Forget Me Not by Alexandra Oliva

 

From the publisher: She was born for all the wrong reasons. But her search for the truth reveals answers she wishes she could forget in this suspenseful and deeply moving novel.

Forget Me Not pulled me in and kept me reading. I found it intriguing and moving. A rich couple have a daughter, who dies in a terrible accident as a teenager. The mom descends into mental illness and uses frozen embryos to impregnate herself in an attempt to recreate her dead child. But of course she can’t – and the new child pays the price for not being her older sister.

Linda, the protagonist, is very relatable. Now an adult, she is trolled on social media for merely existing. She has a troubled relationship with her famous father. She moves frequently as her address is outed online, and she has no friends until an outgoing neighbor (with a dog!) reaches out to her. But can she trust that Anvi is truly a friend? Or is she using her? Then the walled home where Linda grew up with her disturbed mother catches fire – and the past which has settled is stirred up again.

I liked that we got more than one narrative point of view. I enjoyed the Seattle setting. But what Oliva does really well is create a number of sympathetic and believable characters. Even the mother isn’t painted as evil.

Forget Me Not is set in a near future, and the social media, gun culture, and virtual reality details feel true. This could make a great movie in the right hands.

There is a subplot that I found distracting and not necessary. If I could speak to the author (who I actually did meet at a library conference a few years ago), I would say – stop trying to trick us. You don’t need the tricks. You are a good writer and your stories can stand on their own without the subterfuge. There was another “big secret” that I guessed early on as well. But those were minor distractions. I found Forget Me Not great escapist reading and recommend it to lovers of psychological thrillers.

I read an advance reader copy of Forget Me Not from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be released on March 2, 2021. The Galesburg Public Library will own it in print and as an ebook and electronic audiobook. In the meantime, we also own Oliva’s first book, The Last One, in print, audio, and ebook, and I recommend it as well.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

From the publisher: Memory makes reality. That’s what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. That’s what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it. An intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory.

Blake Crouch’s Recursion is not a perfect book but it is a highly enjoyable one. It’s a classic time travel story with a twist – if someone goes back in time and changes the timeline, everyone affected by the change remembers their old timeline as well as their new timeline. This causes confusion, paranoia, and an increased suicide rate. The inventor of the technology that allows this to happen is trying to erase it from time, while others want to use it for good to change the past … but unexpected consequences are not predictable.

Recursion has a compelling narrative, and I found it hard to put down. I couldn’t quite follow all the timey-wimey stuff and have no idea whether the science is somewhat real or utterly ridiculous, but the characters are sympathetic enough that I did not worry too much about the timelines. I found the overall resolution predictable but not the steps the author took to get there. (I am confused by the very end – someone read it and tell me what it means!)

Recommended for readers who enjoy contemporary thrillers with a futuristic touch.

Recursion comes out on June 11 and has already been purchased by Netflix for a TV series. It will be available in print and as an ebook at the Galesburg Public Library.