Title: Never Tell
Author: Liv Constantine, Loreth Anne White, Andrea Bartz, Rachel Howzell Hall, Ivy Pochoda and Caroline Kepnes
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pages: 281
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Never Tell, an Amazon Original Stories
collection, was mostly interesting. The collection of stories by multiple
authors plays on the theme, How well do we really know the people we love? Each
story in this collection played on the theme, some better than the others.
Most of the stories are first person
accounts of women written by women. Only the fifth story is written in the
third person past tense.
EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK by Liv Constantine
Jade, a 28-year-old nurse, suddenly sees
her father, the father who died ten years ago, on a busy street. She is about
to kill herself when the sight of her father causes her to change her mind.
The story, written in the first person
present tense PoV of Jade, begins in the present, then goes back in time to a
month earlier, before counting down to a week earlier, when she gets evidence
of boyfriend Benedict cheating on her, and then onward until the present day.
The story was well-written, and it was
packed with secrets and revelations, but it wasn’t really all that tight or
impressive. Partly because there were far too many revelations and they were
revealed at such a fast pace that we got no time to process them individually,
making it all seem unreal. There was no sense of danger at all. Nor any
villains either. The sole baddie was rendered ineffectual. A non-starter of a
story, but a quick read. The Benedict subplot was a joke.
THE GHOST WRITER by Loreth Anne White
Grace Logan, a widow, still broken after
the death of her husband, Andy, is invited to Blackwood Island, the private
estate of infamous horror novelist, Claudia Blackwood. Her task: to write
Claudia’s memoir. Claudia has lived her entire life under the shadow of
accusation. As a teen, she was accused of killing boyfriend Jacques Duvalier,
his little brother, Danny, and classmate Jill Wilson, with whom he was cheating
on Claudia.
A professional ghost writer, Grace could
be assured of success if she were to succeed at this project. But it’s not
going to be easy. Other ghost writers, it seems, have died while at work on the
project. Grace has a feeling she might be in real danger.
The story is written in the first person
present tense PoV of Grace. The book conjured an eerie sense of atmosphere. The
setting, descriptions, dialogue, internal monologue were all on point. The
names add to the mystique. There is Grace. The chauffeur is called December.
Kharon, the ferryman, like the ferryman who leads the dead in Greek mythology.
There was a great twist at the end.
There were some errors though. A few
pages in, Claudia’s name changed from Blackwood to Blackwell, then changed
right back to Blackwood again. This change is seen even a few paragraphs apart
on the same page.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET by Andrea
Bartz
I liked this one the most. It was the
only one with a twist that took me by surprise.
Kelsey and Lauren, married lesbians,
have bought their first home. Kelsey is expecting their first child. Life
couldn’t get any better.
Hank, their neighbour, who lives on the
other side of the street, gives Lauren a creepy vibe. It’s the beginning of
their troubles.
Hank was creepy from the get-go. He was
the classic neighbour from hell. My heart was hammering as I read this story. It
certainly upturned all my assumptions.
SCORPIONS by Rachel Howzell Hall
Francesca dropped out of Cal Poly to
look after her depressed, alcoholic mother. Now, fresh out of a job as a
nurse’s assistant after her 80-year-old client died, she has a deadbeat job as
a diner waitress to look forward to.
Ruben, her dead client, leaves her a
note pointing out the whereabouts of $1 million that he stole in his youth and
hid in an underground mine. The trouble is that in two weeks, the place will be
swarming with people as demolition and construction crew work to build a casino
in its place. Plus, the key to the safe is with Ruben’s son, Shane. Then
Jocelyn, Ruben’s ex-wife, but not Shane’s mother, joins in.
Shane warns Francesca not to trust
Jocelyn, but is he trustworthy himself? Or are they all out to double cross one
another?
This one was a slow burn. At first, not
much seemed to be happening, then suddenly it went boom, escalating at a
tremendous speed. Unfortunately, the story should have ended with the climax.
The Epilogue made me feel cheated. I wish the author hadn’t worked this ending
in. It didn’t give me the closure I wanted after investing in Francesca.
JACKRABBIT SKIN by Ivy Pochoda
Skin Swan, a tattooist, moves to a
friend’s container house in Miracle, Wash., an isolated desert town, after her
marriage ends. There she meets Kurt, a man who lost his wife three years ago.
Soon after Lucinda, a town luminary,
tells her she’s not welcome in Miracle, and Skin wonders if she made a mistake
coming here. When Kurt asks her to tattoo a photo of him and his wife on his
left shoulder blade.
Slowly the desert, and Kurt, grows on
her. Until she becomes suspicious that he may have had a part to play in his
wife’s death.
This one was a rich read, with evocative
descriptions and good writing.
THE BAD FRIEND by Caroline Kepnes
It’s hard to encapsulate the plot of
this short story but I’m going to try.
The book is written in the second
person, which is rather tricky to pull off.
Ellen and Tanya, best friends since they
were ten, become estranged after Ellen’s engagement with Troy. Ellen, missing
Tanya deeply, tries to lose herself in her relationship with daughter, Abigail,
but Abigail develops a friendship with best friend, Josie, who turns out to be
the daughter of Ross, Tanya’s boyfriend, back when the girls were friends.
While Ellen and Tanya remain estranged,
an unexpected meeting after decades spills the beans on how baseless have been
all the beliefs that Ellen has spent nearly a lifetime holding on to.
What I liked about this story was the
author’s way of jumping forward in time. It was masterfully done.
I would have preferred the ending to be
less vague, more certain.
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