A spellbinding novel about an unspeakable secret that could destroy a family, from the New York Times bestselling author of Finding Emma.Elle is a survivor. She’s managed to piece together a solid life from a childhood of broken memories and fairy tales her mom told her to explain away bad dreams. But weekly visits to her mother still fill Elle with a paralyzing fear she can’t explain. It’s just … fear she can’t explain. It’s just another of so many unanswered questions she grew up with in a family estranged by silence and secrets.
Elle’s world turns upside down when she receives a deathbed request from her grandfather, a man she was told had died years ago. Racked by grief, regrets, and a haunted conscience, he has a tale of his own to tell Elle: about her mother, an imaginary friend, and two strangers who came to the house one night and never left.
As Elle’s past unfolds, so does the truth—if she can believe it. She must face the reasons for her inexplicable dread. As dark as they are, Elle must listen…before her grandfather’s death buries the family’s secrets forever.
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Buried secrets, a family mystery… The Forgotten Ones is a haunting tale of loyalty in the face of mental illness and the name of love. Heartbreaking and utterly compelling.
This is a complex tale of secrets that unroll with a roller coaster of emotions. Family, mental illness and a haunting surprise ending.
/ 5 rounded up.
First of all, can I just mention how beautiful the cover of this book is?! And let me tell you, it is even prettier in person!
The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes is mainly told from 2 perspectives, Elle and a man named David. Elle is working as a nurse when she finds out her grandfather is on his deathbed and wishes to meet her. A grandfather she thought was dead. Cue the crazy! Her grandfather has a big secret to tell about their family, and he wants to tell the story to Elle before he dies. So many secrets are uncovered in this book, and not just from her grandfather.
The story about this family is a heartbreaking one, and while I didn’t find myself relating to any of the characters, I was very frustrated for Elle’s sake. It takes her a VERY long time to get answers, and even I was annoyed that no one was being straight with her.
The mystery is S.T.R.O.N.G. with The Forgotten Ones, and the big secret had me devouring it exceptionally fast. I don’t know if fast-paced is the correct term for this book, but the story sure kept me turning those pages.
I found myself swearing at characters and calling them names, so Holmes definitely knows how to evoke a bunch of emotions! I teared up, wanted to pull my hair out, and laughed all in the 337 pages this book offered.
My biggest issue with this book was the ending. I know it will wow a lot of people, but it felt rather anticlimactic to me and I have no idea why. It apparently just wasn’t the kind of big reveal I was hoping for. And I was very irritated at times with many of the characters, but that may have been intentional.
Final Thought: Steena Holmes definitely knows how to write, and obviously has a lot of talent. Just because the ending wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, I still highly recommend reading this one. I would say it would be good for someone that likes a good mystery and some intense (slightly creepy) family secrets. I will also definitely be reading more of Holmes’ books!
The Forgotten Ones in 3-ish words: Meaningful, Beautifully-Written & Mysterious
Having read Steena Holmes’ Finding Emma a few years ago, I purchased The Forgotten Ones because of a BookBub recommendation. The storyline sounded intriguing and the opening chapters captured my attention.
Elle is a pediatric nurse who cares deeply for her patients and their families. She shares an apartment with her best friend Brennley, who is a nurse in the same hospital, working on the geriatric floor.
Brennley helps a dying patient, David Walker, pen a letter to his long-lost granddaughter and discovers it’s none other than her roommate. Elle, who had been told her grandfather was dead, decides to visit him. He tells her a story and she learns her mother had been keeping secrets for years.
Although at times the story was a little far-fetched, I wanted to keep reading. Holmes had me guessing as to the true identity of a couple of the characters.
Overall, it was a satisfying read. Until the end. I sort of felt like I did when I watched the movie Bridge on The River Kwai. It just ended—the author left too many loose ends. I don’t want to post any spoilers, but I found a few things unbelievable and unrealistic.
I give this one 3.5 stars (rounded up to four).
Really enjoyed peeling back the layers of the family’s secrets. Couldn’t put it down.
Having torn through The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes in under a night, it’s easy to understand why the author’s name is typically preceded by ‘best-selling,’ and deservedly so. From the opening line, the reader is thrust into an old man’s guilty conscience. David, resigned to die alone, sends one final letter to Elle, the granddaughter he never met. Elle, a nurse who grew up under the rapid swings of her mother’s mental illness, is excited to learn any and everything about her family history, even though her mother warns her the man calling himself their relative is not to be trusted. Against her mother’s wishes, and at the risk of sending the fragile woman into a breakdown, Elle digs deep into a past no one wants to talk about. Once she picks the bits of truth from the fragments of memories, Elle’s unsure whether anyone benefits from digging up the secrets of the past.
