Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Never List
    Unavailable
    The Never List
    Unavailable
    The Never List
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Never List

    Written by Koethi Zan

    Narrated by Kristen Sieh

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "Psychological thriller writing at its best. Cancel appointments and give up on sleep. It's that kind of book." -Jeffery Deaver

    For years, Sarah Farber and her best friend, Jennifer, kept what they called the Never List: a list of actions to be avoided at all costs, for safety's sake. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride-one with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism. Ten years later, Sarah's abductor is up for parole and she can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends to her from prison. But when Sarah decides to confront her phobias and reconnect with the other survivors she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.

    A blazingly fast read with eerie similarities to the recent kidnapping case in Cleveland, The Never List is a smart, riveting, and bold pageturner that will leave readers awake all night with the lights on.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 16, 2013
    ISBN9781101620335
    Unavailable
    The Never List
    Author

    Koethi Zan

    Koethi Zan was born and raised in rural Alabama, then moved to New York City after earning a J.D. from Yale Law School. She has practiced entertainment law for more than fifteen years, most recently at MTV. She now lives in upstate New York.

    Related to The Never List

    Related audiobooks

    Psychological Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 16, 2021

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Reading CORNER

      Jan 15, 2024

      Three fierce females forge a bond in foster care Domestic thrillers are return together to help the hot right now and while police with their enquiries, this one may be a little even though this means a light on “thrill” or tension, reckoning with e

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Thrill A Second

      Sep 4, 2020

      Gentle Swedish detective Ulf Varg is back in the second instalment of The Department of Sensitive Crimes series. His days are marred by petty bureaucratic red tape, his irritation with his long-winded colleague Blomquist and his unrequited longing fo

      2 min read

    • Article

      University Challenge

      Aug 7, 2022

      Everybody must have met someone like April Clarke-Cliveden. A golden girl, beautiful and bright, hard to resist but also difficult to like at times. She is the It Girl of the title and Hannah Jones first meets her when they both arrive to study at Ox

      1 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Sep 15, 2021

      Fern and Rose are fraternal twins. Fern suffers from sensory processing disorder, so throughout their lives, Rose has been the one in charge, organising her sister. An avid bookworm, Fern works in the library, where her behaviours are camouflaged. Bu

      1 min read

    • Article

      Latest Releases

      Feb 19, 2021

      A woman with terminal cancer makes a decision: instead of letting the disease take its course, she wants to end her life on her terms and she asks a friend to be with her when she does it. I must admit I started reading this book with a sense of trep

      1 min read

    • Article

      Shelf Life

      Oct 5, 2023

      Shelf Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 18, 2023

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      For March, 3 Romances That Fight For Love

      Mar 19, 2019

      True love finds a way amid food trucks, ice skates and ... knife throwing? In other words, March is just another month in Romancelandia, and we've got three stories of people fighting hard for love.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Roller-coaster Ride

      Feb 3, 2023

      By JANE HARPER Macmillan A new book from Australian crime-thriller writer Harper is always something to be excited about. In this, her fifth novel, she brings back Melbourne investigator Aaron Falk introduced in her amazing first novel, The Dry. Aar

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Feb 16, 2024

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jan 26, 2022

      A trio of perspectives are woven together in this emotionally gripping story, revealing the Walsh Family in crisis. Connor is traumatised by the guilt of past events; Aiden is trapped in a mortifying web of deceit; and Lucy is falling apart at the se

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Teenager, Strangers And A Pair Of Apes

      Oct 26, 2023

      PERHAPS AS A FUNCTION OF MY OWN journey through middle age, I have become increasingly interested recently in late work. This is the writing that comes when a writer has passed what blurb-composers call “the peak of their powers”, but at the same tim

      5 min read

    • Article

      Grady Hendrix

      Jul 14, 2021

      HOW DO YOU LIVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE after the biggest thing that’s ever gonna happen to you happened when you were 17?” This was the jumping-off point for Grady Hendrix’s new novel The Final Girl Support Group, a love letter to the young survivors

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four New Friendship Novels and the Ties That May Not Bind

      Apr 3, 2019

      We grow into our friendships as we grow into our books—the ideals crack, what is lost can be more powerful than what is gained, and what is gained is never absolute. The post Four New Friendship Novels and the Ties That May Not Bind appeared first on

