All is Not Forgotten – Wendy Walker (2016)
(3.5 / 5)
I almost gave this one a miss. I had read some mixed reviews by some of my most trusted goodreads friends, and when I started the first few paragraphs I thought I was going to finish this book before it began. However I am glad that I stuck with it and read on. The second half was so much better than the first and ultimately I enjoyed the twists. However I couldn’t go above a 3.5.
Young Jenny is brutally assaulted at a party when she is 15 years old. Given a drug that creates an amnesiac effect, she loses her memory about the incident. However as the title suggests, all is not forgotten and even though her memory of the incident has gone, the trauma of it still remains. Told in first person by the therapist, the pieces of the puzzle soon begin to unravel.
I enjoyed the way that the narration was set out, with the therapist telling the story from his perspective, with everything second hand. It was a clever way to tell the story, however I didn’t much like the character and he tended to go on and on about stuff that was totally irrelevant. Never the less, once you got through the slow parts there was an interesting story underneath which kept me enthralled.
The graphic scenes, however I did not enjoy. Described numerous times and in extremely intricate detail, the gruesome sexual assault of the poor girl will be too much for many readers to tolerate. I found myself skipping over parts of the graphic detail just to move on to the next part of the story.
I was also disappointed that it didn’t delve into the amnesiac drug a bit more. It’s kind of the Tagline of the story, she is given this drug and it’s amazing, like it’s a huge part of the storyline. But I thought there was going to be more about it.
Would I recommend All is Not Forgotten?
Not for everyone. A gripping psychological thriller it was, but with extremely graphic rape scenes which will not be everyone’s cup of tea.
I have read Reece Wotherspoon’s production company is making it into a movie. I will definitely watch it when it comes out. She always does a good job with her book to movie adaptations and will hopefully weed out some of the duller parts.
Big thanks to netgalley and the author for a copy of All is Not Forgotten for me to review.
If you enjoy All is not Forgotten, you may enjoy:
0 Comments