Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare Book Review

Call Me Evie hurt my brain a little.

Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare

Released March 2019

Thriller  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon 

Source: Library Borrow

In this propulsive, twist-filled, and haunting psychological suspense debut perfect for fans of Sharp Objects and Room, a seventeen-year-old girl struggles to remember the role she played on the night her life changed forever.

For the past two weeks, seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet has lived against her will in an isolated cabin in a remote beach town--brought there by a mysterious man named Bill. Part captor, part benefactor, Bill calls her Evie and tells her he's hiding her to protect her. That she did something terrible one night back home in Melbourne--something so unspeakable that he had no choice but to take her away. The trouble is, Kate can't remember the night in question.

The fragments of Kate's shattered memories of her old life seem happy: good friends, a big house in the suburbs, a devoted boyfriend. Bill says he'll help her fill in the blanks--but his story isn't adding up. And as she tries to reconcile the girl she thought she'd been with the devastating consequences Bill claims she's responsible for, Kate will unearth secrets about herself and those closest to her that could change everything.

A riveting debut novel that fearlessly plumbs the darkest recesses of the mind, Call Me Evie explores the fragility of memory and the potential in all of us to hide the truth, even from ourselves.

My 2 Cents For Free!

“We all develop our own little movements and habits to keep the ugly parts hidden.”

This is a book where all of the characters appear to be unreliable narrators. I mean, seriously, every last one of them. They are all shady and untrustworthy at some moment in time. If this doesn’t bother you, and it doesn’t always bother me, you may love this but ONLY if you don’t mind being thrown smack into the middle of a story and being confused for nearly all of it. That’s the part that I didn’t like too much. It hurt my brain and it was very difficult to get to know and understand the characters and even harder to emphasize with them or even dislike them because you never knew what was real and what wasn’t. After a bit of this, I became bored. This might be better on a reread when my brain is ready for it but this time around I found myself being pulled away and having to rewind the audio on several occasions.

The story is told in two sections. The NOW and the BEFORE. Many stories are told in this format but there was something about this one that left me feeling completely out of the loop. I suppose that was the point but it didn’t work for me this time. The BEFORE is filled with some mostly minor teen drama and the AFTER is about a teen who may or may not be a captive of a man named “Jim” or at the very least is being held somewhat against her will, being force fed drugs and is on the lam and hiding after a terrible deed was done. Maybe?! Maybe not! Obviously things happened in the time between the before and the after but they are doled out super slowly throughout the course of the book. If you have patience all will be revealed. I had the patience, believe it or not, but some of the reveals weren’t so great. Or maybe I’m just not so great at reading books written like this. Either way it is getting two and a half stars from me and I suppose I’ll round up because I didn’t entirely dislike it. You may enjoy it more than I did. Most people seem to. I felt completely off-kilter during the entire thing and I didn’t like that feeling but that’s just me and the way I am. Also, a dog is put in peril due to someone’s complete stupidity and I didn’t like that at all. Be warned. I wish I had been warned. Please warn me next time, friends.

3 out of 5