Meet Evie, a young woman held captive by a man named Jim in the isolated New Zealand beach town of Maketu. Jim says he's hiding Evie to protect her, that she did something terrible back home in Melbourne. In a house that creaks against the wind, Evie begins to piece together her fractured memories of the events that led her here. Jim says he's keeping her safe. Evie's not sure she can trust Jim, but can she trust her own memories?
The suspense-thriller genre is a good one to love these days, as there are always new novels being published and authors being introduced. Call Me Evie, a murky suspense story, is J.P. Pomare's debut novel and is a solid addition to the genre. In this twisted thriller, a teenage girl, Evie, is being held against her will by an older man; however, she doesn't know why she has been kidnapped, and neither do we. As the story unfolds, a clearer picture of just why Evie is being kept in hiding starts to emerge ... or does it? Don't trust your eyes on this one - I thought I had it all figured out only to be gratifyingly proven wrong by the end.
I don't typically read suspense novels about women written by men, so I was surprised to learn that J.P. Pomare is actually male! Despite not being a woman, I thought Pomare did a fine job of capturing the thoughts and feelings of a scared and confused Evie, and was able to provoke an emotional response in me through his book. Call Me Evie is told through a present day narrative, as well as through flashbacks, detailing Evie's life as Kate, the girl she was before she was taken away from her home in Australia and whisked away to New Zealand. Bit by bit, we receive more clues as to how Evie ended up in her dire current situation, and we learn just how big of a role she played in her own disappearance.
After reading some reviews, I found that other readers found Pomare's writing style difficult to follow. I, on the other hand, thought that it worked well with this particular story - as much as Evie is left in the dark about her past, so are we. We are fed what Pomare wants us to consume, which makes the book's surprise ending all the more satisfying.
Availabilty: Book; eBook in cloudLibrary
Rating: **** Stars (I really liked it) Reviewer: Brooke, Public Relations Librarian
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AWARDS: Librarians' Choice (Australia) 2018 GENRE: Adult Books for Young Adults; Australian Fiction; New Zealand Fiction; Psychological Suspense
THEME: Missing Memories (A gap in memory conceals vital information); Toxic Relationships (Intense characters interact in unhealthy ways); Unreliable Narrator (Don't believe everything you read)
WRITING STYLE: Compelling TONE: Strong Sense of Place LOCATION: Australia; Melbourne, Victoria; New Zealand
SUBJECT: Amnesia; Deception; Fugitives; Hiding; Manipulation; Memories; Women Criminals; Young Women
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