my full review, visit me at sitelink wordpress. com/
This book failed to get going for me, I was anticipating a spark but it did not ignite my imagination, I am aware that the writer has produced a cracking debut novel, so maybe this second book wasnt up to the same standard.
For my full review, visit me at sitelink wordpress. com/
Julie's perfect life is shattered after she is abducted while waiting for the last train one night, The kidnapper brought her back to his house, which he lives with his wife, Cora, Bound and locked in a room, Julie hopes to find some bit of sanity through some exchanges with Cora but the latter is cold and isn't willing to hear her.
Still, Julie didn't give up in trying and her persistence has finally paid off seeing Cora starting to open up just a bit.
Cora, on the other hand, isn't who we think she is initially, She may be the wife of a kidnapper and a psychopath, but she had a terrible past with an abusive father and a pretty unhappy adolescence years.
Her husband, James, has his own distorted mind of religion and she is forced to adapt to his thinking and behaviours, Just when Cora gets on her life like a robot, thinking there is no way out of her grim and unhappiness past or present, Julie enters into her life.
As their worlds collide, they soon realise that they need each other for the freedom they crave but can they trust each other to set them free
I thought "The Follower" has a dark, intriguing premise.
What made the story interesting is having two characters with opposite personality and background in this case, the captor's wife and the captive and seeing how their relationship has changed as the story progresses.
Unfortunately, the story fell short due to the underdevelopment of the characters and the direction of the story, Julie may seem like she was the main character, but surprisingly Cora was the one who I felt took the centre stage because of her sad past as well as her present life but unfortunately what made her an intriguing character become a series of melodrama and anger and aside from the empathy I felt for her especially her teenaged years, there was nothing much else I could think and feel for her.
Also, James's motivation for the abduction remains a mystery and there isn't much background about him, which I felt is a pity, Then, there is the story of an excop, Adam, who feels he has to take charge of a few missing girls cases due to what happened to his sister many years ago.
While Adam's story adds intrigue and intensity alongside the two women's harrowing journey, I felt his story was underrated at times,
Overall "The Follower" was an average read to me, I read Koethi Zan's previous book, sitelink"The Never List", and thought it was a better read, I liked the author's previous title, The Never list, although the characters weren't perfect, it suprised me with it's unexpected twists and turns.
I hoped that she would have ironed out the character issues in her second book, but unfortunately this was only okay for me.
Although it was suspenseful at times, I never connected with the characters, especially Adam,seems to be the year of thrillers, and there was nothing in this story that made it stand out, I am sure there are many suspense readers who will disagree with my opinions,
The Story: Julie Brookman has the perfect life, She has many friends, a boyfriend she loves, an affluent family and promising career ahead of her, until one night all that changes.
Waiting alone at a deserted train station Julie is kidnapped by James a religious cult leader who believes Julie will bring him his destiny.
Locked away in his house Julie struggles to cope and tries her hardest to communicate with James crazy “wife” Cora, who could turn out to be more dangerous than Julie first realised.
sitelink wordpress. com
Ah, this book, . . It had such an interesting premise, A victim and two perpetrators, Can she get out of the situation
Sadly, it didn't work for me,
As we accompany Julie through the time of her confinement, the narrative is interspersed with snippets of Cora's life as she grow up, so it became clear early on that this was as much about Julie's resilience as it was trying to figure out how someone like Cora becomes who she is.
That was all well and good,
However, I found it confusing and that it dragged on, I soon grew tired of it as, although Cora's memories were interesting, they just weren't enough to pull me in,
I didn't get Adam's character and to be honest he annoyed the heck out of me, Stupid decision after stupid decision, it was just overwhelming, I found my attention wandering during his chapters and only found solace when the stuff he uncovered met with Cora's account of the past.
On the other hand, what I really wanted to know, which was what made the bad guy be that way and where his religious paranoia came from, was never explained.
And although the author tried to justify Cora's descent into James' craziness I for one didn't buy it one minute she finds him a dangerous nutcase and the next she is following him and slowly after fully believing what she had previously seen as crap.
The ending was beyond rushed and by that time I couldn't stand any of the characters,
Sorry, can't say I recommend this one,
Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Ein Thriller über erschreckenden Abgründe, Gehirnwäsche und vollständige Hörigkeit
Worum gehts
Auf dem Weg von ihrer Familie zurück zur Uni wird Julie entführt und von einem wahnsinnigen Paar gefangen gehalten, die der Überzeugung sind, dass sie die Auserwählte ist.
