I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An elderly dementia patient struggles with her memory and her memories.

It’s hard to give All the Words We Know a definitive rating. On one hand, it offers a compelling and insightful look into the mind of someone living with dementia. There are moments of humor, warmth, and triumph, and it’s easy to root for Rose, the narrator — she’s endearing and unforgettable.

On the other hand, the novel can be an exhausting read. True to its title, there are a lot of words. Thoughts are often repeated, and it takes a long time for the story to move forward. At times, I found myself losing interest and wishing for a quicker pace or more focused plot progression.

Rose has been placed in assisted living. When her friend is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, she believes that someone is murdering the residents; unfortunately, her dementia prevents her from focusing on the mystery.

The story is told from the point of view of an older woman in her 80s with dementia who experiences memory slips and word mix-ups. While this can be disorienting at the beginning, it adds a unique layer to the narrative. The cast of characters has a lot of variety, and all mesh well together. The tension builds in an engaging way, making you want to keep reading to the very end. The book's exploration of the challenges faced by the elderly, the portrayal of dementia, and the mystery elements all contribute to its thought-provoking nature.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books, for an early reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Bruce Nash, for this is a very thought-provoking book.

Bruce Nash's All the Words We Know is an absolute gem of a novel. It is a mystery with a twist, where the main character and sleuth is Rose- an 80 year old woman living in a care home.

Rose has a unique relationship with words and language. While words can sometimes become confusing to her, creating delightful (and often humorous) misunderstandings, she also uses them with such beauty and originality. She uses language in her own distinct way to describe her world, and taking readers along for that ride. Rose uses her unique style of word play to make sense of her world, but those around her do not always understand what she is trying to say. The frustration of not being understood often leads to the pain of being overlooked. The book explores the challenges Rose faces when the world assumes incompetence due to her age or perceived mental state.

As Rose works to solve the mystery of what is going on behind closed doors at the care facility, she also works to prepare her relationships with her family. She finally comes to an understanding of what they have been feeling and is also finally able to express her feelings to them. In the end, Rose is a true hero. She solves the mystery and brings her family together. The book shows that it is never to late to make amends, build bridges and become your true self.

Rose is in her eighties, living in assisted living, and has dementia.
Rose has an adult son and daughter who visit and help care for her. Her son manages her money, and she suspects he is dipping into her funds. Her daughter comes weekly to water her plants and cleans her bathroom. She sometimes brings her two granddaughters who spend most of their time texting friends on their phones.
When her friend is found lying on her back in the parking lot after falling out of her room window, Rose doesn’t believe that she jumped.
Rose notices abuse toward a transgender aid in the facility. She also feels intimidated by the care manager that she calls the scare manager.
Rose spends her days walking through the halls with her walker. She has a scarf tied to the door to her room to help her get back to the correct room. After her friend’s death, a man is moved into her room. All he does is lie in the bed and watch T.V.
Rose overhears her son talking to the scare manager and it sounds as if he is threatening her son that she will be moved. She does get moved from the room that she liked because it had trees and greenery outside her window. Now she overlooks the parking lot.
She starts to feel threatened by the scare manager, but I couldn’t tell if it was true or her dementia.
This was a very difficult book for me to read. It was hard to read because of dementia and the author wrote as if Rose was telling the story with dementia. She often repeated phrases and said nonsensical words. It was difficult to catch the story because it was mixed in with so much nonsense.
It was also difficult to read because I had a family member who had dementia, and it was painful to think that she may have experienced some of the same things as Rose.
I understand what the author was trying to do but I feel like it took away from the story. I felt there was too little story hidden within so much dementia. It was not an enjoyable read for me.
Instead of entertaining me, it brought back bad memories.
This is a new release scheduled for July 1st.
I do want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for the advance readers copy and introducing me to a new to me author for my honest review.

This book was pretty rough for me. Written from the perspective of someone with dementia, it tried to capture the fragmented mind, but instead just turned into constant repeating. It got very repetitive and boring, and I skimmed the last 25% of the book. I appreciate the effort, however.

