Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Thank you to the publisher, Park Row, for providing me with an ARC of Never Saw Me Coming in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The Gist
Murder. Revenge. Intrigue. A psychopath. An anti-hero. Ok. This story had my full attention before I even finished the blurb. I mean what is there not to like?
Well, turns out quite a bit. And nothing. Man! I really struggled even starting this review. I have no idea how to explain what my thoughts are on Never Saw Me Coming.
From the beginning on I was completely invested in it. It was entertaining and kept me thinking about it when I wasn’t reading. Yet, as soon as I had finished it, I felt let down.
There were a lot of “wait a minute” moments where I questioned why certain parts were left unfinished or even included in the first place.
The Details
We have this very intriguing anti-hero who is out for revenge. This is not really that far fetched considering why she wants to wreak havoc on her target.
So, the beginning was good. It had a clear direction, a purpose, and an ultimate goal. But then chapters were thrown at us from different character’s points of view. And not just another main character to make this story a little more rounded, but random characters.
Minor characters had greater parts in this story than was necessary. It threw me off. I kept asking why so much detail was provided for something that didn’t even matter in the end.
Tangent after tangent was introduced; minor character after minor character had their 15-minutes and then nothing came to any conclusion, let alone a satisfying one.
Not to sound mean, but some parts of the story felt like the author was still in the spit-balling phase of the writing. Never Saw Me Coming felt unfinished. That frustrates me, because it was already almost very good.
I liked the writing. The scenes that included some atmospheric details were great and I could picture the campus and university life very clearly.
Then barely any descriptions were used for scenes that could have benefitted from them while others felt overly explained…for no real purpose.
I also felt that the true plot of the story went missing after the first third of the book. Again, too much was attempted; too much was added; too many connections were attempted. It would have been better to keep it a little simpler: revenge and the murders.
Give the reader more depth into Chloe and Andre. Heck, even one more character, but that’s it.
The Verdict
As I said at the beginning of this review, I am torn and lost on how to rate this. I was entertained while reading it. Yet had to stop myself from thinking about it once I had finished it, because Never Saw Me Coming felt unfinished.
Overall, I think I would suggest it. It has great potential and it wasn’t bad. It was a good read for a rainy day.
About the Author
Vera Kurian is a psychologist and writer and a longtime resident of Washington DC. She has a doctorate in social psychology, specializing in intergroup relations, political ideology, and quantitative methods. She has studied fiction at Breadloaf, Sewanee, VONA, and attended juried workshops at LitCamp, Colgate, Juniper, and the Marlboro Summer Writing Intensive. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a semifinalist for the Mark Twain Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Contest.