Eingesperrt in eine Kammer ohne Tageslicht hofft sie monatelang auf Rettung, während ihre Entführer versuchen, ihren Willen zu brechen,
Meine Meinung:
Nur das Böse“ S, Fischer Verlag,/von Koethi Zan erschien im Original bereitsund hier gleich die erste Frage: Warum mussten wir auf dieses Buch so lange warten Die Autorin greift ein Thema auf, das so verstörend wie erschreckend ist.
Es geht um Gehirnwäsche, blinde Hörigkeit, gebrochenen Willen und Wahnvorstellungen, Und die Umsetzung in einen Thriller ist mehr als gelungen! Die Sprache ist mitreißend, Erzählend mit Rückblicken aus Coras Vergangenheit sowie aus der Gegenwart von Julie und Cora bzw, Adam, bekommen wir einen Einblick, wie so eine Abhängigkeit/Hörigkeit entstehen kann und wie sich das in der Gegenwart auswirken kann.
Und was die Autorin uns hier erzählt, ist einfach nur abgrundtief Böse und erschreckend verstörend,
Wir erleben mit, wie Cora aufwächst, Sie kennt ihre Mutter nicht, Ihr Vater ist alkoholabhängig und gewalttätig, verlangt aber auch absoluten Gehorsam, Cora wächst auf in diesem Gewaltmilieu und ist immer auf der Flucht, Nie bleibt sie an einem Ort länger, Als der Aufenthalt doch einmal doch von längerer Dauer ist, besiegelt das ihr Schicksal endgültig, Auf diesen Reisen lernt sie auch ihren späteren Mann James
kennen, Der sich als der Auserwählte versteht und Jünger um sich schart, Die beiden heiraten und Cora, die zuvor alles tat, um ihrem Vater zu gefallen, hat nun James, der für sie alles ist.
Sein Wort ist ihr Gesetz ausgesprochen oder unausgesprochen, Wir erleben diese Entwicklung mit und auf der einen Seite tut mir Cora unendlich leid, Auf der anderen Seite schafft die Autorin es aber auch in Form von Julies Entführung, einen absoluten Hass auf Cora zu schüren.
Einerseits erleben wir Cora in der Opferrolle, andererseits aber auch in der Täterrolle, Dann haben wir noch Adam, den beurlaubten Ermittler, der von Coras Fall getrieben ist und nicht aufhören kann zu suchen und diese Suche über alles stellt.
Der Aufbau der Story ist genial, Es geht direkt auf der ersten Seite los und im Laufe der Zeit schafft Koethi Zan es auf außergewöhnliche Art die Entwicklung darzustellen.
Den Wahn. Die Abhängigkeit. Ich war direkt mitten drin in der Geschichte, Habe mit Julie mitgefiebert. Mit der kleinen Cora gehofft, Die Autorin hat mit meinen Gefühlen gespielt, Es war einfach nur unglaublich! Die Spannung riss nie ab, Immer war ein Kribbeln unter der Haut spürbar, Man hat auf den nächsten Knall nur gewartet der auch sicher kam, Die Frage war nur, ob er physisch oder psychisch war und wen es erwischte, Dieses Buch hat mich gefesselt und der Einblick in die Psyche der Menschen, den uns die Autorin gegeben hat, war einfach unglaublich!
Fazit:
Nur das Böse“ von Koethi Zan ist ein Psychothriller der wirklich außergewöhnlich mitreißend ist und absolut unter die Haut geht.
Die Charaktere sind perfekt gewählt, Die Gefühle, die Psychospiele wirken so real, ich hatte die ganze Zeit ein Kribbeln unter der Haut! Es ist erschreckend, wie Gehirnwäsche einen Menschen hörig machen kann, der eigentlich gut ist und dann für den Menschen, der ihn abhängig gemacht hat, wirklich alles tut, ohne dies zu hinterfragen.
Diese Entwicklung ist von der Autorin meisterhaft dargestellt und es ist mehr als spannend von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite,
Sterne von mir für diesen Pageturner, der kein Lesezeichen benötigt!
