Written by 
Not Here Anymore – Sienna S. Ross
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: 4 August 2025
Format read: Ebook
Source of book: A copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest, paid review
My Thoughts
In most stories, you are supposed to identify with the protagonist. You are supposed to cheer them on, identify with their struggles and want the best for them. Not Here Anymore clearly wants you to identify most with its protagonist Katherine and her journey to freedom. However, in short, I found it very difficult to relate to Katherine as a character for reasons I will explain below. For this reason, I found this novel difficult to read. I finished the story, not identifying with Katherine and her journey, but instead annoyed and somewhat disgusted by her choices.
The main, overriding theme of the story is abuse at the hands of a partner/ex-partner; appearing in the story as emotional abuse, physical abuse, stalking, intimidation, blackmail and even harming others. I have also reviewed another book which features domestic abuse as a major theme (Music and Freedom). Because this is a serious situation that many people go through, it is not a light topic to stroll into.
I commend Sienna S. Ross in her best efforts to portray these events in a serious manner (which I think she did well, and will discuss more in depth below). But, her chilling description of abuse is halted by an unsympathetic and unrelatable protagonist.
Storyline & Plot
The story starts with our protagonist, Katherine, as she makes the difficult decision to leave her abusive partner. From this point onward, we follow Katherine as she attempts to rebuild her life and move on from the emotional scarring left from that relationship. However, Katherine’s abusive partner Dustin is not moving on. He continues to stalk and harass Katherine across countries with increasing severity. The plot takes place over many different countries, although predominantly in Cuba and the US.
The story arc is well constructed and well paced. We have Katherine make her escape in the first chapter, a story decision I appreciate as it drops us right into the action. We see the series of events take place as Katherine keeps reinventing herself, but with escalating tension and conflict with Dustin. In the end, we see a direct confrontation between the two and a legal battle to take him down. This arc is what I would want to see in a survival story about a victim of abuse. Particularly to see the abuser starting to see some kind of consequence, as the story builds slowly towards giving Katherine closure. We don’t get full closure, as the story sets itself up for a sequel, but we do see Katherine at the end being closer to preparing for a new future.
Additionally, Dustin is shown to be a worthwhile scary and harassing villain with extreme capabilities. The lengths he goes to in invading and destroying Katherine’s life are genuinely terrifying. I think Ross did a good job of portraying an intimidating man with great connections. It seems like here she did her research in human psychology in order to depict this abusive man.
It’s in the details whereby this good story arc starts to break down.
Characters
The only character I am going to discuss in detail is Katherine. This is because Katherine as protagonist is the aspect that most affected my enjoyment of the story.
So, about Katherine. As the survivor of ongoing abuse, there is no doubt in this story we are supposed to on her side and rooting for her eventual victory. And I really wanted to. The story establishes her clearly as someone who is determined to make a life for herself in spite of many setbacks. Her early scenes show that she is adaptable, sociable, and open to new experiences as she makes a quick succession of overseas moves.
But as time went on, I felt more and more annoyed by Katherine’s decisions and unable to sympathise with her struggles. I became quite alienated from her with every choice she made. While some of her unusual choices were understandable, such as frequent location hopping, others did not.
The point whereby I knew I was completely lost and never going to resonate with Katherine ever again came halfway through. This was after her Cuban husband had passed away, under highly suspicious circumstances. It was when she abandoned her young son Matteo and mother-in-law in Cuba with no defences or protection, even know she knew her abuser had tracked her exact location, to go to New York. And in New York, she very quickly enters into a brand new relationship with her boss.
I am fully aware that motherhood, grief and family relationships are complex things. I also know that there was an in-universe reason for Katherine to leave – which was the fact she knew she was being followed. However. I cannot accept the fact that a grieving widow, who knows that her abuser has already likely murdered her husband, would leave the rest of her family behind to live it up in New York, live a jet-setting life across New York and Madrid and cosy up to her boss in a brand new romance, while her only living family is exposed to danger in CUBA. This is beyond any suspension of disbelief I am able to muster. At that point I was well and truly lost.
I have to admit, to watch a woman enter into a brand new relationship with her boss while her husband is newly buried is hard for me to read. It feels cold. As Katherine gushes over her new love interest she does not seem to feel much guilt over moving on from her husband. She also feels little guilt over being away from her son.
I am sorry to say this. But, if a reader is unable to believe your protagonist’s decisions are human, realistic or in any way understandable, that is a cataclysmic disaster in your story that requires significant revision. A story is fundamentally based on being able to get into a character’s head and relate with their perspective. It is especially important in a story whereby the protagonist is the hero and moral centre of the story.
