I was waiting for Never Let You Go to come out in Germany for many months. And it was worth the wait. The cover was one of the first things I´ve noticed. It kind of got me right away and it fits so well. Oh boy … Right from the beginning, this thriller gives you an oppressive feeling. And the more pages I´ve read, the stronger it became. Chevy Stevens has a way to get you into her plot, to make you feel with the protagonist and to literally see everything right before your inner eye – phenomenal. And she for sure knows how to masterly manipulate not only her figures but her readers as well. So many times, I thought it must be that figure or that one. And was wrong.
Ich Beobachte Dich*
by Chevy StevensTranslation Maria Poets
Original Title Never Let You Go
Publisher Fischer Scherz on April 25, 2018
Genre Thriller
Pages 474
Format Softcover
Source Publisher
Goodreads
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Deep and cold is the ocean on the Canadian west coast, wide and rough the land. Here Lindsey lives with her 17-year-old daughter Sophie. Eleven years ago, she escaped a nightmare, living with her controlling, violent husband Andrew. He had to go to jail. Lindsey has blurred all traces and built a new life for herself and Sophie. But now Andrew is free … (personal translation)
Story
Lindsey is happy. Andrew promises her a bright and happy future, he helps her with her parents and everything she seems to desire, he gives her. But soon after the wedding, she starts to see a different face of him. He wants to control everything and gets violent when things don´t go the way he wants. Within no time, she is isolated from her friends, has no money of her own, no job, and a little girl to protect.
Style
The thriller starts with the past, showing you a frightened Lindsey and a very dangerous Andrew. From there the author switches back and forth between the past and the present life Lindsey is now living with her daughter. That way you get a pretty good impression on how life has shaped Lindsey, how she sees things now, that she does everything to protect not only herself but most of all her daughter. On the other hand, you can see, that Sophie isn´t the little girl anymore. She has needs, is curious about life and her father and her point of view are totally different from the one, her mother has, regarding her father. Which gives this thriller a very interesting and remarkable touch; a touch that lets you look closer, makes you sit up and take notice. Because you feel instinctive that something isn´t right. And with that, I am not talking about the fast-paced style. Nope. I am talking about the fact that at some point you want to take Lindsey and shake her to make her wake-up and get out of her passiveness. It was almost nerve-wracking to see her change, to see the moment when she started to realize what was happening and then the final moment when she knew it had to stop. All of it.
Characters
Chevy Stevens usually creates figures that go through hell and back. Strong women who have to endure something horrible, suffer endlessly before they can escape and who seem, to some extent, to be very naïve.
Lindsey and her daughter are very opposed characters. Sophie clearly misses her father, and it is not easy for her to cope with the fact, that her mother seems to only see the monstrous side of him. And that her mother still fears him, something Sophie never experienced, is another thing that leads to some misunderstandings between mother and daughter.
When I realized that Lindsey was a typical blonde, I started to smile. And when I read that Sophie expresses her feelings over her hair color and haircut (which are per se not bad things!) and in her drawings, I had a broad smile all over my face. Don´t get me wrong. I like to experience new hair colors myself. But it was a bit plain to have the slim and well-trained blonde divorcee as the main figure and the rebellious-looking daughter in comparison to the handsome but violent husband. Not complaining, just saying.
In the end, the author got me completely by surprise when it became clear who the evil person really was. It never occurred to me to ask the question about that one person that had changed everything.
Conclusion
Why does it take far less time to read a book than to write it? Within no time I had finished Never Let You Go and was left with an awkward feeling. I felt numb, wasn´t sure what to think of it, and had to deal with all kinds of emotions. The last few pages were explosive, action-filled, and breathtaking. A well-done book that deserves your attention. No matter if you are already a Chevy Stevens fan or on the way to becoming one.
Happy reading
*This book was kindly provided to me by Fischer Scherz / Lovelybooks in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review.
*Book was originally published by St. Martin´s Press on March 14, 2017
Chevy Stevens
Chevy Stevens is the author of Still Missing and Never Knowing. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a realtor. When she held open houses, she had a lot of time waiting by herself between potential buyers, and Stevens would spend this time scaring herself with all the things that could happen to her. The most terrifying scenario she thought up became the story behind Still Missing. Stevens grew up on a ranch on Vancouver Island, and she still calls the island home. When she´s not writing, she´s hiking with her husband and her dog in the local mountains.
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