Never Never
by Colleen Hoover, Tarryn Fisher
Published January 7th 2015 by Hoover Ink
series: Never Never #1
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.
«She’s holding a sheet of paper. It looks like it’s been folded and unfolded so many times, there’s a small, worn hole forming in the very center of it. The sentence across the page reads, Never stop. Never forget.»
To begin with, I'm a huge fan of Colleen Hoover. I haven`t read any Tarryn Fisher books before, but I read all Colleen`s and I loved them. After seeing the news about her new book, I was delighted, though alarmed by the amount of pages. Imagine my surprise when I read Never Never ... and did not like it.
Let's start with the plot. There are two POVs: from Charlie and from Silas. It begins with them both waking up at school without any memories of their past. They don`t understand who the hell they are. Because they were a couple in the past, they quickly get re-acquainted and discover that they are in the same boat.
They don`t know how they look, what are their names, where do they live, who are their parents. But, most important, they have no idea what happened to them and why they can`t remember anything.
Sounds intriguing, doesn`t it?
And everything would have been fine, but... in fact, this is where the story ends. In the beginning, we can see their efforts to learn more about their past. They meet with their families, pretending that nothing had happened. Learn that their fathers used to work together, but then suffered a mysterious accident, the details of which we will never never find out in this book. Charlie and Silas are modern Romeo and Juliet, only we do not know the reasons for enmity of their families, nor this is a romantic love story.
After acquaintance with their families, this mysterious thriller turns into a reality-show with treason and a household drama. They go to school, trying to find out who slept with whom, and ... well, that's all. You`re interested in the reason why they lost their memory? Forget about it, you will find about 150 pages of family squabbles, football workouts and pointless car rides around the city! How exciting!
Now, about the characters. Charlie is a bitchy and sarcastic teenager. The premise says that she doesn`t want to remember her past. Where can we see it? As for me, she's the only one who at least tries to figure out their situation. On some rare occasions. If she learns something in the sequel, that will prevent her from returning her memory, then why write about it in the premise to the first book?
From what little information that is given to us, we know that her life is not easy. Mother - an alcoholic, father - in prison, and her little sister hates her. But Charlie is not an angel, judging by her past actions.
Silas is a rich boy who has everything, but his personality is not affected by it. Little is known about his past, except that he likes to take pictures and plays football. The strangest thing, he remembers the lyrics, how to drive a car, but the guy completely forgotten how to play football. What about muscle memory? How does this shit with their memory work? Seems like the authors didn`t know as well.
While Charlie is tormented by thoughts about how awful her life is, Silas runs after her with puppy eyes and the need to be loved. As a result, this girl here is the engine of their progress, and she has him pussy-whipped.
Again, the theme of betrayal. The book gives us much more information about it than about the loss of their memory. Both cheated on each other in the past, and now, having lost memory, they are trying to deal with their new lovers. That's the whole story.
I was very disappointed. A very promising premise, but the content of the book ... I have an impression that the authors have written a whole book and then divided it into two, leaving all the fun in the second part. If so, why divide it at all? Is it just for the money? As a fan, I`m not very pleased by their strategy.
Oh, and that cliffhanger in the end?
I`m so disappointed that I simply don`t care about the fate of the characters and about the main intrigue of the first part. For all I care, they can both die. At least this will add some sharpness to the plot. We were given a lot of questions, but not one answer.
All in all, I think this series is a failure, but I`ll still read the second part. Firstly, I remain faithful to CoHo, thanks to her previous books. Also, I want to give this story a second chance – maybe there will be such a brilliant spun, that I will take my words back? Girl can hope.
series: Never Never #1
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.
«She’s holding a sheet of paper. It looks like it’s been folded and unfolded so many times, there’s a small, worn hole forming in the very center of it. The sentence across the page reads, Never stop. Never forget.»
To begin with, I'm a huge fan of Colleen Hoover. I haven`t read any Tarryn Fisher books before, but I read all Colleen`s and I loved them. After seeing the news about her new book, I was delighted, though alarmed by the amount of pages. Imagine my surprise when I read Never Never ... and did not like it.
Let's start with the plot. There are two POVs: from Charlie and from Silas. It begins with them both waking up at school without any memories of their past. They don`t understand who the hell they are. Because they were a couple in the past, they quickly get re-acquainted and discover that they are in the same boat.
They don`t know how they look, what are their names, where do they live, who are their parents. But, most important, they have no idea what happened to them and why they can`t remember anything.
Sounds intriguing, doesn`t it?
And everything would have been fine, but... in fact, this is where the story ends. In the beginning, we can see their efforts to learn more about their past. They meet with their families, pretending that nothing had happened. Learn that their fathers used to work together, but then suffered a mysterious accident, the details of which we will never never find out in this book. Charlie and Silas are modern Romeo and Juliet, only we do not know the reasons for enmity of their families, nor this is a romantic love story.
After acquaintance with their families, this mysterious thriller turns into a reality-show with treason and a household drama. They go to school, trying to find out who slept with whom, and ... well, that's all. You`re interested in the reason why they lost their memory? Forget about it, you will find about 150 pages of family squabbles, football workouts and pointless car rides around the city! How exciting!
Now, about the characters. Charlie is a bitchy and sarcastic teenager. The premise says that she doesn`t want to remember her past. Where can we see it? As for me, she's the only one who at least tries to figure out their situation. On some rare occasions. If she learns something in the sequel, that will prevent her from returning her memory, then why write about it in the premise to the first book?
From what little information that is given to us, we know that her life is not easy. Mother - an alcoholic, father - in prison, and her little sister hates her. But Charlie is not an angel, judging by her past actions.
Silas is a rich boy who has everything, but his personality is not affected by it. Little is known about his past, except that he likes to take pictures and plays football. The strangest thing, he remembers the lyrics, how to drive a car, but the guy completely forgotten how to play football. What about muscle memory? How does this shit with their memory work? Seems like the authors didn`t know as well.
While Charlie is tormented by thoughts about how awful her life is, Silas runs after her with puppy eyes and the need to be loved. As a result, this girl here is the engine of their progress, and she has him pussy-whipped.
Again, the theme of betrayal. The book gives us much more information about it than about the loss of their memory. Both cheated on each other in the past, and now, having lost memory, they are trying to deal with their new lovers. That's the whole story.
I was very disappointed. A very promising premise, but the content of the book ... I have an impression that the authors have written a whole book and then divided it into two, leaving all the fun in the second part. If so, why divide it at all? Is it just for the money? As a fan, I`m not very pleased by their strategy.
Oh, and that cliffhanger in the end?
I`m so disappointed that I simply don`t care about the fate of the characters and about the main intrigue of the first part. For all I care, they can both die. At least this will add some sharpness to the plot. We were given a lot of questions, but not one answer.
All in all, I think this series is a failure, but I`ll still read the second part. Firstly, I remain faithful to CoHo, thanks to her previous books. Also, I want to give this story a second chance – maybe there will be such a brilliant spun, that I will take my words back? Girl can hope.
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