Its my choice Always Watching (Hardcover)




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Its a review about this product

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program (What's this?) Chevy Stevens writes stories about survivors. She puts her characters through awful events and usually doesn't flinch from the hard stuff - which is why I was expecting a little more from 'Always Watching.'

Mind you, it's a good book. 'Always Watching' is a story of a psychologist who's helped her patients through some horrific things, forced to face her own deep-seated trauma, buried in repressed memories and reawakened fears. When Dr. Nadine Lavoie meets a new patient, withdrawn and suicidal, she soon learns of a commune that brings up events from her childhood - things she thought long forgotten and left behind. Her fear of closed spaces becomes more pronounced as she investigates further into the group that her mother joined, what happened to her there, and what's still happening today.

As it develops, it becomes a story that rings all too true - one of a charismatic leader and troubling beliefs, secret practices and quiet abuses of power. When Dr. Lavoie's daughter becomes involved it gets even more frightening, and more personal. If the plot develops predictably, it's only because we've seen it often enough in recent years, and it rarely ends well. The spectres of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, of Heaven's Gate, even of Jim Jones hang over the events of 'Always Watching' - I knew something bad was coming, and I was not disappointed there, even if the punch was pulled a little bit at the end.

Still, there was something missing in Chevy Stevens' latest book. In her previous two novels, 'Still Missing' and 'Never Knowing,' the stories were told in the form of confessional therapy sessions, patients spilling their worst secrets and traumas to a mostly-silent therapist. Dr. Nadine Lavoie was that therapist, a slender thread linking all three books - but with Dr. Lavoie now narrating her own story, that element of tension is missing from 'Always Warching,' and the book suffers a little for it. In the other two books, there was always that feeling of hearing things you're not meant to hear, of knowing things nobody else knew, of struggling right along with those who are telling their story. By comparison, though the story itself is still harrowing, 'Always Watching' feels a little too pat - a little too easy.

I read 'Always Watching' quickly and enjoyed it a great deal. Chevy Stevens has lost none of her edge in telling gripping tales of women who have been through terrible events and lived to tell the tale. While I hope that Stevens returns to the confessional therapy session format for her next novel, I'll definitely be back to read it.

Actually, I'll be watching for it.

Get This One Always Watching (Hardcover)

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