Originally reviewed on sitelinkHummingbird s,
The Follower is a dark and obsessive tale by Koethi Zan, which follows the abduction of Julie, and the frightening days of captivity that follow that terrifying moment where she is snatched, thrown into the back of a van and driven away to the place that will become her prison.
Unsuspecting and oblivious to the danger that lurks, Julie has no idea of where she is and why she is being kept there.
All she knows is that it will be near impossible for her loved ones to find her, Not only is she being held captive by a violent and ruthless brute of a man, but also by his wife, a woman afraid of her very own shadow.
Julie is determined to find a way out, no matter what the cost, Even if that cost just happens to be her life,
I was surprised to find how swiftly this novel got off to a flying start, There is certainly no hanging about on Zan's half and the abduction takes place pretty much right away, For me, this ensured I was hooked from that moment onwards, From the start, it was sharp, fastpaced, barely giving me time to catch my breath once the unthinkable had happened, If ever there's a way to begin a novel, then this was it, While waiting for her train, unsuspecting Julie is hauled across the empty carpark and into the back of an unknown vehicle, driven by an unknown man.
Despite her pleas to be let out, despite the repetitive screams and banging in the hopes of being heard and rescued, it seems no one is going to save Julie from the horror she is soon to encounter.
My heart was thumping in my chest at this point, I was absolutely terrified for Julie, The sense of sheer desperation and hopelessness was impossible to ignore, You just can't place yourself in such a shocking situation, can you You can't actually imagine how absolutely sick with fear you would be at that moment in time, as realisation slowly began to dawn.
You would of course think about your family, about the chances of anyone coming to find you and succeeding in doing so, Koethi Zan managed to capture all of these emotions superbly in that moment, and gosh, did it have a physical effect on me.
I felt short of breath and my fingernails were digging into my Kindle case with the tension and nerves radiating from the author's descriptions.
I wanted nothing more for than for Julie to somehow manage to break free from the back of the van and do a runner.
I hoped that she would escape and find herself back in the safety of her own home with her lovely boyfriend beside her.
But I knew deep down, as I continued to read, that this would not be the outcome of the abduction, Awful things lay ahead for Julie, Unthinkable things. Being taken by a complete stranger was just the beginning,
Koethi Zan's characters in The Follower were brilliantly crafted and moulded, I think the character who I found most intriguing though was Cora, I really don't want to end up spoiling this novel for other potential readers out there, so I won't go into very much detail here, but as I turned the pages of this book, and the secrets of certain characters' pasts were revealed to me, I couldn't believe what they'd had to endure.
Zan takes readers back to the past, unravelling the threads of numerous lives, I was mystified as I sat back and watched how each thread seemed to connect with another, leading us back to the present day.
The scenes involving Julie and her captivity in the locked room of the unknown house were terribly, terribly sad, From the food she was given to the physical attacks she endured, Zan really put this character through a hell of a lot while locked away.
Time and time again I found myself hoping and praying that Julie would somehow find a way to escape, but I knew as well as Julie did that the hoping and praying was futile.
There was an overwhelming sense of despair that remained right the way through this novel, It was suffocating almost, and never seemed to lessen as I progressed, if anything only growing more so,
Throughout reading this book, the path Julie stepped upon was anything but easy or simple, There were so many moments where I could have screamed with frustration at the turn of events thrown in Julie's face, Yelled and screeched and perhaps even cried, Moments where I thought escape was just a breath away which were then yanked from within Julie's grasp in seconds, only for reality to come crashing back down around her.
Her attempts remained futile. Her hope and will to survive quickly fading, It was tense, so much so that it had my stomach churning throughout, As Koethi Zan tooks me back and forth between the past and the present, everything began to make sense, I found myself imagining how different life could have turned out for both Julie and Cora if certain things hadn't happened years beforehand.
The consequences echoed throughout time like a domino effect, It was shocking.
All in all The Follower by Koethi Zan was a pulseraising and adrenalinespiking read about obsession and dark love, I was hooked from the getgo, desperate myself to find a way out of the madness Julie found herself surrounded by, This novel had me onedge, biting my lip and holding my breath, Compelling, addictive, and purely evil, this is a novel I won't be forgetting in a long time, It's every person's worst nightmare come true,
Hummingbird s is awarding The Follower by Koethi Zan with five out of five, .