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jul 22, 2019

      Elsa Joubert is best known for The Long  Journey of Poppie Nongena, but she also wrote a lot about her travels through Africa. In Cul-de-Sac she describes a journey of another kind: into proper old age (she is 95). Elsa moves into Berghof, a retirem

      4 min read

    Reviews for The Never List

    3.5/5

    193 ratings29 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I will begin with my typical disclaimer: Gillian Flynn is indeed the Big Author for psychological suspense, but phrases like "Best thriller author since Gillian Flynn" or "2013's answer to Gone Girl" are REALLY starting to get old. I adore Gillian Flynn in an all-consuming and slightly demented fashion, but let's allow books NOT written by Gillian Flynn to stand on their own, shall we?With that being said, this is a pretty darn good addition to the list of recent psychological suspense. Premise: Sarah is a young woman in her early 30's who spent three years in the basement of an intelligent and ruthless sadistic psychopath. Her best friend, Jennifer, was also captured and forced to live in the basement, but Jennifer never made it out. Sarah knows deep down that he murdered Jennifer, but no one has been able to prove it. Now, ten years later, Sarah's captor is up for parole and she knows that in order to keep him behind bars, she needs to uncover his secret life and prove that he is a murderer in addition to a torturous psychopath.Readers and readers' advisers often talk about the pacing of a novel. Fast, slow, gradual buildup, etc. This book tears out of the chute at 50 miles an hour, grabs the reader by the throat, and refuses to let up for 300 pages. The novel isn't action-packed or full of chase scenes, but the terror and revulsion that the story evokes is genuine. Sarah & Jennifer's captor liked to academically study the effects of torture on the human body, both mentally and physically, so there's a lot of stomach-churning content here.After reading this novel, I also kept thinking about other intelligent yet terrifying killers in pop culture, particularly Hannibal Lecter or the villain from the Kevin Bacon TV series The Following. It seems to be a popular character type, so I'm interested to see if there will be other novels that follow this example.The conclusion is fairly open-ended which makes me wonder if there's a sequel in the works. I haven't verified this yet, so readers looking for a nice, neat ending might find themselves a bit disappointed if they're not sure there's more story to come.The novel isn't perfect. The main story centers around an illicit human trafficking/prostitution trade being run in the Northwestern part of the country, which is a horrifying concept but a bit too over-the-top to be believed. And some of the events/conclusions/revelations at the end of the novel feel like they were shoehorned into the story to create more plot twists. But I'm still giving it five stars because it captured my attention completely and terrified me in a way that not many books can.Readalikes:Other psychological suspense authors: Gillian Flynn, Koren Zailckas (Mother, Mother), Tana French (although her novels are more mysteries than anything elseThe One I Left Behind - Jennifer McMahon. Both are creepy suspense novels about missing women who have been recovered, although the reasons for their abductions remain a mystery. (From NoveList)The Edge of Normal - Carla Norton. The protagonists of these disturbing novels have learned to put their pasts behind them and live normal lives until they learn that they are still in danger. (From NoveList)
    • 3/5
      The first sentence pulled me in right away and it was quick read. But it was slightly boring in places. I kind of expected the book to be a little bit more about the captivity but it was more of an investigation plot. All in all it was ok.
    • 5/5
      This book was so different from anything I usually read. I received an ARC a few weeks ago and took my time getting to the book since it is outside of my usual genres. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down- literally! I actually stayed up all night to finish it and dragged myself into work sleep deprived the next morning.Since the story centers around a kidnapping, I was apprehensive that it would be too graphic. However, Zan manages to make the reader fully understand the ordeal the kidnap victims endured without needing to describe every last detail. I loved the twists and turns the story takes as well as the different coping mechanisms each character uses to overcome, or at least live with, what happened to them.Beautifully written, exciting and engrossing- I would highly recommend this book and am now excited to see what else this author has written.
    • 4/5
      Following a car accident that injured them both, best friends Sarah and Jennifer begin obsessively writing what they call The Never List; page after page of rules they agree to follow in order to stay safe. Though the guidelines seem irrational, they protect the pair until they leave for college and begin to let their guard down. After breaking one of their own strict rules while leaving a college party, the girls find themselves held captive in a cellar, where they will be tortured for years until Sarah devises an escape plan. Several years later, when their captor begins sending cryptic messages from jail, Sarah must abandon the protective life she has created for herself and begin digging into her past to make sure she is truly safe.

