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A review by bookapotamus
Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser
5.0
Let's talk about secrets. The kind of secrets that can bend and twist and turn a teeny, tiny veiled thing into a full blown nuclear bomb. Jessica Strawser has again, intricately built a twisty, complex labyrinth of emotions, pain, fear, guilt and secrets and then dropped the bomb on us once again. She makes it look so easy: to make lives look so very complicated, so real-life - and so insightful. And it explodes all over you in a mess of pieces you feverishly try to put together but cannot for the life of you figure what the heck is going on!
It starts with a simple catch-up video chat between friends while Molly's husband is out of town. Molly and Liza used to be so close, but life and distance has built a wedge, and the much needed girls-night gossip session is just starting to warm up when Molly needs to step away to answer her daughters wails from the bedroom. As Liza waits - staring at a static screen of Molly's house - she see something - or rather, someone. There's a masked intruder in Molly's house.
And what follows is so utterly confusing. Why won't Molly acknowledge what Liza saw. Why is she so mad that Liza is so incredibly concerned? And why won't she tell her husband? Cue the secrets and the emotional complexities of friendships and married life. The stresses of work, the worries over money. The struggles with pain.
These are ALL things that normal everyday people deal with in real life. You, me, Joe down the street... the way that Strawser makes you feel every single struggle, sense worry over choices made, and harbor guilt that is not your own, is a true gift in her storytelling. I savored every minute inhaling the suspense, and didn't put it down, until I had acknowledged every, single word.
It starts with a simple catch-up video chat between friends while Molly's husband is out of town. Molly and Liza used to be so close, but life and distance has built a wedge, and the much needed girls-night gossip session is just starting to warm up when Molly needs to step away to answer her daughters wails from the bedroom. As Liza waits - staring at a static screen of Molly's house - she see something - or rather, someone. There's a masked intruder in Molly's house.
And what follows is so utterly confusing. Why won't Molly acknowledge what Liza saw. Why is she so mad that Liza is so incredibly concerned? And why won't she tell her husband? Cue the secrets and the emotional complexities of friendships and married life. The stresses of work, the worries over money. The struggles with pain.
These are ALL things that normal everyday people deal with in real life. You, me, Joe down the street... the way that Strawser makes you feel every single struggle, sense worry over choices made, and harbor guilt that is not your own, is a true gift in her storytelling. I savored every minute inhaling the suspense, and didn't put it down, until I had acknowledged every, single word.