“An assured, powerful novel that blends suspense and rich family drama…it is, in a word, unforgettable.” –William Landay, author of DEFENDING JACOBWendy Walker’s All Is Not Forgotten 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 … 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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I was totally engrossed in this book. I finished it in two days. Reese Witherspoon is producing and developing the movie with Warner Bros. I highly recommend it.
A superb psychological thriller that I didn’t want to end. A novel I won’t soon forget!
In “All Is Not Forgotten” 15 year old Jenny Kramer is viciously raped at a party. After surgery to repair her physical wounds her parents allow the doctors to administer a drug that will erase most of her memories of the brutal attack.
As part of the treatment Jenny and her parents must see psychologist, Dr. Alan Forrester, for therapy sessions. How do you deal with the emotions that exist even when you can’t remember the assault. Memory recall therapy is decided upon and things become quite tricky.
Narrated by the psychologist, we quickly see the secrets of the characters unfold. There are clever, tension-filled twists and a unexpected chilling conclusion.
A must read for fans of psychological thrillers.
Wendy Walker has an amazing reputation as a writer and it is well-deserved! This book takes the reader on twisty-turns and never lets up. It is one step beyond a page-turner, it’s a page-burner!
Being a mom this was very hard to read at times, but I was completely intrigued by the whole idea of a drug being able to erase a traumatic experience from your mind which in turn would save you from PTSD, or would it? I got to say, it was truly excellent and I thought I had it completely figured out till the amazing twist at the end. Well done Wendy Walker.
Haunting use of a drug that erases memory of traumatic events. Very intricate plot involving therapist, his family, his patients. Very readable!
This was an interesting story about providing a drug to a young girl who was raped, hoping to erase her memory of the event, and the psychiatrist helping her to recover that memory. It is tensely written and very psychological. The entire family has many secrets and demons from which they are trying to recover.
What a let down this story was. I mean, it is well-written and very compelling. Right up until the end.
That’s where I felt I’d been manipulated the whole time and not in the good way.
Psychiatrist Dr. Alan Forrester, the narrator, is manipulative and devious right off the bat.
Ultimately, he becomes unethical and repugnant.
That’s part of the “fun” reading this. Trying to find out why.
He is treating a young woman, Jenny Kramer, who’s been the victim of a brutal attack.
Almost immediately following the assault, Jenny receives “the treatment”, a controversial drug cocktail that targets specific memories of trauma.
Forrester doesn’t like the idea of “the treatment”. He believes the memories are still there, just “refiled”.
And that these hidden memories can still cause emotional and physical reactions.
Iraqi war veteran Sean Logan has also received the treatment for combat-related trauma.
He is also under Dr. Forrester’s continuing care.
Will they come to regret it?
When the investigation into Jenny’s rape lands on the doctor’s doorstep, things get really bad.
The are a lot of twists and many cool ways this tale could have gone.
MANY ways.
But when you get to the end, it’s like a damp fire cracker trying to explode.
Not the bombshell one expects from a top-notch thriller.
The plotting is excellent, as well as the pacing. It has some decent shocks.
But it all leads to an unsatisfactory conclusion. Blase.
I read half of this book before I became interested. However, the 2nd half did hold my interest.
I enjoyed this book. I recommend
All Is Not Forgotten is thought provoking, absorbing, and intense, with so many twists it will completely mess with your head! There are so many threads that all perfectly, expertly meld together in the end, with a fantastic reveal you won’t see coming.
Good and troubling topic. If the writing wasn’t so poor, may have rated higher.
I did not enjoy this book I’m sorry to say.
It starts with the rape of a 15-year-old girl but does not just revolve around it; there are lots of developments, discoveries, and surprises, especially at the end. The book told from the psychiatrist’s point of view. The girl initially received medication to forget her traumatic memory, the rape, she comes to the psychiatrist to help her recover her mind and find out who is the rape by smells, words, voices.
The book written differently from other books, it is told in the first person and written as a kind of diary/confession of the reader to his / her students. This kind of writing is refreshing although it takes time to distinguish between different voices and understand when it is the one who speaks and when the other characters talk to him.
I’m not so sure everyone will relate to style.
I can not wait for a movie to be made from this book. It is one of the best who-dun-it stories I have ever read. Almost Hitchcock- like in its suspense and twist ending. Highly recommend it.
OMG….what a twisted story! What we do to protect our children…it’s not right.