Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Let me start off with this: This is not a book for everyone.

*This review also contains spoilers at the end!

My rating: 5/5

Annie, a 32-year-old realtor, is going about her busy as usual day. Her mother is infuriating, she needs to sell this house, and she’s got to be on time for her dinner date with her patient, caring boyfriend.

When no one shows up for the open house, not to her surprise, she starts packing up as a kind looking man pulls into the driveway asking to see the house.

“Eh, why not?” – A thought that Annie is quickly regretful of having.

Before she knows it, she’s forced into his van at gunpoint before he sticks her with some sort of sedative, and everything goes dark.

At this point, I was like, okay, I must know more. What happens to her? Who is this man, and why did he take her?

I love thrillers. I love reading about realistic, horrifying situations like this. Call it morbid curiosity, if you will. I just find it fascinating and sometimes, I lowkey think I enjoy these kinds of books so much because I’m subconsciously storing all of this knowledge and experience away in case I ever get abducted one day (which has always been one of my biggest fears).

It’s definitely interesting that one of my biggest fears is also one of my favorite things to read about. This book definitely hit all of my fear points, and my heart and soul ached for Annie the entire time reading. I felt like I was almost experiencing these horrible things with her.

By the time Annie comes to, she’s not at home, and it wasn’t a dream, to her dismay. Annie ends up locked up in a secluded cabin in the woods (cliché, but done well in this book honestly). I will say, if you’re easily triggered by sexual, emotional, physical abuse, then this book may not be for you. It’s gritty, and it’s realistic. It’s horrifying, honestly, the things that Annie had to go through for The Freak, as she came to call the man who’s obsession with her seemingly came out of nowhere.

Here come the spoilers, so don’t read on if you plan on trying this book out. Trust me, it’s better to find out the twists as you’re reading.

The Freak was a well fleshed out, terrifying character. He clearly had a plethora of issues stemming from childhood, which basically explains why he has become who he is. Despite the stockholm syndrome Annie was clearly developing in a way, I never, for one second, felt bad for him. I don’t care what your childhood was like – to become such a horrible excuse of a human being takes all of my empathy away.

What I found insane, was that from the beginning, I couldn’t STAND Annie’s mother. She instantly gave me the vibe of a narcissistic bitch who didn’t care about anyone but herself, yet at the same time, only cared about how she was perceived.

I’ll tell you, I truly thought throughout the book that The Freak was just a regular creep, seeing a woman and forming an unwarranted obsession with her. Stalking her for a while, taking photographs, and building up a fantasy world in his head.

I wasn’t *completely* shocked by the twist – finding out that Annie’s mother set up the entire abduction for attention, but wow, I can’t imagine my own parent doing something like that for something so.. trivial. You want a one-up on your sister? You’re willing to traumatize your only living daughter, so that you can feel better about yourself? Get attention? A true narcissist, as I stated above.

I felt like there were sprinkles throughout the book that did keep me guessing on who set up the whole thing – I went from thinking it could’ve somehow been her best friend, Christina, her boyfriend Luke, even her Aunt for being competition to her cousin, but I was indeed wrong. More towards the end, before the reveal, I started getting a weird feeling about the mother but I kept asking myself, why would she do it though? Revenge?

Like Annie, I do think part of what she did boils down to the fact that she blamed Annie for the death of her other daughter and husband, and this was a way to both get revenge and attention.

I truly enjoyed this book, and my heart broke all the way through. I’m honestly really happy that Annie seems to get a good ending, instead of leaving off on some lame twisty cliff-hanger. I felt the book tied everything up neatly, and it ended in a perfect spot.

If you’re interested in trying out this book, it’s currently (as of writing this) available to read FREE with Kindle Unlimited!