Never Never follows the characters of Charlie and Silas who both wake up on a school day without memories. Together they embark on a quest to retrieve these memories and to figure out who they are in the process. Along the way Charlie and Silas discover that there is a relationship between their families and secrets that they had previously kept from one another are revealed.

Let’s be fair, the premise of this novel is not particularly unique and has been done before many times. Still, Never Never is an enjoyable read nonetheless. Charlie and Silas are interesting characters and quite likable although Silas more so than Charlie. The interesting aspect of a novel with such a premise is the way in which the details of their lives unravel themselves in front of the eyes of the reader. We get to discover with Silas and Charlie who they were, that they were boyfriend and girlfriend and their family. A nice attribute of this format is that we get to experience the fresh judgements of characters that should be familiar to Silas and Charlie. Silas, for instance thinks that his brother is a good kid because of the way he behaves. Charlie similarly deduces that she hasn’t been the best sister to Janette even though she can’t remember anything.

These are some of the enjoyable aspects of the novel but not all is well here.

While I definitely liked the early part of the story where they discover information about their lives the latter part of the book introduces almost more mystery and to be honest I didn’t like the ending that much. I felt like it was a bit of an easy out (not to mention that it has been done before). My dislike might be partly due to the use of a, in my opinion, terrible cliffhanger.

The writing style is fine, I was not particularly impressed but not disappointed either. It is about as good as you would expect from a young adult novel like this.

My last gripe is a small one but I would love to see a bit more attention focused towards the other characters in the book.

Especially Janette and Silas’ brother deserve a bit more fleshing out. Of course I’m also eager to see the mystery surrounding the connection between Charlie’s and Silas’ families unravel.

This novel was a solid and enjoyable read, don’t expect tearjerking moments or soaring prose but go into it without too many expectations and it is very enjoyable. I would give the novel 3.5/5 stars for the reasons mentioned above, it is enjoyable but due to its rather unoriginal plot and lacking ending the novel fails to reach 4 star status.