Review: All Is Not Forgotten – Wendy Walker

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where 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,...

It begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where 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, struggles to pretend this horrific event did not touch her carefully constructed world.

As Tom and Charlotte 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.

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This book grabbed me from the beginning and held me to the end. Sounds so cliché but in this case so true.

The voice if you will of this story is narrator Dr. Alan Forrester, a psychiatrist who works in Fairview where this story is set. We learn that in addition to treating Jenny Kramer, who is brutally raped, he is also treating other characters in this psychological thriller that had me taking moments to compose myself before I could continue. That is the mark of a GREAT read.

An important issue, and I would suggest is more what this book is about than anything else, is raised in this story when doctors want to give Jenny a drug that can erase your memory of traumatic events. This alone will leave to lots of discussion in book clubs because of the implications of taking such a drug.

Jenny’s parents Tom and Charlotte Kramer as you might expect, do not deal with this terrible thing that happens to their daughter and in trying to figure out the best way to help her by working with Dr. Forrester, he uncovers secrets and lies they both have that make this book the pager turner it is.

There is much more to the story, other characters, the mystery of who raped Jenny, twists and turns I didn’t see coming and surprises. I found it startling at times, but the one constant was that I could not stop reading, even when it was hard to read, as this can be a dark story for some.

Very character driven, Wendy Walker has written a story that not only will be talked about for some time; you may see it on the big screen as the movie rights have been purchased even though this book doesn’t come out until later in the year. Ms. Walker has written about a tough topic in a unique way that while slow in places, due to her due diligence with the medical terminology it wasn’t enough to keep me from finishing the book.

I found this to be a riveting, character-driven, attention-grabbing read that didn’t let up until the end.

Buy this book and Ms. Walker? You have a new fan!

Reviewed by: Linda C

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