      Summarizing the plot of a book like The Never List is difficult because, when condensed, it will always sound ridiculously over the top or unbelievable. While some pieces of the story seem slightly exaggerated or unnecessary, the central theme of Koethi Zan’s novel is frighteningly real, as evidenced by recent news. The Never List repeatedly twists and turns in surprising ways as Sarah attempts to piece together the new information regarding her captivity, leaving few trustworthy characters and constant burning questions.

      I was reminded of my pre-teen, obsessive Fear Street reading days as I tore through The Never List, and I say that as a compliment. My absolutely-can’t-stop reading experiences have been few and far between since those books, but they are always the most fun. With The Never List, Koethi Zan will invite you into a dark, disturbing world you somehow won’t want to leave.
      Blog: River City Reading
    • 3/5
      It should never have happened to them. Two girls who were so sure that nothing bad could ever touch them and all because of The Never List; the document which lists everything dangerous to never do. Never get into a car with strangers being the number one rule. And yet both friends end up chained in a basement for three years and are subject to torture, psychological mind games, and everything in-between. Eventually they escape, and yet they are all haunted by the experience. The protagonist, Sarah, makes up her mind to revisit her past in order to move on with her future.I'm really not sure how to feel about this book. On one hand, it's well written and engaging. I foud it to be a very quick read. On the other, there are quite a few spelling and grammatical mistakes that I noticed, the plot was incredibly predictable, and I found the whole thing pretty unbelievable. I just cannot tell if I enjoyed this book or not. I'll explain thoroughly.The main character, Sarah, has suffered from severe PTSD, agoraphobia and depression since she escaped. She doesn't go out at all; works from home, orders food and groceries in, doesn't entertain anyone besides her psychiatrist. And yet, despite her severe mental trauma, just because she decides to go out she manages to overcome everything and even get on a plane to a different state. I think it's almost offensive to those who suffer with such severe agoraphobia who can't go outside just because they will themselves to or want to go out. Mental health doesn't work that way, and that makes this story unbelievable. Instead of relating to the character, you feel infuriated by her. It seems like the author only includes her PTSD symptoms when it's convenient to her, and the rest of the time it's barely even mentioned.The big twist at the end was predictable. I knew what would happen before I even started reading the book, just by reading the prelude. This made the ending a bit of a let down. I was expecting something to happen, and the tension kept building and building and building, and then at the end it just sort of... fizzled out to nothing. Maybe this was because it was expected. Maybe it was because it was poorly written. Who knows.This book, however, was a real page turner. I never knew what to expect or what was going to happen. I got through it quickly because I could barely put it down. Despite knowing the big reveal at the end, there were still some unexpected twists throughout the novel which I liked. I also liked the fact that the author never described the torture in detail. This really built the tension because your mind really is your own worst enemy. You always imagine things worse than they are, and I think this creates the "edge of your seat" tension in your mind. I think the torture was handled well and respectfully. The novel overall was written well, and Zan really does have potential to be a fantastic writer. This was the first novel she has written and you can tell, but there is obviously great potential here for her to become a wonderful psychological thriller writer. She uses language well and to her advantage, and can manipulate scenes fantastically. Zan also has a natural talent for explaining just what her characters are thinking. Despite the solid lack of character development, you can tell that Zan plans her characters and sticks with their personalities right through to the end.Overall, despite the obvious flaws, I did enjoy this book and think Zan has the potential to become a wonderful writer in time.
    • 4/5
      Sarah and Jennifer had been long time friends and as college roomates, continued to live by a strict set of rules they created to ensure that the odds of tragedy would never strike them down. One night after a party, they arranged for a driver service to pick them up. Instead, they were kidnapped and enslaved in the basement of a sadistic psychopath, where they remained for several years. Jack, their captor, was a college professor in psychology, and had taken Sarah, Jennifer, and two other girls to torture to his amusement, until one day, Jennifer disappeared. Eventually, the remaining girls were freed and Jack was imprisoned. And that's where the story begins, with Jack facing a parole hearing, and Sarah and the other two girls trying to decide how they can keep him behind bars. Although it is ten years later, Sarah has barely recovered emotionally and her panic attacks, agoraphobia and PTSD symptoms prevent her from leading a normal life or even leaving her apartment. After Jack sends her a threatening and cryptic letter, however, Sarah goads the others to help her figure out what the letters mean, in an attempt to keep him in prison where he belongs. This is a creepy and dark thriller, with some (predictable) twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was somewhat disturbed by the storyline and I actually had a nightmare about the book the night I started it. It may be a little too disturbing for some but was fairly well written and engaging. Good luck with this one. Keep your lights on and your doors locked.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic, addictive read. One of the few books that made me feel disappointed my train ride came to an end! I actually had to read the last couple chapters at work one morning because I had only 15 minutes left (according to my Kindle) and I just had to know what was going to happen.This isn't a perfect book. The baddies are one-dimensionally bad and Sarah's/Caroline's swift change from agoraphobe to awesome detective isn't immediately convincing. However, the book is written so perfectly for a thriller. Zan gets inside Sarah's/Caroline's head in such a compelling and realistic way. The book is paced perfectly, with past events revealed just in time with current events. Most of all, I was really impressed with Zan's writing. I couldn't believe this was a debut novel. It's written deftly. Recommended.
    • 3/5
      If I could divide this book into three parts, I would rate part 1 with 5 stars, part 2 with 3 stars, and part 3 with 2 stars. The book starts out dark, creepy, and well-written. Each character has a little bit more revealed about themselves, the basement, and the box. I couldn't wait to see what had actually happened down there. But about 30 pages in I realized: Wait...I know exactly how this ends. And it turns out, I did. It wasn't that hard to figure out. And like most readers, I felt like Sarah's plot line was completely absurd - she would never, EVER get over that trauma in 4 days that she had been living with for years. As the story went on, I realized ALL the plot lines were totally unbelievable. Talk about going downhill - which is too bad, because that beginning part was really great.
    • 2/5
      The Never List starts with a bang and ends with barely a fizzle. The first paragraph immediately grabbed me and drew me into the story. I wanted to empathize with these women who had been so unspeakably abused that their lives for years later was still affected. The main character found it difficult to even leave her house for groceries and couldn't bear human contact, not so much as a handshake...at first. But the erratic writing made it impossible for me to care about any of them. I felt like I was the one being tortured. Well....maybe not tortured, but definitely irritated.

