Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Still Missing

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

41 reviews

mbredahl3's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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daphelba's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book was truly a solid 4 stars for me, I read it in a day, tore through it. It was exactly the kind of story I like with themes and concepts that always draw me in (kidnapping, being held against will, abuse, survival, and processing after trauma, etc.)

When i'm not deeply moved by something with these themes, I have to wonder if it's me...just reading too much of the same kinda stuff and becoming desensitized, but when I reflect on this particular rendition I realize it was missing psychological depth. There is a part in the book that is horribly sad (iykyk), and obviously, in that moment it can be hard for a person to really process and explain exactly what they're feeling, but I would have expected to see deeper psychological processing during the healing phase, and there just wasn't. There could be a couple of reasons for this:

1. If the author chooses to delve into that type of processing, to create psychological depth to their character, they run the risk of having half their audience say "that's not how someone would act in this situation...", which is always a narrow-minded viewpoint, but common nonetheless.
2. That may not be the author's area of strength in writing and they'd rather not try to go there.
3. Or, that just wasn't the genre of the book. But if not, I think it's very interesting to have most of the book told through the therapy setting. Sure, some of therapy is the reliving and telling of experiences, but you'd expect that more often the narrator would break down, be unable to continue the session...

While I really enjoyed this book, appreciating the subject and much of the content, and while the book truly gutted me for a moment in the middle -- I can't help but feel stories like this which seem to exist for the thriller/mystery aspect more than the psychological growth aspect, are a bit exploitative. Yes, of characters who do not exist, but also of real humans, sometimes readers, who are looking to process grief or trauma or find their own growth in media with themes that they can relate to in some way. I dock the book a point for this.

There were a couple of moments that were notable for me in showing, psychologically, how life experiences had impacted the main character and the secondary character and I'll be thinking about these for a while:

Annie's kidnapper detailed his relationship with his adoptive mother and his introduction to sexual relationships through her...he talks about how he witnesses her "smile" during a sexual event, and it had me thinking about how he might have learned to be aroused by a lack of enjoyment from his sexual "partner" because he linked his mother having sex with a bad an as something that should have upset her, scared her, not made her happy...so, that was depth.

Additionally, Annie has sex with a character once she is back to "normal" life, and she notes that she has to be in control, that she doesn't want him to look at her, that she doesn't want him to touch her or really be involved, but instead to just allow her to use him. One wonders if this is simply because she's having a hard time feeling safe and connecting with someone sexually, OR, if there is now something twisted and deeper in there... if now, sex has to have this bent to it, that of the two people partaking, one should have all the power. Annie seems to acknowledge openly that this is how she needs to engage in sex for the time-being, but doesn't express the function of this behavior for her...is it arousing, or just functional?

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persephone__'s review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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suzanne28's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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mystarryeyes's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Trigger warning for this book for infant loss, SA, and Physical abuse. The infant loss part of the book was very hard to get through. Don’t read before bed. But man oh man was this book good. I loved the main character. She’s so human, and I loved how her healing journey was not portrayed as linear.

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killmoore_'s review

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is one of the most gut wrenching books I have ever read. Just about every twist and turn absolutely wrecked me, and my heart broke for Annie with every chapter.

I'd give anything to read it for the first time again, ngl.

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