Review: Never Never

Never Never: Part Two by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a bit of a difficult "book" to review as it's really only one part of a whole. If I were to try and review this as a standalone book then I'd say that it has done it's job of keeping me on the edge of my seat throughout! Silas' anxiety leaps off the page as he desperately searches for answers to his and Charlie's recurrent memory loss, not to mention his search for Charlie herself before their memories are erased in 48 hours. Each new clue he uncovers only leads to more questions - questions that continue to mount faster than they can be answered in the short amount of time he has, all adding to an overwhelming atmosphere rife with suspense and dread as time ticks down to that final minute, those final seconds...until I read the line "to be continued."

If I were to compare the two parts separately so far, I'd say that I enjoyed Part One more in terms of the initial build-up of suspense and mystery surrounding their memory loss. I feel that both Silas' and Charlie's desperation and anxiety in this impossible situation that they find themselves in is felt so much more in Part One than Part Two, even despite the fact that Charlie is M.I.A. in Part Two. Obviously the mystery surrounding her whereabouts adds to the overall sense of dread and confusion of the story, especially for Silas as he basically flies solo in trying to find her, yet I still feel that Part Two is weaker in terms of keeping up that same level of suspense that I felt in Part One. Or maybe it's because the two parts are separated that I feel a decided lack of suspense in Part Two, as I had to try to dive back into the same feelings that I had forgotten about previously.

Perhaps if the parts were instead complied together as one I might change my mind about the coherence of their story and how it flows...I'm left simply imagining how I might react if this were the case and so I'm guessing that I would feel a more sustainable thread of fear and emotion towards these characters throughout had it instead been one book. The thing is that it's hard to jump back into their story and into that feeling of "eep, what's happening next!?" when it's been a while in between the parts and I do think that I'll feel the same way once Part Three is released. Also, this time around I found it harder to believe Silas' love for Charlie even though he keeps saying he just sort of "knows" he loves her...I mean all he has to go on this time when he "wakes up" are the letters explaining their unending love without a physical Charlie around and it just doesn't feel as compelling or realistic to me without them actually being face to face.

In the same situation, how would any one of us react?? (And yes I know this is completely a work of fiction!!) But still, IF this happened to you, would you blindly believe these letters and go it alone or would you turn yourself into the police or a crazy hospital? That's one question I kept asking myself and I'm still not quite sure of the answer. Either way, although the story is incredibly interesting and I do want to figure out how it ends, I'm just not sure I can follow or accept how believable the character's reactions are each time. Well, aside from Charlie because I'm pretty sure I'd do exactly what she does in order to find my own answers!

So despite some reservations I do think it is well written and I will be reading the last one just to find out how it ends. There is enough of a cliffhanger (again) that it's kind of hard not to be curious. Though it might have been wiser to wait for all three to be released and read them all at once!

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