      I think SOME of my disappointment with The Never List stems from the fact that it had been compared favorably with Gillian Flynn's thrillers. That was not the case, the only similarity was perhaps in the darker theme of the story. Otherwise, nothing about this book could be compared with Flynn's writing. One of the things I love about Flynn is the way she explores down to the darkest part of her damaged characters to find the things that motivate them. I found nothing resembling this kind of character depth in The Never List. These characters not only lacked depth, they lacked even the slightest bit of consistency. They acted in ways that made no sense whatsoever.

      I have so many gripes, this review is probably going to be a bit all over the place. But then, so was most of this story. It bounced back and forth between past and present seemingly at random. Even though the reader is given glimpses of these women during and after their ordeal, the relationships between them is never effectively demonstrated. I did not have any grasp on their individual personalities or where their relationships with one another stood.

      After one absurdly contrived plot twist too many, I gave up even trying to enjoy this book. With the character inconsistencies, the contrived plot twists, convenient rescues (deus ex machina much?), info dumping, and a completely far-fetched and over reaching ending, it's easy to see that this is not a book I would recommend. Although I will say that my friend read it in a day and a half and loved it and I've read many other reviews that also rate it highly. Unfortunately, I am not a fan. I wish, with this fascinating premise, that the story would have been more cohesive because I can see where this could have been, in the right hands, an incredible book.
    • 3/5
      There's much about the plot of this book that starts to feel ridiculously implausible if you think about it too long, but it is an exciting read with a likable main character and a lot of twists and turns along the way.
    • 4/5
      My favorite movies are the ones where at the end I gasp as some crazy new twist is revealed. The one I never saw coming. This is like that. In book form. Awesome.
    • 2/5
      The Never List starts with a bang and ends with barely a fizzle. The first paragraph immediately grabbed me and drew me into the story. I wanted to empathize with these women who had been so unspeakably abused that their lives for years later was still affected. The main character found it difficult to even leave her house for groceries and couldn't bear human contact, not so much as a handshake...at first. But the erratic writing made it impossible for me to care about any of them. I felt like I was the one being tortured. Well....maybe not tortured, but definitely irritated.

