All Is Not Forgotten

​All Is Not Forgotten is an excellent story by Wendy Walker. The story is told in a unconventional manner which itself was fascinating. Very difficult to put down. I'm looking forward to reading more by Ms Walker. I was given an early copy to review.

In the town of Fairview, Connecticut, the lawns and homes are perfect, the women beautiful and thin, the men handsome and successful and the children perfectly behaved. Until the night Jenny Kramer is viciously attacked at a party. As she is treated for her many physical injuries, she is given a drug that makes her forget the traumatic event. She may be healing on the outside, and she may have no actual memories of the attack, but her feelings of rage, fear and sorrow are almost out of control. Her father thinks about only one thing, finding the man responsible and seeing him punished, her mother would just as soon pretend none of it ever happened and get back to life as usual. Jenny’s attacker is still out there somewhere and no one knows who it is. Will he strike again? This is a thought provoking book. If you could take a drug that would make you forget painful events, would you? Walker has more than a few surprises in store for readers

5 star read--I stayed up all night with this one and I have no regrets. A very well written thriller that kept me guessing. My guess was wrong, by the way, and I'm totally ok with that because the real ending was much better than my guess. I highly recommend avoiding any spoilers because this ending really got me! Loved it.

Jenny Kramer is an innocent, likeable carefree young girl until the night that innocence is savagely ripped away when she is viciously, brutally raped at a party. Her mother believes that having a controversial drug treatment to erase all memory of the rape will help her get over it. Her Father reluctantly agrees but in his heart he feels it isn't the right thing to do. Too late they realize this treatment didn't really help Jenny and will only make it more difficult to bring the rapist to justice. A psychiatrist is brought in to help Jenny deal with her emotional turmoil and to help her recover her memory, but he has a secret agenda of his own.
This was a very suspenseful psychological thriller with twists and turns that I never saw coming,

There are two major themes in, "All is Not Forgotten." The first is if you could take a drug to make you forget a horrible event would you, should you? Would you want that drug given to your child or spouse after they were victimized or horribly harmed? And here is the catcher, "the physical reaction that is experienced is programmed into our brains. The drug does not erase it," and the physical harm still is present. The connections your brain made during the event are still there but they don't have anything to connect to because you can't remember. Is it better to block that event and suffer the consequences of unconnected thoughts, feelings, impressions and constantly search for those connections or to deal with the event? Think PTSD in our military. Think rape victims.

The second theme is what would you do to save your child from a horrific event whether that event was committed upon your child or your child was the one committing the crime? Think, "The Dinner," by Herman Koch.

Many times while reading this book, I went, wait, hold up, what did I just read, what just happened? I stop reading for a moment, absorb, then read it again. I love that!

This book is about a young girl, Jenny, who gets raped during a party, and goes to the hospital and her parents are offered the opportunity to give their daughter a drug that will make it so she doesn't remember the rape. The mother Charlotte jumps at the opportunity of her daughter not having to remember what happened, the father Tom is not so sure. Jenny gets the drug. "Jenny had no memory of her rape, but the terror lived."

Dr. Alan Forrester is a psychiatrist and trained in psycho pharmacology and Jenny is sent to him for therapy, as well as Jenny's mother Charlotte and her father Tom. The effect of the rape did damage to all of them and it brings up their own personal demons that must be dealt with. There are many other characters in the book that intercept into some or all of their lives and at the heart of this novel are several things, memories and the importance of them, revenge and protecting what is yours.

A must read!!

I have been given this book by NetGalley for an honest review.

This story blew me away. I consider it one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. I have to admit the rape descriptions were hard to read and made me cringe but that's because this story is just so well written that it feels real. The story ended with some truly shocking twists that I never saw coming. I highly recommend this one.

This is the first book I've read by Wendy Walker and will not be the last.

A brilliant story of a young girl, Jenny Kramer who was viciously raped at a party. Jenny was given an experimental drug the night of the rape to help her forget the events that took place. Her mother Charlotte is wanting Jenny to forget that night while her father Tom becomes obsessed with finding the rapist. After Jenny makes an attempt on her life she becomes involved with the psychiatrist to help her recover the events that took place the night she was raped. As a result Family secrets and lies are revealed and what extent we will go to protect the ones we love. The ending of this book was shocking and not expected. Once I started this I couldn't stop. A must read for anyone who loves a psychological thriller. Thank you Nick Gallery for the opportunity to read this book.

This is one of the best written books I have read in a LONG time.

