3.5 stars

Review found atThe Life & Times of a Book Addict Blog.


I was confused during the first few chapters. The way the story started, I kept wondering what the heck was going on here. But I'm glad I kept reading. As the story progressed, I became more interested. No character comes across very likeable here. And Evie didn't seem to have much of a personality to me until towards the end. Maybe that was because she couldn't remember much of what happened "that night"? There are some flashbacks of before and after, so I was able to see glimpses into her life before she called herself Evie. She remembers bits and pieces gradually, but can she remember it all before it is too late?

The more I read, the more curious I became and wanted to find out what happened and who the actual cause of all the trouble really was. I don't want to give too much away because this story is best to go into somewhat blindly and to discover clues for yourself along the way.

When reading Call Me Evie, I thought I knew where the story was headed. How it would end. But I didn't know. That's the thing with this story. You'll think you know something....you'll think you have it all figured out, but you won't. Not fully. Not until you reach the end. Call Me Evie is a unique and suspenseful tale that held my curiosity and kept me turning the pages wanting needing to know what happened.


RATING: 3-3½ out of 5.


**Even though this book was given to me on behalf of the Publisher, the thoughts & opinions expressed are solely my own. **

4.1/5. This book really took me by surprise. I went into the book not expecting much, having literally judged a book by its cover and its synopsis. I really wish the author had chosen a more impactful title, 'Call Me Evie' really doesn't do its contents justice.

I'm also not a fan of mysteries and have never read one that I've liked, since the grand plot twists have been predictable and overdone. I was, however, unable to predict the ending of this book.

The red herring of Willow's dad got me completely and dispersed all other theories of who Jim could be. I hadn't even considered that Jim's relationship to Kim could be platonic, especially with Jim taking naked photos of Kate and the kisses. That detail being introduced to the reader so early-on in the book was absolute genius; it set a false premise to their relationship wonderfully and made the ending that much more confusing.

As I'm writing this, I just realized another way the nature of their relationship was implied. Jim asks Kate for a kiss at some point and Kate interprets his request at face value, having forgotten Jim was her father. She on goes to kiss him on the lips but Jim diverts the kiss to his cheek. I remember thinking that scene was odd given how I assumed Jim to be Willow's dad and therefore romantic/sexual, but now it makes sense.

Kate being an unreliable narrator worked wonderfully with the mystery. The book ends with her left in the dark about the reality of Thom's murder, dismissing her flashbacks and resurfacing memories as falsehoods fabricated by her father. She'll never know that she's a murderer.

Her father's true intentions will never be revealed to her too, which is alright because her dad's an abusive & mentally unhinged jerk. To prevent his daughter from being hurt, he hurt her instead. Tragic. Although, I would have loved to see Kate's reaction to learning that her dad framed self for her. The conclusion felt a bit abrupt, but that abruptness left me thinking about the book for hours. One question I still have is, who circled the letters in Kate's book and warned her not to trust Jim? I thought that someone had been taken captive before Kate and that victim knew Jim would strike again, but there was no one else. (Update: I checked Goodreads Q&A and it was Kate's mom who allegedly left the message. I don't understand why her mother would leave a coded message to herself? The 'death is the only escape' line makes sense since she killed herself, but I think the circling the letters is a bit of a stretch.)

Willow's character seemed all over the place at times, I still don't know what to think of her. At first I thought she was really cool with her whole vengeful personality but all in all, she doesn't contribute much to the plot besides having a dad. She does reveal Kate's scars to a bunch of strangers, which kind of leads to Kate getting closer to Thom and the sex tape ultimately getting created, but not really. If she didn't exist, the story wouldn't really be affected. The red herring dad could just be some librarian or teacher, and Thom and Kate would have gotten into a relationship sooner. It would have been nice if she alone had more plot significance.

All in all, this was a really satisfying thriller. It felt all over the place at times and I still don't really understand the thing with Iso and his family (I'll reread it and update this) and the town conspiring against Kate, but the conclusion was worth it.

This book was pretty underwhelming. I had high hopes because it's by a New Zealander who lives in Melbourne and features those locations, but ultimately it was slow and lacked depth. It was made worse when I realised the author was a man portraying a vulnerable woman (very badly might I add). Wouldn't recommend.

Not great - kept reading to see what happened. Felt like the author spent more time trying to write a piece of literature rather than set up the story. If you are going to write thriller/mystery, write that. Don't try and make it sound poetic.

I read all of this for THAT???

There was nothing particularly bad here, but nothing great either. Another thriller with a back and forth time line and predictable set of twists. Same old tropes from every other thriller. I also thought some things weren't explained very well (How were all the people in NZ connected to Jim?)