Nerdy Apple Bottom

One thing this book reminds me I need to do is to keep track of where I hear about a book. For the life of me I cannot remember which is strangely appropriate for this novel.

The synopsis: A woman, Christine, wakes up and doesn’t know where she is or who she is lying next to. She starts to panic and stumbles into the bathroom where she sees herself in the mirror - 20 years older than she thinks she should be. Around the mirror are pictures of her and the man with whom she was sleeping. He awakes and explains she was in an accident long ago and has amnesia. Every morning she has to learn these things all over again. After her husband leaves for work, she gets a call from a doctor that claims he’s been treating her and convinces her by telling her where a particular thing is in her home. She agrees to meet with him. At this meeting, her gives her a journal that she’s been writing in for the last several weeks.

The bulk of the rest of the novel is her journal. In it she learns new things and starts to regain her memory. In doing so, she realizes some things are not adding up.

This book sounds a lot like “Memento’ and is to a certain extent, but is also different enough that I thoroughly appreciated it. I tore through it in 2 days, staying up way too late in the process. The suspense was kept at just the right pace, not too quickly as to be rushed and spoil surprises, and not too slow as to be dragged out.

I definitely recommend as a thriller/suspense. It can be read lightly, or taken more seriously - causing you to consider what you would want to know or more importantly not know, from your own past. Also, what is the nature of love and friendship, as well as ‘is life only meaningful if you can remember it?’

The author acknowledges some of the inspiration came from two mean that suffer from severe cases of amnesia, one of whom I’d heard about on Radiolab (my favorite podcast).

I give it 4.5 stars. And the only reason I don’t give it the full 5 is that I guessed at one of the surprises. Give it a read, and let me know your thoughts. Or if you have read it and know of other books that are just as good, let me know those as well.