Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher – Review

By Sandra Callard

Written by two American authors, here is a sensitive and at the same time, startling, novel of a young college age couple, very much in love, who both wake up one morning in their own homes and do not know who they are, or who each other is. Strangely, they do not seek help or seem to panic, but struggle along with this unlikely burden until they realise what the situation is. They cling together as they try to cover up what has happened and guess their way through the first few days until they come to terms with their lost memories.

My first instinct was sneer at this premise and scoff at the fact that these two people could fool their families, their schools and their friends that they were both as normal as they had always been, when they had absolutely no memory of their previous lives and did not know any of their known characters, none of whom seemed to notice anything different about them. However, due to the excellent writing of the two authors, I managed to struggle on and eventually came to terms with the absurd storyline and began to actually enjoy the weird happenings, even though l laughed inwardly at the plot. It was more a question of thinking ‘what if’ such a thing happened, rather than accepting the given story.

The odd thing is that the story that follows seems to morph into a detective tale, and a good one at that, as the young couple try to make sense of this strange happening. They never know when they go to sleep whether they will awake in the past, the present or indeed know who they are, which can be somewhat irritating.

“Highly unusual”

The two main characters are very likeable, which obviously helps the story along, and they seem to have the intelligence of mature adults rather than the school age they really are. However, the skill of the two authors is apparent and the story flows and moves with a steady and interesting pace, and the reader begins to hope these two attractive young people will come good at the end of their story.

Here we are presented with something that is so highly unusual but which is treated as normal, and the reader is asked to suspend their disbelief. However the strength of the writing is undoubtedly good and unltimately it wins through. I would have another go at either of these authors’ future books to see what they could come up with next.

‘Never Never’ by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher is published by HarperCollins