The story of a terrible, violent rape of Jenny Walker. And the story of chemically trying to block the victim's memories to save her from PTSD, which might not be as good of an idea as it sounds.

As you read this book, ask yourself: who is narrating? How long does it take to figure it out? Also, why is this narrator chosen?

As you read further along, notice the narrator say things like, "remember this other thing had not happened yet." Hrm. Why then did we already know it, out of sequence?

A narrator playing sleight of hand make us wonder. The climax of the story has three men ready to kill. Who will die? Why? And who really did the monstrous rape?

You will certainly appreciate each character's resolution. Don't forget, though, to look over your shoulder-- there's a big twist at the end aimed at you, dear reader.

The narrator of this book is a psychiatrist, which is crucial to the way the story unfolds. A teenager named Jenny Kramer is brutally raped in the woods while a large party she was attending carries on. Her parents are offered, and accept, a controversial treatment which induces limited amnesia. Jenny won’t remember any part of the rape. Her mother, Charlotte, who has secrets of her own, is quite ready to go back to a regular family life and refuses to see what her father, Tom, sees, which is that the treatment hasn’t worked as well as it should. Jenny not only has a distinctive scar from the rape, but she also experiences constant anxiety and depression without understanding why. Enter Dr Forrester who has been the narrator but has not been identified until chapter 7 and is eager to treat Jenny and recover her memory as he has experience with another patient, Sean, for whom the treatment also didn’t work as predicted. So far, I was completely hooked and really wanted Jenny to recover her memory and find out who the rapist was (Tom is obsessed with this and harasses the local policeman for over a year). The unemotional and clinical way Dr Forrester tells the story is quite compelling. However, soon he is treating Charlotte and Tom as well as Jenny and is crossing some very serious ethical lines and stops sounding detached. It seems everyone (but Jenny perhaps) has another agenda. No spoilers, but you must read this book. The way Wendy Walker tells everyone’s story, including Dr Forrester’s, through transcripts of treatment sessions, is clever and compelling. Everything converges in an inevitable but thrilling way. As the story gallops to its conclusion, more and more lines are crossed and the end is satisfying.

Best book I've read this year so far. I loved it. Searingly suspenseful, and the characters were so real--so nuanced and human. A terrific thriller.

All is Not Forgotten will not be forgotten by me anytime soon! This book was a total winner! Nail biting, page turning, gasping and utter shock. I LOVED this book from start to finish. I thought the pacing was perfect and I enjoyed the unnamed narrator ploy.

We are quickly introduced to the Kramer Family, daughter Jenny, parents Tom and Charlotte. Tom is very likable, Charlotte comes across as aloof and cold. Jenny has just been found viciously raped and whilst the details are sketchy the parents reactions are like night and day. When offered the opportunity to erase the terrible crime from Jenny's recollection, Charlotte does not hesitate to give permission without fully weighing the consequences. It 's a decision that must be made within hours of the trauma. This course of action sets in motion a chain of events that will leave the reader on the edge of their seat.
I could not put this book down. So much to digest and absorb. A chilling thriller in the vain of Defending Jacob and The Good Father!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for gifting me with an ARC of Wendy Walker's outstanding novel. Book clubs will be discussing this story for months to come.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, St Martin's Press, for the opportunity to read this book - I loved it!

I apparently am on a roll with books about memory - just finished The Forgetting Time and then read All is Not Forgotten!

This was such a uniquely-written thriller - not sure I've ever read anything written in such a similar fashion. The basic premise of the story is that a teenage girl is brutally raped at a party (warning - definitely descriptions of rape if that's a trigger for anyone). She is given a new drug at the hospital that promises to erase the memory of that night - and it does. However, the rape also affected her parents in very different ways. Enter a psychologist who believes that memories need to be remembered and dealt with in order to move on.

The way the story is written is what pulls you in. The story is told by an at-first undisclosed narrator. He tells the story but also interjects lots of background and what feels like unimportant information and characters as he's doing so. Then each of the main characters tells their story in different paragraphs as it is being narrated. Hard to describe but suffice it to say that it pulls you in and makes you go in so many different directions.

I really liked this book and highly recommend it!

It was almost impossible to put this twisty, horrifying book down. I was hooked from the first paragraph! The shifts in perspective from character to character was a little hard to get used to, but it was very effective in allowing the reader to see various viewpoints. The voice of the narrator, (the puppet master psychiatrist) kept the story going strong. A memory erasing treatment was an interesting concept--how many of us wish there was a pill that one could take to remove a traumatic event from our minds? This book actually made me really think about how and why certain events in our lives are "stored" and processed. Overall, very good story that kept me guessing until almost the end. Hell, even in the end, when I found out the who and the why, she still managed to surprise me.

