Review Never Never (Never Never #1) by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Review Never Never (Never Never #1) by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Synopsis: Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen.
Complete strangers since this morning.
He'll do anything to remember. She'll do anything to forget.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

ADD TO GOODREADS

My thoughts:

“Never stop. Never forget.”

I don't really know what I've just read. A mystery? A drama? A romance? Or maybe a thriller?

The answer is yes. Four times yes.

Never Never turned out to be a short, compelling and very strange book. I went in completely blind (and I recommend you do the same if you haven't read it yet) having read only the synopsis but as you already know that doesn't properly explain what happens in this story. That would be kind of impossible since, if you allow me to say this, neither does the book. This is the kind of read where you just need to go with the flow if you want to truly enjoy it, because the whole 'plot' is triggered by a series of events that remain unknown to us (and ones that will hopefully be unraveled in the sequel) and that might or might not have anything to do with paranormal stuff. Trust me, it's complicated.

I'll skip the plotline talk and go ahead dissing about our two main characters that also grant us their points of view in the development of their story. And to protect you from unwanted spoilers, I'll refer to them from two perspectives: the then and the now.

First thing first, the girl. Charlie Wynwood. Then -- she struck me as a real queen bee. Cunning, smart and broken. Nonetheless, I believe she followed her own secret agenda. Now -- the impressive royal superior behavior that I'm not really a fan of is still present, but not so abundant; she's vulnerable, scared and alone. I needed some time to warm up to her, but in the end I realized I became quite attached to her character and I understood she's just hiding inside herself, creating walls of deceit, fears and regrets, all of which will soon tumble down with a dose of self-destruction.

“I consider telling him the truth. That if I were dead like Snow White and he kissed me like that, surely my heart would kick back to life. That I’d be the one to slay dragons for that kiss.”

Then there's the boy. Silas Nash. Oh, Silas. Then -- still haven't figured him out, but what I do know is that he might've been the jock type combined with a seriously swoony boyfriend. Now -- pretty much the same, albeit without the jock demeanor. He's cute, funny and smart. Loving, kind and romantic. He had me smiling from ear to ear whenever he told a goofy joke and I loved the sheer alpha protectiveness he had around Charlie. Plus, his jealousy was just the right amount to make him adorable in his lovesick puppy ways.

“I may not remember anything about her, but I would bet her smile was my favorite part of her.”

Charlie and Silas, the couple. Then -- dysfunctional, toxic, bittersweet. How (or if) they still managed to love one another is beyond me. Now -- pure, heartwarming and a bit sad. Sad that they will inevitably have to face their demons and that it's impossible for them to remain in this somewhat happy state. Suffice it to say, I want to know everything about them. About their early days. About their dreams. Their hopes. Their fears. Their families. Their secrets. But most of all, their downfall from such a glorious and perfect love. Every single little detail.

“You think you can make me like you again?”
I look over at her and give my head the slightest shake. “No. I’m gonna make you fall in love with me again.”

The biggest issue I had with Never Never was its first half. More specifically, the plot. Or lack thereof. I felt there was no direction and my mind lost focus quickly. The characters needed some temporary goals, not just "let's see how this goes and then we'll handle it from that". I needed some action, some activity, something. I needed them to take the matter into their own hands and discover as much as they could.  Of course, they were dumbfounded into next era, but a bit speed to the recovering process to get the story going wouldn't have hurt.

This book would have been a solid three stars for the first half, but the second one proved to be ten times better -- at least for me. It finally trapped me in with that captivating storytelling I wanted to experience from the very beginning. That gorgeous combination of mystery, thriller and drama hit the page with thundering force and I was completely dazed by it. I devoured page after page and soon the book was finished and I was left pondering what kind of read Never Never was.

And, ah, that ending! It deserves every constellation there is because it brought the game up a notch and it is so. Damn. EXCITING. Eeeep! That final revelation had my heart bursting into trepidation, exactly like our hero's behavior, and I couldn't help being completely bewildered by the bigger picture. Not the mention the last few pages that had me fearing for Charlie's fate. My first thought after I read To Be Continued was "What the actual fuck?", but at the same time it put things into a new light: there's so much more to the story that we still don't know and I desperately want to delve deeper and discover all of its secrets.

Now there's just one last thing to discuss. The writing style. Which, unfortunately, has been quite a letdown. Why, you might wonder. After all, Never Never is the work of the queens of heartbreak, betrayal and love -- Colleen and Tarryn. I couldn't decipher which one wrote this and which one wrote that and the overall result turned out to be pretty unitary, mixing Hoover's unique romance elements and Fisher's gorgeous way of painting them with secrets, lies and treachery. So this wasn't my issue. My problem was that, somehow, although these two amazing authors shared forces in creating this story, some lines and expressions were redundant and dulled the overall reading experience. But I also know this might be one of my pet-peeves and most people actually overlooked it, so it's not necessarily a bad point. I just would've liked, you know, things to be told a bit differently now and then.

Never Never is, in a word, strange. I'm sure some people will adore it as I'm sure some will downright hate it. But the way I see it, Never Never allowed us a second shot at a broken love. It allowed us to pick up the pieces and put them back together, only stronger this time. Equally hopeful as it is sorrowful, this story will definitely have you begging for its continuation and in awe of how love can turn to sawdust only to be transformed into molten gold by the end.

ENJOY! <3