Told in descriptive and visceral prose, it’s easy to disappear into the dark secrets of Elle’s family history. Holmes not only lets the reader empathize with the struggles of a tumultuous past, but handles the subjects of mental illness and cancer with a balance that speaks to expertise and true compassion, without resorting to cliche.
Make a pot of coffee, grab a box of tissues, and put out the Do-Not-Disturb sign, you won’t stop reading The Forgotten Ones until you know the whole story.
The Forgotten Ones is compelling family drama with a thriller edge that had me turning each page with anticipation. The writing, the words, the emotion…GAH….I flippin’ loved it all. Talk about layers! Even the layers had layers.
Keep in mind; things were different in 1950’s rural America. Family history, mental illness and unsavory events were hidden, pushed to the far corners of an unused closet, never to be brought out again. What happened in the family, stayed in the family. It was a simpler time but also a less understanding time and things could happen then that wouldn’t be possible today.
David’s death bed confessions has Elle, his estranged granddaughter, scrambling to figure out if he could possibly be telling the truth or if it’s just the mixed up memories of an old man, altered by time and age. After all, it can’t be true, nothing this horrific could possibly be…..or could it. Mental illness does run in the family but this….no, not this. One person’s version of the truth is never the whole story and finding the answers she needs is an exercise in frustration for Elle. Especially since most everyone who could provide them is unwilling or unable to talk about the family history.
This is Elle’s journey to unlocking the secrets of her family’s past and it’s full of twists, turns and shocking revelations. This book, like life, is messy and doesn’t come delivered in a pretty package and I wouldn’t have loved it as much if it had been.
Wow! I’ve just finished this book and am overwhelmed.
Yet again another well written book that draws you in and leaves you wanting more.
Steena thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.
I loved reading the stories of David, Ella, Marie and Grace and finding out how their lives connect.
Wow! This novel was emotional and mysterious! I enjoyed the intense, mysterious air to the whole story. Steena spins a story that starts out loud and reels you in throughout to the very end. She writes scenes, some you can’t imagine living through, and others where you find yourself nodding as you can relate to them. Elle doesn’t remember everything from her childhood. She knows her mother has kept secrets from her. By a twist of fate, Elle finds her grandfather who is dying. He tells her his own tales of what really happened in the past. Elle must piece together the secrets to figure out what the truth is and what is make believe. This novel is about family and love. It is about the relationship between fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters. It is also about mental illness and the relationships this creates, along with the pain and hurt it causes.
The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes is a twisted suspense tale with more than one unreliable narrator that will keep you guessing and long after you’ve finished reading.
Elle has been told her entire life that she doesn’t have any family, only to discover her David, her grandfather, is alive, but dying. As he endures the last days before his death, Elle listens to him tell stories of her grandmother and her mother growing up. Her mother doesn’t want to remember those days and her stories vary widely from David’s. Elle doesn’t know what to believe, and neither will readers. If you enjoy dark twisty suspense in the vein of The Girl in the Window and Gone Girl, this is a must read.
In true Steena Holmes fashion, this book did not disappoint. An amazing book! A look into one aspect of mental illness and how it can affect whole families. A mentally ill mother, a father who will do anything for her and a little girl caught in the mess that is created. Many secrets and lies are told over the years until finally the truth comes out and wrongs can be righted. A must read!!
The Forgotten Ones immediately drew me into the story. Hidden stories, a man on his death bed, a wife who suffered with mental illness before she passed away, a daughter he loved and wanted to protect from her mother. Should the reader feel sorry for David or be mad at him for the choices he made? This story is a good insight into a family dealing with a mental illness. I know his story will stick with me for awhile.
Elle is sure mental illness run in the family and she will show as her mother had. When she finds out his grandfather, who she thought death a long time ago, is a dying patient in the same hospital she works as paediatric nurse she can’t help but visit with him and try to know about her past. But will she like what she learn? Will known about it destroy her and her mother? A story about family, love, lies and keeping secrets.
Oh my, another winner from Steena Holmes, I wouldn’t expect anything else. David is a dying old man who has lots of secrets. His granddaughter, who didn’t know he existed, needs to meet him and find out the secrets he harbors regarding her mother. Her mother suffers from mental illness as did her deceased mother. There are horrible stories from her mother’s upbringing.. I didn’t want to read this as fast as I did but I couldn’t help myself.
My new favorite Steen Holmes book!! Great characters and secrets from the past.
Favorite Quotes:
Truth be told, I’ve been ready to greet death for a while now. But there’s a difference between greeting death and accepting it.
They say life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. I tend to believe the memories of the life you miss surround you until that’s all you see.
