Zoe Penney lives the perfect suburban life in the Northwest with her husband, three children, and a dog. But with an arsonist setting fires around her neighborhood, her husband diagnosed with cancer, and a reclusive neighbor seemingly hovering around the house, Zoe starts experiencing nightmares and insomnia. In this tumultuous time, Zoe must learn to turn her fear & anger into love.

NEVER is a propulsive story about finding the courage to face the unthinkable in one's life. While the book opens with the mystery of the arsonist, NEVER isn't a thriller that focuses on solving the puzzle. Instead, it centers on Zoe and her family dynamic as she navigates one tragedy after another.

While the premise is intriguing, I never got used to Putnam's writing style and struggled to understand some plots. I think there are a lot of metaphors in NEVER that juxtapose with navigating a cancer diagnosis of a spouse, but I sadly couldn't fully grasp their meanings. Because of this, I feel like much of what happened in the book just made me so sad. Not to give away anything, but a lot of animals were harmed in NEVER