      I think SOME of my disappointment with The Never List stems from the fact that it had been compared favorably with Gillian Flynn's thrillers. That was not the case, the only similarity was perhaps in the darker theme of the story. Otherwise, nothing about this book could be compared with Flynn's writing. One of the things I love about Flynn is the way she explores down to the darkest part of her damaged characters to find the things that motivate them. I found nothing resembling this kind of character depth in The Never List. These characters not only lacked depth, they lacked even the slightest bit of consistency. They acted in ways that made no sense whatsoever.

      I have so many gripes, this review is probably going to be a bit all over the place. But then, so was most of this story. It bounced back and forth between past and present seemingly at random. Even though the reader is given glimpses of these women during and after their ordeal, the relationships between them is never effectively demonstrated. I did not have any grasp on their individual personalities or where their relationships with one another stood.

      After one absurdly contrived plot twist too many, I gave up even trying to enjoy this book. With the character inconsistencies, the contrived plot twists, convenient rescues (deus ex machina much?), info dumping, and a completely far-fetched and over reaching ending, it's easy to see that this is not a book I would recommend. Although I will say that my friend read it in a day and a half and loved it and I've read many other reviews that also rate it highly. Unfortunately, I am not a fan. I wish, with this fascinating premise, that the story would have been more cohesive because I can see where this could have been, in the right hands, an incredible book.
    • 3/5
      This one grabs you from the very first page and never lets you go. While it's not nearly as dark and macabre as I expected reading the synopsis, it was certainly written in a manner that gives quite an emotional reaction to what is happening. The characters seemed well developed for the most part, although there were a few questionable instances that left me wondering if parts were thrown in at the last moment to fill a gap. The flow of the story was done well, grabbing the reader from the very start in a way that keeps the pages turning even when things were not flowing as smoothly. The idea of the plot seems quite good and the characters seem fairly realistic, it just needs a bit of ironing out to earn four stars.
    • 5/5
      People, I could not put The Never List by Koethi Zan down. From the first few opening lines, I was beyond hooked. I had to know what was going on and I had to know it now. And from that starting point, things only got more tense. In fact, my hands are still sore from the urgent clutching I was doing to my poor iPad. But I survived, and now I am telling you that if you are a fan of thriller/suspense novels, if you want a good "bad guy" to hate in a book, and if you are a fan of staying up until 4am because you have to get to the end of the story then this is the book for you.Read the rest of the review on The Lost Entwife on July 23, 2013!
    • 4/5
      The Never List is one of those books that will have you on the edge of your seat, as it takes you on a dark and twisted ride through its pages. All I can say was that this was fantastic.