I guess in the end… you start thinking about the beginning.
I look at Mom in shock. The disdain in her voice is unexpected. Like finding out the sweet little puppy you adopted is really a snarling, ankle-biting, rabid wolf.
How are you doing? Do you need anything? Some water? Wine? A time machine so we can start this day over?
My Review:
I quickly tumbled into this divinely written and evocative tale that was so lushly detailed, I felt like a spectator rather than a reader. This was my first exposure to the remarkably talented scribe known as Steena Holmes and I was an instant convert to her cult. Ms. Holmes is a master storyteller with major word voodoo. I was enthralled, appalled, completely engaged, and immediately drawn to the character of Elle, as I well know the chill of looking down your family tree and seeing the deeply diseased roots of mental illness. My long-standing joke is that “stupid and crazy is everywhere in my family forest.” The storylines were ingeniously crafted, cleverly honed, and held taut at a cunning and maddening pace to the very end. I was a quivering mess and consumed with curiously to unravel the multiple layers of devious secrets Ms. Holmes had ruthlessly taunted me with, secrets that had been literally and figuratively buried for over sixty years. It was exquisite torture. Sigh, I’ve added her entire listing to my TBR.
What just happened? What a story. I was even having a hard time believing who’s story was true and who was making it up. The main story takes place in the 50’s. Mental health illness plays a significant role in the story and what how treatment was provided in the 50’s. The author does an incredible job on creating a family bond and at what lengths some people will take. The ending still has me reeling. Wait!!! Why is this happening? Loved the story and it grabbed me from the very beginning.
We meet David, an 80 year old man in a hospital dying from cancer. His wife, Gertie passed away from cancer. David is awaiting death because he’s hiding some secrets that a psychic supposedly knew who he and his wife were. David and Gertie’s daughter, Marie hasn’t answered any of her father’s letters. David is now going to have the nurse write a letter to his granddaughter. The pain from the cancer has crippled David so much so that the nurse has to write his letters for him.
We meet Elle, a pediatric nurse who lose a patient ( newborn baby) and stayed with the family. Brennley is Elle’s roommate who is helping David write one last letter to his daughter to try and get her to see him one last time. Elle is told by Brennley that the man, David she’s caring for is her grandfather. Elle is mindblown.
Elle meets her grandfather, David without her mother knowing. David starts to tell Elle stories of his past. We meet David as a young father running a truck company carrying livestock. He picks up a young woman named Judy and her daughter, Bella who were on the side of the road brings them home to spend the night at his house, with his wife, Gertie where they can get a hot meal, a shower and a good night’s sleep.
This was by far my favorite Steena book. I loved all the
characters especially Elle, Grace, Marie and David.
Are secrets in books ever not interesting?! If a blurb even alludes to secrets from the past I’m adding it to Mount TBR and from the very first chapter I had a feeling that I would like The Forgotten Ones. Spoiler alert, I was right! This was a super addictive, engaging read from an author who really knows how to draw the reader in, pulling you in closer and closer until you aren’t putting the book down until the truth is revealed.
This is told from dual perspectives, Elle and David. Elle’s chapters are in the present day and David’s are a mix between the fifties and today. Poor Elle, she just wants answers and everyone in her life is SO evasive, it frustrated the hell out of me, I can’t imagine being her! When she finds out her grandfather that she thought was already dead years ago is actually on his deathbed now, she figures she may finally get some answers about her mother’s past. It’s not that easy, even though he wants to speak with her his relationship with the truth is tenuous at best. Or is it? So many questions, no answers and who is reliable? This one most definitely kept me on my toes and had me making guesses only to change my mind within pages, I just love when a book makes me do that!
This is an emotional read and Holmes managed to drag a variety of feelings out of me, I ranged from being angry and frustrated to heartbroken and sad. Anytime an author can make me feel something I’m ecstatic and she surely did that a few times over. Mental health issues play a huge role in the storyline and she handled it with grace and care all written in a beautifully fluid manner. I do think the ending may be polarizing but I loved it and found it to be a breath of fresh air. If you’ve read it and want to chat about this ending please let me know, I’m dying to know what everyone else thinks!
The Forgotten Ones in three words: Evocative, Engaging and Haunting.
This book is fantastic. It was one of those reads that I found both thrilling and engaging. I loved that it was written in true Holmes style, which is a story with well paced suspense, well drawn out characters and a story that is not to be missed because it was so original. I loved that I was unable to figure out what was going to happen because there were perfectly placed twists and turns. I had a hard time putting this book down because I felt driven to know what was going to happen and how it would conclude. I don’t want to give too much away, but I do want you to all know that you need to read it! But after you read this 5 star book come back and tell me how much you loved it!!!