All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker Published by St. Martin's Press on July 12th 2016
Genres: Thriller, Psychological
Pages: 310
Format: eBook, Kindle Book
Source: NetGalley & St. Martin's Press
In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut everything seems picture perfect.
Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, prefers to pretend this horrific event did not touch her perfect country club world.
As they seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town - or perhaps lives among them - drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
**Special thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for supplying my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
Let me start with saying this. All Is Not Forgotten was one of the best psychological thrillers I read in 2016. Everything about this book was so captivating. I held my breath right from the first page.
A girl is being chased into the woods then brutally raped. To add to the mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere of the book, the narrator’s identity is not revealed till after some chapters.
The girl’s name is Jenny. No one can tell who did this to Jenny. Her parents are so devastated. Wishing to spare her the agony of such trauma, they agree to give her a medication that is supposed to wipe her memory of this tragic event. All they wanted was to give her back her life, but they never imagined the result.
This is a very smart and well researched psychological thriller. The question discussed her is whether such tragic events can be totally forgotten. And if not, what really does remain of these memories and how can this affect Jenny’s life? The second question is whether such medication used to relief the victim of the agony can be meanwhile an escape ticket for the rapist. For, if no one can remember what happened, how can anyone relate the doer to the assault?
A lot of issues to think about, but also a lot of twists. This witty novel took me through twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. It was such a mesmerizing read that I couldn’t put it down. This was actually one of the best books I read in 2016 that I highly recommend.
About Wendy Walker
Wendy Walker is a practicing divorce attorney in Fairfield County, Connecticut who began writing while at home raising her three sons. She published two novels with St. Martin’s Press and edited multiple compilations for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series before writing her debut psychological thriller, All is Not Forgotten.