      Full review to come.
    • 5/5
      Four young women were kidnapped and illegally held prisoner in conditions where the were not fed properly and were tortured. One were tortured to death. Others were chained to the wall, kept underground for almost three years.Now it's ten years later and Caroline, who now calls herself Sarah, is still struggling with being in society. She shuts herself off and keeps to her apartment, keeping it immaculate and clean. She cannot get over the girl who was tortured to death, was her best friend Jennifer, and her body is still missing to this day.How could she get over it, they were like sisters. After Jennifer lost her family, she lived with Caroline's family, where they became paranoid enough to create a Never List. It's a list of things you should never do. Sarah implements each and every one into her current lifestyle and takes them all very seriously.Now Sarah is determined to find the hidden meaning behind mysterious letters that come in the mail from the very man who imprisoned her.This book has so many twists and turns, I couldn't put it down. The very plot had me extremely intrigued, and once I started reading, I never stopped. I usually love books that have unique and interesting plots that jerk you in all directions, and this one did not let me down.The ending was my favorite, I won't spoil it for you, but all the characters are unfolded and revealed. It's a great way to end the story, I greatly appreciated the author's dialogue which was very well written. I absolutely love thrillers, and this one fits perfectly into this category. A great book to add to my absolute favorite thrillers.
    • 5/5
      It takes a lot to get 5 stars from me. This book pulled me in from page one, and I finished it the same day. A very current plot, great characters, and enough plot twists that just when you've figured out "who done it" something changes your mind! It was a little bit too graphic in a few spots, but not there just for shock value. This is a book I'll read again. There's so much I read quickly because I had to know how it ended that I want to ponder on.I love a book you can't wait to finish and dread finishing it!
    • 3/5
      This is the story of three women, held captive and tortured for years by a sadist, and now 10 years free and still attempting to deal with the results of their ordeal. One of the women is on a quest to find out what happened to her friend Jennifer, the fourth girl who died during their captivity.Of course, first I must state the obvious and point out the crazy coincidence that this book was released right around the time that the three girls were rescued in Cleveland after ten years of captivity.The story was intriguing. And at times the writing could be quite engaging. However one thing that really bugged me was the dialogue between the girls. It felt unauthentic, stiff and formal. Usually I am a dialogue reader-- it's what I prefer. Not this time. I came to dread the dialogue, as everything else in the story was so much better written. And there were times the story was just plain preposterous.My final word: This story had its moments. It wasn't generally gratuitously violent or gory. (Considering the context, I feared I may be walking into something like the movie "Hostel", and was happy to see it was not.) Some of the writing was pretty good, and the story kept me guessing, wondering what would come next. There was a nice twist at the end that made the story ultimately satisfying. But I struggled with the dialogue and some of the characters, and some things were just plain ridiculous. I recommend this book, but not without reservations.
    • 4/5
      I found this to be very well written. It's a creepy mystery with plenty of twists and turns. Just when you think you know who the people are and what they are doing, you are thrown in a different direction and find out you had it all wrong. That ending! I knew a tiny piece of it, but was very surprised. I hope they write a sequel. I would love to see what happened to all of the girls on the list and hear their stories.
    • 5/5
      Debut thriller about two friends who are abducted and imprisoned for years by a depraved madman. If that weren't bad enough - they are not the only ones! The survivors are eventually rescued and the man is sent to prison. The book details both the pain and suffering these girls endured at the hands of this twisted individual but also the struggles they have experienced attempting to move past the time and live a normal life. Ten years later, the survivors are told that the man may be released from jail soon, and he hasn't forgotten them. Real page turner, read it all in one day!
    • 4/5
      I rcvd this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.I wish they would not compare this to Gone Girl. I didn't particularly care for that book. This book has a lot of promise. GREAT story line and captured my attention from the beginning. The story revolves around Sarah and 3 other women's captivity and torture for years. I wish it would have given more of their story maybe with different POV's. You have to wonder how they became the people they became. The story does focus more from Sarah's POV and while compelling I want to know about Christine and Tracy also. Maybe even from the cops.There are parts of the book that are eery and made me want to sleep with the light on.This book is a good read, not great but solid non the less. If anything it makes you aware that no matter how much you plan and predict...nothing is certain.
    • 2/5
      I've read the other reviews and can't for the life of me see why everyone thought this book was so great. I found it boring and not very well written. Very unbelievable too.
    • 3/5
      Didn't reallly enjoy the story line or the characters that much.
    • 3/5
