Bonnie Traymore
The Unforgetting
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Out next week, The Unforgetting is a memory-loss thriller, or rather a memory-regain one! The book is tense and builds a solid feeling of inevitability at each stage of remembering.
So, what is it about? There’s a college graduation party that gets out of hand. The main protagonist, Reagan, gets totally wasted and can barely remember what happened. But what happened was Lanie Martin ended up dead.
The book builds on this by following a reunion of the core group of friends. This is supposedly to pay tribute to Lanie, but there’s a strong undercurrent that there’s an ulterior motive. Reagan has to assemble what she knows about her college group to try and understand who might be a danger to her, and assembling her memory by revisiting the site of the party is crucial to understanding her friends.
I really enjoyed following along with Reagan’s story and the writing style allowed me to care about what was going on. There was definitely a snowballing of tension and action that increased my reading speed along with the desire to discover the ending. There were small details in each chapter that added texture to the scene and helped you feel like you were somehow there in the moment.
One of the best compliments I can give is that when I think back to the occurences in the book, I can really see them. I can picture the woods, the cabin, and the ravine so clearly!
Grab a copy here.
Synopsis
Ten years ago, Reagan’s friend died in a tragic accident.
But what if it wasn’t an accident?
The morning after a raging college graduation party, we found Lanie Martin lying at the bottom of a ravine, her neck snapped in a fatal fall. And I’m not proud of what came next.
Before we called the police, we covered ourselves. Cleaned up from the blow-out at Ella’s cabin in the Adirondacks the night before. Got our stories straight.
Ella begged me not to tell the police what I saw. She insisted that it was an accident—and we all went along. What did I know? I was plastered that night, and large chunks of that evening are missing for me.
But now, in my postpartum state, memories are starting to return, and I can’t help but feel that they might be connected to the soul crushing depression I’ve been experiencing. Is it guilt? Or do I know more than I think I do?
So when I receive Ella’s invitation for a ten-year reunion at her family camp—a gathering of remembrance and healing, she’s calling it—I know I have to go.
Are the memories I’m struggling to recover the key to my moving on? To being able to take care of my infant son and stay married to the perfect man?
Or are they a death sentence for me, too?
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