Book Review: Those Girls

For the past year, there have been so many books that have been called "the next Gone Girl;" however, very rarely do they live up to that title. Chevy Stevens, though, is the closest author to Gillian Flynn in her writing that I have been able to find. Similar to Flynn's novels, when reading Stevens' novels, you get so pulled into the storyline that you begin to feel as if you are a part of the book, and Those Girls is no exception. 

image courtesy of Amazon.com

Those Girls is a crime-based psychological thriller which is full of suspense. The three protagonists, sisters Jess, Courtney, and Dani, are at the mercy of their drunken and abusive father following the death of their mother. The girls are left to fend for themselves for days on end while their father goes off on drinking benders. Their pitiful situation worsens when their father returns home and they are forced to live in perpetual fear as they endure his drunken, violet, and abusive actions.

Unable to endure another night of agony, the sisters flee from their home and are on the run when their truck breaks down in a small town. Two seemingly nice guys, Brian and Gaven, offer to help the girls repair their truck, but then find themselves abducted and abused like before. 

When the girls first meet Brian and Gaven, I found myself wanting to scream out loud and tell them not to trust strangers and do some of the things they were going. I legitimately had almost forgotten that it was a book and not real life, and the girls would not hear me yelling. That is how real Stevens' writing is.

While I very much enjoyed the novel, especially since it has such an enthralling and realistic storyline, I felt that the climax of the story was not very developed. The entire novel is extremely detailed, but the climax felt rushed and not as fleshed out as the rest of the novel. Regardless, I give Those Girls an 8 out of 10 and cannot wait until Stevens' next novel is published.