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria Books for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I found it very repetitive and hard to connect with the characters.

I hope others love this one!

I received a free DRC of this book through Netgalley. Okay, first off, I don't think I've ever read a book like this before written from the POV of a older woman who likely has dementia so that is unique. I don't think I'd want to read an entire series with this word stew, but as a standalone book, it works very well to stand out in a sea of cozy murder mysteries. The mystery lead me in several different directions as to what could actually be going on before it wrapped up heartily.

I'll start by saying that aspects of this title hit home a little differently for me than it might for others. My dad has Alzheimer's and we'll just say that the journey is interesting from my perspective. He also is living in a senior living facility where people range from your average retiree to those who need assistance or memory care.

Nash does an amazing job of capturing the internal struggles experienced by Rose. Over the years, Dad has expressed how hard it can be to find the correct word or information. When his diagnosis was still new, he talked about having to hunt for a long time for the right file in his brain.

Unlike where my Dad is, the senior living facility where Rose wanders the halls has something nefarious going on. Her friend in a wheelchair is found lying dead in the parking lot. And, there is now a man lying in her friend's bed. A nurse wanders the halls with pillows that Rose thinks may be for smothering. And, the Scare Manager is always lurking around.

Her son goes on about her money, but at least he has a thoroughly wiped bottom. (Sorry, but that phrase had me laughing out loud as Rose thinks it a lot!) Rose has to move to a room without a nice window because of cash flow issues. And, she keeps wondering why her son and daughter move a particular photo to the front each time they visit. In her mind's wanderings she sees that man in a garden. But, she doesn't remember who he is.

This title blends humor and mystery with the challenges of dementia woven into the mix. She is the narrator and you experience her stream of consciousness. Reading it may feel disjointed to those of us in full command of our faculties. However, I have seen the struggle in people with dementia and expect it is hitting the mark.

As someone in the midst of caring for a parent with dementia, I appreciated the bit of levity this novel brought to my evenings.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Bruce Nash for the electronic advance reader copy to read. All opinions are my own.

This started out to be a very difficult book to read for a variety of reasons. It is written as a stream of consciousness book but the mind you are privy to is an older woman with dementia so it was hard to follow at first until you got into the story. It was also hard to read if you have ever dealt with someone with dementia because it gives you real insight into what they might have been thinking and that was sometimes painful to think about. Once you got into the story it was very interesting and you just had to know how it all turned out.

Talk about a one-of-a-kind mystery novel! All the Words We Know by Bruce Nash is a fever dream of an experience. Readers are inside the mind of a mentally deteriorating woman who lives in an assisted living facility where something just isn't right. Do her conspiratorial ideas have any basis? Or is her unwell mind playing tricks on her as she edges closer to the last ending?

I've never read a book quite like this one. Stream of consciousness through the lens of someone who can't remember words in most of her thoughts. It's a little disorienting at the beginning, but as things ramped up, I found I couldn't 'look away'.

Rosie is frequently visited by her two children, who seem concerned at her state of health. She has forgotten almost everything about her life, and it was so interesting and heartbreaking as hell to experience her, in real time, remember she was once in love, that she was once a person who was loved, once upon a time.

It's a terrifying premise. In a place that has full control of you (including your medications), when you are so helpless...gah. The elderly are so vulnerable, and this novel made me feel for them more than ever.

This is what we know (probably): Someone died falling from a window, others are also dying (it is an end of life facility), Rosie has forgotten the password to her accounts, and her son loves her very much. We also know that the doctor in charge is telling her son how concerned he is for her recent behavior and decline, her medications are adjusted, and she has this deep resounding feeling of something not being right, and not knowing why.

