All Is Not Forgotten – Wendy Walker
You can erase the memory. But you cannot erase the crime.
Jenny’s wounds have healed.
An experimental treatment has removed the memory of a horrific and degrading attack.
She is moving on with her life.
That was the plan. Except it’s not working out.
Something has gone. The light in the eyes. And something was left behind. A scar. On her lower back. Which she can’t stop touching.
And she’s getting worse.
Not to mention the fact that her father is obsessed with finding her attacker and her mother is in toxic denial.
It may be that the only way to uncover what’s wrong is to help Jenny recover her memory. But even if it can be done, pulling at the threads of her suppressed experience will unravel much more than the truth about her attack.
My thanks to Mira Books for my review copy which I received through Netgalley
All Is Not Forgotten is one of “those” books. You know the ones I mean…the kind of story that you will finish and then immediately wish you knew who else that has read it so that you can discuss it with them. A Godsend for Book Groups. But Book Groups who are battle-hardened as there are some distressing scenes and themes in this story and you cannot flinch away from them.
A young girl attending a party finds that the boy who invited her has been making eyes at another girl. She is 15 and feeling pretty let down. She leaves the party alone and starts to walk through the woods beside the party house. What follows next for young Jenny will forever change her life and that of family and friends.
Jenny is attacked in the woods by a masked man who rapes her. A long, sustained and seemingly planned attack. Her rapist mutilates her during the attack and leaves a deep gouge in her back which will leave a lasting scar. The scar is important as later Jenny cannot stop touching it.
Jenny’s family agree the use of an experimental treatment which will remove the memory of the attack. But if the book is called All Is Not Forgotten you can be assured that this experimental treatment may not be 100% effective.
The narrative in All Is Not Forgotten is driven by an outsider to the action – Jenny’s therapist (Alan) links the key players in the story. He outlines the background the reader needs to know and his professional detachment from the events allows us to have a clinical overview of events without the “unreliable narrator” feeling. The detail and discussion proffered by Alan had a very astute and professional feel, adding the ring of authenticity which lifts a story.
A powerful story which may be too graphic/unsettling for some tastes but a remarkable piece of storytelling and one of those must read books.
All Is Not Forgotten is published by Mira and will be released on 12 July.
You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Not-Forgotten-gripping-thriller-ebook/dp/B01ARSC5IE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467573824&sr=1-1&keywords=all+is+not+forgotten