      The Never List is Koethi Zan's debut novel. Zan hits us hard right from the first page.... "There were four of us down there for the first thirty-two months and eleven days of our captivity. And then very suddenly and without warning, there were three. Even though the fourth person hadn't made any noise at all in several months, the room got quiet when she was gone. For a long time after that, we sat in silence, in the dark, wondering which of us would be next in the box." Sarah and Jennifer have been friends since childhood. They've lived by a set of 'never' rules. You know - never leave your drink unattended, never let the gas go below a quarter tank etc. But in their first semester of university, they make a mistake. A costly one. They are kidnapped and held captive by a psychopath named Jack. Some of the girls eventually manage to escape, but of course, their lives are never the same. Sarah has spent the last ten years hiding in her high-rise apartment. Jack has sent her letters the entire time he's been in prison. When the FBI agent associated with her case brings the news that Jack is up for parole, he asks her to attend the hearing to present her statement against parole. (After only ten years?!) Sarah at first says no, but decides to finally face her past - and reclaim her life. But what she and the other survivors encounter is no less horrifying that their time in the cellar. Some details from the past are slowly revealed as the women try to crack the clues Jack has left for them in an attempt to find evidence to keep Jack in prison longer. Is someone still carrying on his bidding outside of the prison? Zan's book released before the news of Amanda Berry's release, but the cases are eerily similar. The book started out quite promising, but the second half just didn't live up to the promise. It seemed like Zan flipped a switch and said 'action! All the right elements are in place for a thriller, but I found some actions stretched credibility for me. Sarah is an agoraphobic suffering but PTSD, but is suddenly able to fly, drive alone, go to places that hold horrific memories and play Nancy Drew. Yes, her coping is discussed but I just found it too much of a stretch. As were some characters. The FBI agent has to be the most ineffectual lawman I've seen in a book in a long time. Connections and coincidences were too neat and ready. The 'twist' ending, while good, was telegraphed long before the final pages. Zan has worked as an entertainment lawyer for many years and the book seems to draw on that background. Sensationalistic, plotlines that were implausible and too much action. Yes, too much to be believable. Kidnapped twice in one day?! The book has several cover blurbs from many suspense/thriller authors that I read, which was prompted me to pick up the book in the first place. But for this reader it didn't live up to those blurbs. It wasn't in the same class as Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter - comparisons made by the publisher. It was a good, solid debut, but not a stand out for me. That being said, I think Zan has promise and will mature with future books. (Gentle readers be warned - violence and graphic descriptions.)
    • 5/5
      I always felt on my toes throughout the book. So many side stories that each contributed as a piece of the puzzle.The end was the most shocking though!
    • 3/5
      The Never List by Koethi Zan is a psychological thriller that covers deeply disturbing subject matter. I was immediately pulled into this story of young girls that were kidnapped, chained in a cellar and brutally tortured. In actuality the book is set 10 years after three of the girls were rescued and their torturer was in prison. After ten years, he is coming up for patrol and Sarah, the narrator of the book, feels that it is her job to insure he doesn’t get out. She also is still hoping to locate the body of the fourth girl, her best friend Jennifer.One aspect of the story that I thought was well done was the author’s handling of the descriptions of the girl’s imprisonment. Most of the action is implied, very little described, leaving it up to the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks. The resulting material was still heart-wrenching but not as sickening as it could have been.Unfortunately as the story developed I found it harder and harder to believe. The opening of the book was excellent, then it became rather mediocre and the ending was definitely sub-par. I think the author was trying to build too many twists into her dark story but instead of intensifying the terror, it became far-fetched and annoying. In this case far less elaboration would have made for a far better story.
    • 4/5
      Eek, this was a creepy, disturbing book, but in an edge of your seat, can’t turn the pages fast enough kind of way. These two young women, Sarah and Jennifer, end up torture slaves in the cellar of a sadistic sociopath for three years, even though they took safety precautions to the extreme. Still, it can happen. Scary. Ten years later, Sarah is still mourning the fact that Jennifer never made it out of the cellar, and she’s terrified that the sicko could be free on parole very soon. *shudders*Sarah was a well-drawn, sympathetic character, and my heart went out to her. For the past decade, she’d basically shut herself off from the rest of the world, preferring the solitude of her apartment to having contact with other people. It’s the threat of having her abductor paroled that forces her out of her shell. He has been sending cryptic letters from prison to Sarah and the two other cellar survivors, Tracy and Caroline. Sarah is convinced these letters hold clues to his true motives behind the madness, and finally, she may be able to lay Jennifer to rest.THE NEVER LIST is a chilling read that alternates between Sarah’s present day quest to discover the truth and flashbacks to her time in captivity. I’m thankful the author left out really gory details, but she did give readers enough that we could imagine the horrors going on. The plot was fast paced with many twists and surprise revelations along the way, and the ending was brilliant!I have two complaints about the book. First, there was a scene toward the end that just didn’t add up. I can’t go into details without spoilers, so I’ll just say that either the police missed something major, or I missed something! Secondly, I wish that Jim the FBI agent’s character had been developed more. He seemed like a big part of the case and one of the few people Sarah trusted, so I wanted to know more about him.Overall, this was an awesome thriller, one that will haunt my brain and keep me looking over my shoulder for a long time to come.
    • 3/5
      Years after escaping a house of torture, Sarah, is coerced to come out of her shell of an existence to keep the torturer locked up. She also needs to fulfill her mission, and before long she re-unites with the other women who lived in the house with her. Strong plot and timing. Good read.
    • 4/5
      I really wanted to like this book but after the first 40 pages I was afraid this book was going to be as bad as the new book Tampa, both deal with non vanilla sex and are the first books by female authors. But that is where the similarity ends. The Never List does touch on BDSM, but just barely and at no time is the book graphic. I kept reading and was happy I did. The problem in the beginning is that parts seem so totally implausible that I was getting tired of saying "like that would happen". Stick with the book and you will be rewarded with a good thriller.