cleg11's review
3.0
Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.
Sam and her friends used to play a game called never have I ever which is a game of dares. The game goes wrong on Sams last day in Ilfracombe and she thinks she can leave it all behind. However when she returns to Ilfracombe 23 years after she left her past catches up with her.
Sam and her friends used to play a game called never have I ever which is a game of dares. The game goes wrong on Sams last day in Ilfracombe and she thinks she can leave it all behind. However when she returns to Ilfracombe 23 years after she left her past catches up with her.
snoakes7001's review
5.0
Sam, her husband Mo and their son Caleb have relocated from London to Ilfracombe, Sam's childhood home. Once there, Sam's past returns to haunt her. When she was a teenager her gang of friends were obsessed with Never Have I Ever - a game where players dare one another to do something they've never done before. It started fairly innocuously with dares to shoplift or kiss a boy, but teenage girls being what they are, the game soon got out of hand becoming increasingly vindictive and bullying. And now she's back, someone else who remembers the game is sending Sam anonymous and threatening letters starting Never Have I Ever...
Lucy V. Hay gets Ilfracombe just right with its mix of faded Victorian grandeur, up-and-coming gentrification, and the crushing poverty and deprivation of a small rural town.
Sam herself is a pleasingly unreliable narrator, and not always that likeable. Confident in her memories, she tracks down some of her old school friends but their versions of events don't always seem to chime with hers. She jumps to conclusions, fires off accusations without a single thought for the consequences and shuts out her husband, driving a wedge through their relationship.
From about halfway through, I was convinced I knew where this was going but gratifyingly I was totally wrong.
Never Have I Ever ticks all the boxes for a psychological thriller for me with a complex central character, a great location and a believable plot that keeps you turning the pages.
Lucy V. Hay gets Ilfracombe just right with its mix of faded Victorian grandeur, up-and-coming gentrification, and the crushing poverty and deprivation of a small rural town.
Sam herself is a pleasingly unreliable narrator, and not always that likeable. Confident in her memories, she tracks down some of her old school friends but their versions of events don't always seem to chime with hers. She jumps to conclusions, fires off accusations without a single thought for the consequences and shuts out her husband, driving a wedge through their relationship.
From about halfway through, I was convinced I knew where this was going but gratifyingly I was totally wrong.
Never Have I Ever ticks all the boxes for a psychological thriller for me with a complex central character, a great location and a believable plot that keeps you turning the pages.
kaitlanmooney1's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
thelifeoflaura's review
3.0
Sam is doing well in her career, she has a husband and a baby and life is going well. That is until she gets the note through her door that stops her heart in her chest. Never Have I Ever Been Punished For What I Have Done.
Sam is catapulted back to those teenage years spent with her best friends, teasing out each other's secrets by announcing things they had Never, ever done. Pushing each other's boundaries, growing closer and growing up. If only they'd stopped there.
I don't know why, but I do feel like I was reading this at the perfect time of year, with Halloween quickly approaching and everything. It was a good book, with thrills you don't expect and a plot twist at the end (that I didn't expect). I will admit that Sam frustrated me as a character, but more for the way she treated her husband through all of this. To some extent I can understand it, now knowing the ending, but there were times where I did want to shake her and go 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST ASK FOR HELP'. Maybe that's the point though. But overall it was a great book, not my favourite thriller, but it was well written and I did want to keep reading it, so that's a good sign.
Sam is catapulted back to those teenage years spent with her best friends, teasing out each other's secrets by announcing things they had Never, ever done. Pushing each other's boundaries, growing closer and growing up. If only they'd stopped there.
I don't know why, but I do feel like I was reading this at the perfect time of year, with Halloween quickly approaching and everything. It was a good book, with thrills you don't expect and a plot twist at the end (that I didn't expect). I will admit that Sam frustrated me as a character, but more for the way she treated her husband through all of this. To some extent I can understand it, now knowing the ending, but there were times where I did want to shake her and go 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST ASK FOR HELP'. Maybe that's the point though. But overall it was a great book, not my favourite thriller, but it was well written and I did want to keep reading it, so that's a good sign.
