All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker
Published by St. Martin’s Press on July 12th 2016
Genres: Fiction, Psychological, Suspense, Thrillers
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
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.
…and they just keep getting better and better over at Booksparks, don’t they? All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker is just another fantastic book included in the BookSparks 2016 Summer Reading Challenge, and it did not let me down! WOW is what I say to this story!
Jenny Kramer is a 15-year old girl looking forward to a high school party, but she is brutally raped in the woods in back of the house. While at the hospital, her parents are advised about an experimental drug that promises to erase the memory of that night and are provided with the opportunity of trying it with Jenny. While her mother is onboard and wants to use the drug for appearances sake, her father is fearful that justice will not be served if she cannot recall the attack. Despite her father’s concern, they move forward with having the drug administered to Jenny.
And then there’s Sean Logan, who is an Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD who has already taken this treatment at a field hospital right after they amputated his arm.
Both of these people end up under the care of Dr. Alan Forrester, a psychiatrist, who believes that memories need to be remembered in order to move on. Both are struggling with the disconnection of what happened and their bodies still having a instinctual memory to the events. Through the process of memory-recovery, childhood traumas are slowly peeled away revealing years of harmful secrets and deceit with no one left untouched by the process
All is Not Forgotten is written in another person’s point of view – not Jenny or Sean, but from someone whose identity is disclosed later in the story. (No spoilers in this review, as usual.) The story is told piece by piece as if this person is speaking directly to the reader. At some points I felt that the flow to the story line was a bit interrupted this way but maybe I let too much time lapse between turning pages and picking up where I left off the last time I was reading the story.
I really feel like this author did her homework as it pertains to PTSD and psychiatry as a whole. I actually read somewhere that this story has been picked up to be made into a movie, so that tells you how interesting this story is. I think I would probably categorize this story as a psychological thriller myself. It really is quite an engrossing read not only because the topic is controversial but because the twist is a shocker.
Keep checking out BookSparks’ Summer Reading Challenge 2016! There are so many more books you’ll want to put into your beach bag! This is going to be the “best summer ever.” #SRC2016 #BestSummerEver #BestSRCEver!
It would be great if you would stay connected with me!! You can follow me on Twitter @DebiL1611, like me on Facebook at 2014 and Beyond, circle me on Google+, follow me on Tumblr, Instagram and Bloglovin’, subscribe on YouTube, or connect with me on LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Please make sure to visit my homepage and subscribe to my blog for more great posts on running, fitness and lifestyle topics as well as food, product, music and book reviews, and more!