VERY good book. LOVED the twists and turns. Kept me guessing until the very end. Couldn't put it down.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free electronic ARC of this novel. In “All is Not Forgotten” a young girl named Jenny is raped at a party. In order to negate the foreseeable emotional trauma, her parents permit her doctors to give her a drug that will forever alter her memory and erase (most of) the memories of that night. Through Jenny’s work with a psychiatrist, and the help of her family (whom are also falling apart at the seams as a result of the rape), Jenny is able to reveal secrets that no one knew- and the novel is brought to its surprising conclusion. HOLY COW. This novel surpassed any of my expectations. I was immediately addicted and wanted more. It was suspenseful, thought-provoking, emotional and haunting. I do not know the author well, however Walker will now definitely be on my to-watch list! The story is told from the perspective of the psychiatrist, and through his narration we hear the story as told by Jenny, both her parents and a stranger who also had the memory procedure. These intermingling stories lay the plot for a spooky psychological thriller that leaves you second guessing. How far would you go to protect your child? Would you harm someone else’s child? Would you ruin an innocent person’s life? Would you reveal secrets that could destroy more than one family?
This novel left me second guessing at every turn. It was well written, the plot was strong and the characters were well developed. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, another surprise would be thrown my way. There was nothing I didn’t like about this book and I am now a fan of Wendy Walker.

Loved loved loved this book. The way it was written from the perspective of the doctor gave it a different edge and made for interesting reading as he interpreted what was happening through his own lens. Would recommend to anyone

A sad topic, and IIwas intrigued by the concept of giving a patient a drug to make them forget, and as the book went on, I was more and more engrossed. This truly shows the different ways people deal with stress/trauma, and how we make and question our decisions. A thought-provoking book that I could not put down. I would definitely recommend it.

Jenny Kramer was brutally raped at a party and given an experimental treatment at the hospital that rids the victim of the memory of the trauma. As effective as the treatment was for getting rid of her factual memory, it failed at eliminating her emotional and physiological memory tied to the assault leading her to have a PTSD response without the actual memories. Treatment for PTSD typically involves exposure to the memories in a safe way so that the emotional and physiological responses can be diminished through this exposure... but Jenny does not have these factual memories to tie her other responses to. She works with a local psychiatrist who strives to help her regain her factual memories so she may put all the "pictures in the book" and consolidate her memories to reduce her emotional pain. As he becomes more engrossed in treating Jenny, he also finds himself drawn into solving the mystery of her rape facing demons he did not even know existed.

How do I even describe my feelings about this book? Wendy Walker weaves a completely compelling narrative told entirely from the first person perspective (as if he is giving a testimony to the reader) of a psychiatrist treating a young sexual assault victim. The descriptions I've read imply this will be a family-driven drama but this could not be further from the truth. The use of the first-person perspective is utterly fascinating and creates a truly dynamic story. I'm a psychologist who has treated PTSD myself which made me feel connected to the narrator's perspective. I do realize that his clinical voice may be boring at times to others but I think that it will be worth it to stick with it. I also felt that Walker handled the PTSD and its treatment with fully authenticity. I was truly impressed with this book and look forward to more from this author. Highly recommended.

Beginning with an enticing premise, Wendy Walker's novel asks the question, if you had the chance to erase a traumatic memory, would you, or more thought-provoking, should you? The concept of the unreliable narrator has been so popular lately that I was almost put off by yet another psychological suspense/literary thriller title with that kind of set-up. However, the author does a good job of examining each character, and their motives, that it felt fresh and new, especially with that unique question that readers will be asking themselves: which memory would I erase, and what would the ramifications to my life, and the lives of those around me, if I could do so?

I think all of us sometimes feel or wish we could forget something or someone, just so we could continue with our own lives again. I certainly would love that privilege.......
Jenny survived an attack and was given the choice of forgetting it all. Unfortunately the magic pill can't delete or take away the physical scars on her body. Her mind feels disconnected because it can't understand why she is injured but can't remember it all. The emotional interaction between Jenny and her out-for-revenge-daddy, and her it-never-happened-mommy make for gripping reading and I couldn't wait to see how the story ended up.
Recommended.
PS - can't wait for anything in future from this author again.