The Never List by Koethi Zan

     "For us, there was no such thing as fate. Fate was a word you used when you had not prepared, when you were slack, when you stopped paying attention. Fate was a weak man's crutch."

Sarah and Jennifer created the Never List to protect themselves from any and every accident or mishap, sure that if they adhered to the rules of their list they would be safe. And for years it worked. Until they went away to college. Then one night, coming home from a party, they're taken by a man named Jack Derber, who locks them away in his cellar, captives with two other girls, for the next three years. Sarah survives, but she's not the same girl she once was.

"We'd been naive. We hadn't believed other minds could be as calculating as ours. We hadn't counted on actual evil as our enemy rather than blind statistical possibility."

Thirteen years later, Jack Derber is up for parole. He's been taunting Sarah from prison with strange letters and clues. And Sarah knows she's finally going to have to face up to the nightmares of her past so she can find out what happened to Jennifer and keep Jack in prison for the rest of his life.

I could not put this book down; it's that good! I'd tell myself I was only going to read one more chapter, but one chapter would turn into two, then three, then four... Sarah's story is so compelling, and Zan's writing so amazing, I was completely drawn in. Sarah's search for the truth takes her back into the darkness of her past. (And it is a very dark place.) This is an intense thriller, but not overly graphic or explicit, for which I was grateful. If you want an exciting mystery that will keep you up at night, definitely give The Never List by Koethi Zan a try. It's the perfect October read!