couldn't put it down because I needed to know what was going to happen. I understand this is just a book, but there were moments that I had to just roll my eyes and wonder why they would do some of the things they did. I mean, come on! THINK! But I guess that is part of the thing that drew me in.
It was a good suspense read and I enjoyed it.
But just a fare warning... it is a little on the darker side and more taboo I guess. I know for people who don't read books with kidnapping and forced brain washing and what not may find this dark and taboo. But reading some of the books I have, this is not that dark and I don't find it taboo at all. But it was still good I thought.
I would love to read a book about everything that happened while she was captured. Day in and day out. That to me would be a dark read!
jshettel's review against another edition
3.0
Started out strong - scary and crazy premise, but ending was a bit weak. Still, it's been a long time since I've read something creepy!
april_dawn's review against another edition
5.0
Really really great book ending could have been better and tied up in a bow nicer
tracey_s's review against another edition
3.0
Very enjoyable thriller - lots of twists and turns, some easy to guess and some not. Few plot holes here and there, but in the end a good story
ncrabb's review against another edition
4.0
I've learned over the years that when one of my children recommends a book, I need to take that seriously and give it a read. If I don't, I invariably miss out, and I'm glad I didn't miss out on this.
Sarah and Jennifer are close friends. The car crash that kills Jennifer's mom and puts the two girls in the hospital ultimately brings them closer. While they convalesce, the girls watch the constant cable news cycle and put together a list of things they must never do if they are to avoid tragedy in their lives. Known as the Never List, it includes such simplicities as "never get in a car with a stranger," and "never stay out past a certain hour." Even when they went off to college, the girls would arrange their trips on campus so that they took separate routes. That way, if something happened to one of them, it at least wouldn't happen to both. They lived carefully by the list for some time, but as college girls might, these two got somewhat lax, bending, but never breaking outright, the rules of the list. Ironically enough, it is the very act of being careful that got the girls abducted and imprisoned for three years.
This book will cause you to want to sleep with the lights on, even if you have no light perception. Its creepiness is enhanced by the fact that you don't read about every possible torture they underwent in that awful basement. But you read enough to know what's happening, and you're both sickened and intrigued by the events unfolding on each page.
Ten years later, Sarah has changed her name to Caroline. She and two other girls are freed from the basement of torture and horror. But Sarah's friend, Jennifer, never made it out, and that haunts Sarah/Caroline. She has built a kind of OCD-like set of barriers around her in order to protect her from any future horrors. She is ensconced in a New York City high-rise with a door man who delivers all things necessary to her door, and she's surrounded by a city full of screamers who presumably will come to her aid if something like that happens. (Makes you wonder whether this author ever read about Kitty Genovese, but I digress.)
Jack Derber, the psychology professor who was convicted of holding the girls hostage and torturing them, is due for parole after only 10 years in prison. It's not long enough, and that means that Sarah/Caroline must join forces with the other two women who escaped--woman who think Sarah betrayed them. They, too, have labored long and hard in their own way to put the horror of that basement behind them. What lends to the credibility of the book for me was the fact that the three women never become great friends. That seems pretty realistic.
The search for the truth about Jennifer takes the women into the world of BDSM and into the lives of some truly warped and twisted people both in academia and in the community where the torture once took place. Ultimately the women must face demons by re-entering the very house in which they were so brutally held hostage.
This would have been a five-star book for me except that I figured out where it was going a good way before I got to that point. The audio narration is breathtaking in its excellence. So excellent is it that you almost feel as if that narrator had spent time in that basement or was Sarah/Caroline herself. I read this while on a flight, and I'm sure the passenger next to me was convinced the guide dog was more stable and safer than I. I'm sure my facial expressions changed with each new intriguing development, and I may or may not have impulsively gripped my iPad a little tighter in a place or two during the book.
This is less about what happened in that basement and more about the mental constructs we all build to protect ourselves from various real and imagined threats. This is a quick one-day read, and it won't disappoint you.
Sarah and Jennifer are close friends. The car crash that kills Jennifer's mom and puts the two girls in the hospital ultimately brings them closer. While they convalesce, the girls watch the constant cable news cycle and put together a list of things they must never do if they are to avoid tragedy in their lives. Known as the Never List, it includes such simplicities as "never get in a car with a stranger," and "never stay out past a certain hour." Even when they went off to college, the girls would arrange their trips on campus so that they took separate routes. That way, if something happened to one of them, it at least wouldn't happen to both. They lived carefully by the list for some time, but as college girls might, these two got somewhat lax, bending, but never breaking outright, the rules of the list. Ironically enough, it is the very act of being careful that got the girls abducted and imprisoned for three years.
This book will cause you to want to sleep with the lights on, even if you have no light perception. Its creepiness is enhanced by the fact that you don't read about every possible torture they underwent in that awful basement. But you read enough to know what's happening, and you're both sickened and intrigued by the events unfolding on each page.
Ten years later, Sarah has changed her name to Caroline. She and two other girls are freed from the basement of torture and horror. But Sarah's friend, Jennifer, never made it out, and that haunts Sarah/Caroline. She has built a kind of OCD-like set of barriers around her in order to protect her from any future horrors. She is ensconced in a New York City high-rise with a door man who delivers all things necessary to her door, and she's surrounded by a city full of screamers who presumably will come to her aid if something like that happens. (Makes you wonder whether this author ever read about Kitty Genovese, but I digress.)
Jack Derber, the psychology professor who was convicted of holding the girls hostage and torturing them, is due for parole after only 10 years in prison. It's not long enough, and that means that Sarah/Caroline must join forces with the other two women who escaped--woman who think Sarah betrayed them. They, too, have labored long and hard in their own way to put the horror of that basement behind them. What lends to the credibility of the book for me was the fact that the three women never become great friends. That seems pretty realistic.
The search for the truth about Jennifer takes the women into the world of BDSM and into the lives of some truly warped and twisted people both in academia and in the community where the torture once took place. Ultimately the women must face demons by re-entering the very house in which they were so brutally held hostage.
This would have been a five-star book for me except that I figured out where it was going a good way before I got to that point. The audio narration is breathtaking in its excellence. So excellent is it that you almost feel as if that narrator had spent time in that basement or was Sarah/Caroline herself. I read this while on a flight, and I'm sure the passenger next to me was convinced the guide dog was more stable and safer than I. I'm sure my facial expressions changed with each new intriguing development, and I may or may not have impulsively gripped my iPad a little tighter in a place or two during the book.
This is less about what happened in that basement and more about the mental constructs we all build to protect ourselves from various real and imagined threats. This is a quick one-day read, and it won't disappoint you.