Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

"Let's try this again. Are you Annie O'Sullivan from Clayton Falls?"
"Yes. Am I on Vancouver Islands?"
"You don't know?"
"That's why I'm asking."

Title: Still Missing
Author: Chevy Stevens
ISBN: 9780312595678
Publisher: St. Martins Press/2010
Pages: 352


I read Still Missing right after reading Stolen by Lucy Christopher. The similarity in both the books is the Kidnapping. Both are scary too, for obvious reasons. And blew my mind completely.

In Still Missing Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, is narratinge to her psychiatrist, about her year of captivity, her thoughts, her harrowing experiences, her insights too.

Annie O’Sullivan is a good realtor, living in Vancouver Island, has made a name for herself, has a nice boyfriend, and a good friend Christina, and of course her mother, Lorraine, who is not very close to Annie but seems to love her, nonetheless. On a slow open house day, when a visitor comes Annie is happy to show him the house not knowing her world is gong to change forever.

She is kidnapped by that stranger and taken into a remote mountain cabin, somewhere near Lake Superior, where each of her moments is regulated by the psychopath, whom Annie addresses as The Freak. He rapes her every night and does not let go of her out of his sight even for a second. And when he does leave to go out, he locks her up, with no food. The Freak thinks he is a normal human being living in a perfect world untouched, uncorrupted by outside forces. Annie is forced to do as he wishes and Annie does all this to survive. Then she escapes...

So her sessions with the psychiatrist start, where she narrates each second of what she went through. Even after her escape no one knows who is that psychopath. Annie lives in constant fear and sleeps in a closet at night. She tries to eat when she wants, do whatever she wishes to, even pee at any time. But she can't. The Freak had a set time for everything and had forced Annie to follow them, this also included four toilets breaks only at designated times.

Annie is tough, a survivor, at times a savage, yet she is vulnerable, terrified and scarred for life. For all her experiences, we see Annie going through life with dignity, her head held high. This is what endears her to us. We are all the way with Annie. Even after her escape, she is still missing. And she has to find herself again.

The police is searching for The Freak's identity and when they do identify him, it does not make sense why he kidnapped her. When the truth is revealed, we are as devastated as Annie. Chevy Stevens has created a great character in Annie and of course, The Freak. It is one of those start to finish books.

As I mentioned before, Stolen too is a book worth checking out. It too is story of a kidnapped girl, told in narrative letter by her to her captor. Both books are different, yet similar.