Writing
While Katherine’s portrayal was the main reason I had issues with this book, there were some extra writing aspects that I had issues with.
Timing
The first point is that I have absolutely no sense of time whatsoever when reading any scene. It was interesting to read this after my previous two reviews regarding the Serenity Acres series (Dinked and Shafted). Because I had noted in my reviews for those books that on occasion, when a new scene was introduced with a time jump I was a bit unclear where in time I was at first. The thing is, in those books the author was successfully able to use context clues and a bit of exposition in order to establish a sense of time.
Ross did not do that in most cases. This is most apparent in the first few chapters whereby she goes through a series of rapid overseas moves. From Brussels she goes to Ischia, and then finally settles into Cuba. Each of her overseas stints prior to Cuba are only covered in a few pages, with minimal details. In particular her time in Ischia is not even a full chapter. There’s a lot of reflection from Katherine in each place, whereby we see her contemplate if she is truly safe now, how in each place she attempts to rebuild her life, and then the crushing disappointment when she has to move again. But we never really know how long she is in each place. There is some indication it’ meant to be some time, as Ross (through Katherine’s narration) describes Katherine “settling in” in each place. Is this months? Years? It can’t be that many years in each place. I do believe that Ross knows Katherine’s life timeline and the duration of these events, I just don’t think it was laid out in the writing.
The end results of this is that it feels like everything is happening really fast, and not in a fun way. It’s very disorienting to have to play the “When and Where in the World is Katherine?” game which each new page, especially in the first few chapters when we are trying to get established.
Factual Accuracy (the Cuban boa)
The second point is a general concern regarding factual inaccuracy of certain details. I will say that I am not a subject matter expert in anything covered in the book. There were a few details that I raised my eyebrow at, because while I didn’t know for certain I did wonder “is that actually true?” This is important because Not Here Anymore is set in the real world, and so has to abide by how the real world operates.
A couple of aspects which I will not go into much detail, but felt implausible include: Katherine’s quick acquisition of Spanish to the point of being fluent with minimal accent in months, and Katherine getting a high-paying role at a fashion magazine with no experience and no skills except said Spanish-speaking ability.
But I would like to focus on the only plot event that made me stop reading and go to my computer immediately in order to do my own research. And that was because of the Cuban boa.
In a key scene, Katherine’s son Matteo dies due to injuries sustained by a Cuban boa. We are not given details on what the injuries were or how the attack occurred. All we are given in the story is:
- A Cuban boa was in Matteo’s locker.
- Matteo was alone in the hallway at the time of the attack.
- He opened his locker and the snake attacked in some form.
- Matteo was rushed to hospital with his unidentified injuries, and passed away a few days later.
Now, it is not impossible for this to happen. But it seems unlikely to me based on a few basic facts:
- Cuban boas are a non-venomous snake, so Matteo clearly was not injured by venom
- Cuban boas are a constrictor species. They do not kill by biting at all, but instead but suffocating their prey. This would take some time to accomplish to do for a human child that is capable of running away and screaming.
- Cuban boas grow to a large size as adults, 3m on average but with the potential to be larger. Unless Cuban schoolchildren are given large lockers it is unlikely an adult Cuban boa would fit inside. A young snake, possibly. But we are not told that the snake is a baby or juvenile snake.
So for Matteo to die of Cuban boa-related injuries, there is only one situation I can think of that is likely. Matteo has a large locker, he opened it, and the boa gave a defensive strike at the boy which caused bleeding and shock. Now why this would cause Matteo to die a few days later while he’s been receiving care in hospital, it’s unclear.
This scenario struck me as so odd that it made me stop reading to fact check, which is not a good indication for the facts in your book. Writers often moonlight as researchers of niche topics for a key reason – your facts need to be believable. And if a non-expert can sense something suspicious in your snake facts you need to double check your work.
I do think that like the timing issue, it is likely Ross has the answers to my questions or knows a key detail that explains everything neatly. However, that context is missing from the story and it leaves the reader questioning the events. It removes the emotional weight and shock of a significant character death when the murder method is requiring extracurricular research to make sense.
Overall, I think in it’s current form this story detracts from the heavy themes it is trying to portray, and would require extra work to iron out the issues. I do have faith in Ross’s ability to retool this story. Or if she proceeds with a sequel (as the story ends on a semi-cliffhanger), to try and progress the story in a way that gives Katherine growth.
TL;DR: This story of survival needs to survive a rewrite – but like its protagonist I believe it can live a new life.
Rating: 1 out of 5
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