laura_h_77's review
2.0
I was so disappointed by this book. So much about it seemed to be just my thing, set in an area I grew up in, with a similar sort of friendship group, and moving away as an older teen. Not that I would go back, and while there were shenanigans in the fields I don’t think anyone died. But anyway. I found the observations on the town and locals quite narrow minded and rude. Random relatives of Aimee kept popping up to fulfil parts of the plot, and then Jess came from nowhere which was strange. It felt like the plotting was missing huge chunks, but filled it instead with the mundane life of someone constantly popping out to run around the countryside. Sam was just awful, she treated everyone like they were beneath her. At times the author described the behaviour of a child much older than 13 months and then went back to him lying and kicking at a mobile like a baby. That grated on me, as did the constant dumping of him on her poor mum. So I couldn’t warm to this woman who was supposedly so dedicated to her child and husband yet got shot of them at every opportunity. Finally, if it was mentioned once that she’d been away for 23 years, it was mentioned 23 times… per chapter. Should have stayed away longer I think.
energyrae's review
2.0
I had to DNF this.
The tenses are all over the place, something typical of a first, self-published book, and I'm baffled this has slipped by an editor's desk. The main character Sam is repeatedly all over the place. Multiple times each chapter we had to read of her decision to not tell her husband the truth of what was going on, and while I was mildly curious about what was going on, it was clear we were never going to get there. She's pretty awful to her husband without a reason.
The inner dialog was unexciting, repetitive, and went in circles that weren't engaging. There is an inordinate amount of time spent telling the day to day of this women's life, it's incredibly repetitive and is more of a space filler than actually moving the story along. Perhaps if it was properly edited it would be worth revisiting.
The tenses are all over the place, something typical of a first, self-published book, and I'm baffled this has slipped by an editor's desk. The main character Sam is repeatedly all over the place. Multiple times each chapter we had to read of her decision to not tell her husband the truth of what was going on, and while I was mildly curious about what was going on, it was clear we were never going to get there. She's pretty awful to her husband without a reason.
The inner dialog was unexciting, repetitive, and went in circles that weren't engaging. There is an inordinate amount of time spent telling the day to day of this women's life, it's incredibly repetitive and is more of a space filler than actually moving the story along. Perhaps if it was properly edited it would be worth revisiting.
beckiebookworm1974's review
3.0
So this started out so well then settled slightly losing momentum and then the ending kind of rescued things a tad, so mixed bag from me really.
So this story is told from sams Pov a successful author who moves back to Ilfracombe her childhood stomping grounds with her husband and son.
I liked that it was set in Devon and the author has done their homework well, I recognised many place names from our family holidays including the Wetherspoons pub, which was nice.
So there's really two-story threads happening here, fan-mail from an anonymous person that is kind of freaking Sam out that she's been having for a while and after she moves home Never Have I Ever Letters, a game she used to play with her friends when they were teenagers.
A game she would rather forget they ever played.
So the story here was interesting and I kept reading because I wanted to know the outcome and who was behind it all terrorising Sam.
My issue was there was a tad too much of the mundane everyday thrown in to keep my attention wholly and I got to be honest without that ending that pulled it out the bag my rating would probably be lower.
I also couldn't stand Sam herself she was narcissistic and Selfish and plain mean to her poor hubby, who was lovely by the way, so that also put a damper on the whole thing.
So yeh I did enjoy this to a point, it was a good read, it just didn't manage to blow me away, but as I said I did love the finish.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of Never Have I Ever.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
www.beckiebookworm.com
dave_holwill's review
4.0
I should probably begin by saying I grew up in North Devon and used to know the author a bit back in the 90s. I haven’t seen her in roughly 23 years though (full disclosure, Never Have I Ever sent her a weird and vaguely threatening note). I loved all the references to places I know well – particularly when the antagonist is revealed to have been expelled from my old school in the opening chapters, and any book that gives Lynmouth’s model railway museum a shout-out is a winner in my book.
Sam is not a likeable protagonist, but people in general are not likeable, so I saw this as a plus point rather than a minus and enjoyed trying to figure out when she was lying and when she was truthing. The end will keep you guessing and you might find yourself rooting for the wrong person.
All in all a cracking read for anyone of a certain age who’s got a train journey from Devon to London to fill.
Sam is not a likeable protagonist, but people in general are not likeable, so I saw this as a plus point rather than a minus and enjoyed trying to figure out when she was lying and when she was truthing. The end will keep you guessing and you might find yourself rooting for the wrong person.
All in all a cracking read for anyone of a certain age who’s got a train journey from Devon to London to fill.
bree_pruz's review
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
missminion's review
4.0
Quite a good read
4 stars for this I really did enjoy it and did not expect the ending at all. Worth a read!
4 stars for this I really did enjoy it and did not expect the ending at all. Worth a read!