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Release date: March 5, 2019

Publisher: Putnam

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Blurb:

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.

Review:

Hmm this was a weird read for me, not sure how I feel so I’ll just sort of think out loud with my review and try to process my thoughts and feelings about this with you guys!

This is told in two timelines, before and after and nothing is very clear throughout, especially at the beginning. Evie narrates and all you know is that she’s being held captive, but her captor isn’t hurting her, he says he’s protecting her. You have no idea from who or what exactly they’re hiding from and neither does Evie. It’s all very vague and there are so many questions and while I usually like unknown factors I was annoyed by how little is revealed and how painfully slowly things do end up coming out. When things do finally come to a head I just felt like it was all sort of stupid and weird. It didn’t make a ton of sense for me and there were also several secondary characters that seemed to serve no purpose in the story in the end. I was left thinking, but why about most things about this one. It was all just messy and clunky for me and left me going, what??? and not in a good way.

To end on a positive note, one aspect I did like was the idea of memory and how that can be manipulated or changed throughout time and for various reasons. I’m gonna say no more on that but just that it was an angle I hadn’t exactly seen before and I always appreciate a fresh approach. I seem to be in the minority on this one, there are several glowing reviews on Goodreads that show this may be a me problem because plenty of people loved this so keep that in mind!

Overall rating: 2.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.