Still Missing

By Chevy Stevens

Annie is abducted by a dude and held in his cabin for a little over a year. When she gets home she starts seeing a therapist and that's how we learn her story: she tells it to the therapist as if we are the therapist. It's a little strange at first, and the way she talks to the therapist (us) is a little off-putting, but as the story goes it's like the author becomes more relaxed in the character's voice and then you get sucked into the story and don't notice it anymore anyway. While reliving her ordeal for therapy she also talks about what her life is like now, when she's "free". She's struggling with it, basically.

Her life in captivity was an interesting read. I have no idea what research the author did, but the choices she made with Annie's character made sense, and besides I'll never know any different unless I run across a book by a person who has actually experienced it (but I tend to shy away from biographies because knowing that it happened to a real person makes it way harder to read any book dealing with physical and emotional pain). Annie talks about how her abductor makes her laugh, and she hates it, but also during those times she can almost forget where they are and what they're doing. She also talks about how invested you become with the happiness of your jailer--she has to learn so much about him, his likes and dislikes and what makes him angry and what pleases him--and her happiness becomes directly tied to his happiness. I found that really interesting to think about.

The other part of the story--when she comes home--is more of a mystery novel. So in this book you get a two-fer--you get a mystery to solve AND you get this personal look into a victim and how she copes. I really liked this book.