I have one thing to focus on. Put one foot in front of the other. Walk forward, head down. Elizabeth and Rose will take care of the rest...
***
The Blurb
A compelling psychological thriller about a young girl who is forced to confront her past demons after a mysterious new neighbour moves in next door.
Portia Willows was a high school senior in Los Angeles when a devastating car accident took the lives of her mother and sister. After their death, Portia’s social anxiety grows worse. She and her father become heavily dependent on cigarettes and alcohol to cope with their grief.
The book starts five years in the future when she must confront her distorted memory of the past – Portia has committed a crime, and she can’t remember it. As investigators close in, her fractured mind becomes a puzzle she must solve before it’s too late. Then Ethan Torke moves in across the street. At first, he seems like a distraction, but soon, his presence forces Portia to confront a possibility that she would have never expected. The deeper she digs, the more the walls of her safe reality crumble. Sinister pasts are bound to be revealed; the truth always catches up, and fantasies never last.
An unforgettable tale of memory, love, and strength through the darkest of times, Remember announces a brave new voice in psychological suspense.
My Review
I rarely give books a five star review. Then like buses, along come two in a week. In case you missed it, the other was The One True Thing by Linda Newbury. Do check out my review as the book is well worth reading.
Now back to the reason that I gave this one five shiny stars. The book begins with the trial of the main character, Portia Willows in 2025. The book then moves back to 2022 when we begin to learn what has brought her to this point.
Portia was a great character. She has suffered with a severe anxiety disorder since childhood. When her mother and sister are killed in a car accident, this situation only worsens. We accompany her through a series of panic attacks. I have been fortunate in life that I have never suffered this myself but the book offered me a revealing insight into how it must feel. The author wrote these scenes with realism.
The narrative moves seamlessly through different parts of Portia's life. We read of the years since the car accident, her arrest and also her trial. I found the scenes surrounding her arrest gripping. Not only did I, as a reader, not understand exactly why she had been arrested but neither does Portia and so we literally shadow her through her discovery. Her crime is gradually revealed to both the reader and protagonist and I thought this was a fantastic way in which to do so.
There are some difficult themes in this book; grief, PTSD, what can happen if mental illness is left untreated and if memories are not properly processed. The author deals with all of this with both compassion and empathy.
As a debut novel this is fabulous. I was gripped from the very first page to the last. It moved along at a swift pace which suited the genre very well. It was an entertaining yet emotive read that was compelling in its sincerity.
I highly recommend this book and hope you enjoy it every bit as much as I did.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1915523822
Publisher: Datura Books
Formats: e-book, audio and paperback
No. of Pages: 400 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Patricia Shanae Smith saw her first dead body at six years old, sparking a fascination with life’s darker edges and a lifelong passion for storytelling. Born in Los Angeles, she found escape through writing and later earned a BFA in Motion Pictures with a focus on screenwriting at Belmont University in Nashville. She loves listening to metal and country music, and of course, watching The Big Bang Theory.
Why not check out some of the other bloggers on this tour?
.png)
.png)
(ARC and media courtesy of the publisher)
(all opinions are my own)
No comments:
Post a Comment