Her First Mistake

by Koethi Zan

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Sarah and Jennifer kept a “Never List”; this is a list of things to avoid, to keep safe. Rule number one “Never get into a strangers car” but this is what happened and they were abducted. Ten years later Sarah still struggles to get over the torturous event that took plays in that dungeon-like cellar. Now that her abductor is up for parole Sarah decides this is her last chance to find Jennifer’s body and keep this sadist in prison.

I want to compare Koethi Zan’s debut The Never List to thriller authors like S.J. Watson but maybe Gillian Flynn is a better choice. Much like Flynn’s Gone Girl, The Never List does something different to the thriller genre that I don’t think I’ve seen before. Rest assured the standard psychological thriller tropes are there but this novel focuses more on the psychological rather than the thriller elements.

The Never List focuses on the aftermath of the abduction and sadistic torture and focuses on Sarah as she tries to recover from these traumatic events. Though this wasn’t done to a full extent and I end up feeling like this was a missed opportunity to really explore the psychology and the road to recovery (if you can truly come back from that), rather it went to the thriller clichés instead.

I really enjoyed the focus on the aftermaths but Koethi Zan had other ideas for this novel. I did end up enjoying the thrilling journey it ended up taking but I felt like the twists were too visible and never unexpected. I choice to see the lack of character development as an attempt for Sarah and the others to protect themselves from being hurt again, this seemed to work well for the enjoyment of this novel.

I don’t want to give too much away, just in case people want to read this novel and it is well worth checking out. I did enjoy the book, I had questions and upon reflection when I tried to get these answers I noticed most of the major problems. For me the novel had the opportunity to do something different but took the safe path and followed a cliché thriller path. The ending felt anti climatic as a result of the safety in plotting.

Thriller fans will enjoy this book; I just think there was a missed opportunity to do something far more complex and interesting. As a debut novel, I can understand why Koethi Zan didn’t risk it but I would have liked the book a whole lot more. As I said before I would compare it to S.J. Watson and Gillian Flynn, so if you like their books you may enjoy this one. I’m interested to see what Zan does in the future; she has a promising career ahead of her.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/10/20/book-review-the-never-list/