Wow. For a book where I didn't know what the heck was going on 100% of the time, it was quite impressive. I'm inclined to dock a star or two for how difficult it was to stay grounded in a novel where everything is so disjointed and garbled, and it is quite repetitive, but I think I'll stick to 5, because I am blown away by the concept and it was consistent all the way through.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

All the Words We Know is a poignant look at aging and Alzheimer’s, of what it’s like to live in a memory care unit and deal with younger people who don’t really have time or the patience for you. It rang so true. Nash made me feel I was Rose - the confusion, the gaps in her vocabulary, trying to make certain connections. I loved the word play. “Passwords. Passing words. Past words.” The Scare Manager. It’s obvious Rose at one point had a large vocabulary. But now, it’s often whatsitsname. (Some of us can relate to that!).
Rose’s memory may be Swiss cheese, but she is still emotionally astute. She knows how her children are feeling. And she remembers the love she had with the more recent old man.
I think those going into this hoping for an amateur sleuth mystery might be disappointed. That part of the plot is really secondary. It’s much more an exploration of someone suffering from Alzheimer’s and how they see their world. Because of that, it’s not always an easy book to read. But Nash did a great job of giving us a glimpse into their world. It’s not maudlin. There’s a wonderful, subtle humor to the book. This may be a book that’s best appreciated by those of us with a certain number of years under our belts.
My thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book.

Funny, quirky and utterly entertaining, ALL THE WORDS WE KNOW, is one of those books that will always put a smile on your face.

Rose is in her 80s and suffers from dementia. She is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, and she’ll make you laugh, think, and fall in love with her. When another resident falls from a window to her death, Rose makes it her duty to investigate what really happened.

Though sometimes hard to read, in more ways than one, this book really hits home about what the older generation can go through and how to navigate dementia as a family member. Some readers may struggle with the writing but I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC.

DNF@ 18%

I didn't like the way this book was written. I understand that it's meant to represent dementia, but I'm not sure it's even doing that well.

Thank you Atria books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a lighthearted at the same times emotional book. Here we have Rose who is in an assisted living facility and have dementia. She is quirky and fun but when her friend passes away by falling from balcony she doesn’t believe it was an accident.

She keeps pestering the staff and her children are also worried about her. Does she is just overly thinking or there’s something actually happening?

It was an easy read, the ending was not too surprising but it was a decent read.

This book really perplexed me as it took some different turns I was not expecting. However I had a good time with it and I would recommend it to other people who are interested in these types of stories.

I'm afraid I just didn't understand this book. Our narrator, Rose, suffers from dementia and the writing resembles what I imagine to be the ramblings of someone with that mindset, which I am sympathetic to but while there are some humorous moments mostly, I was confused throughout.

4/5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. Yes, the reader is following the story of an unreliable narrator- a narrator who knows they are unreliable, but also is pretty certain there are nefarious things afoot. It is interesting being in the mind of someone who knows but cannot remember all they know. A smart person, who is rendered unreliable by age. Sadly, most of us know someone like this, someone who is lost inside their mind. I found Rose (is her name even Rose?!) to be a lovely storyteller, funny at times, and quite the interesting character. After a point, you get to understand her thoughts and see how she draws some of her conclusions. As a reader, I questioned so much of what was happening-is it in her mind or did she really hear/see things around her that caused alarm? The author could have easily misled us to the point of there being nothing afoot, the reader merely falling into a trap by an unreliable narrator, yet I found it vindicating that Rose was onto something and just couldn’t remember all the details along the way. I definitely recommend this book.

I expected to be more confused than I was. It was a relief that I could follow along with the story. Rosie somewhat remembers things and her past if she puts effort into it. She plays around with words sometimes intentionally, and sometimes she forgets words, so you have to guess which word she means.
Her friend dies mysteriously, but you don't know if you should trust Rosie that it's murder or natural causes. Her residence is odd, and you begin to trust Rosie that there's something wrong. There is a mystery surrounding Rosie's relationship with her children. They're good children who visit her regularly, but Rosie is sure she wasn't a good mother. It's an enchanting book about understanding your world when you don't remember your past and words elude you.

Thank you Net Galley and Atria Books for the ARC of All the Words we know. I struggled with this book. Although, the topic is difficult and sad,I found the writing was confusing and repetitive. I understand that ageing and Alzheimer’s are both those things, but the presentation was off for me.