The book tells the story of Linda, a gentle soul living in Seattle, alone and lonely. She spends most of her time locked up in her apartment with very little contact with the outside world. As the story progresses you find out why. Linda is a replacement child. Her mother found a way to 'make' her in order to replace her previous daughter that died. But Linda was not her, and could never replace her. So one day her mother just leaves. Linda was left to raise herself at their walled-off property somewhere in rural Washington. Until one day, something makes her run, jump off the wall, and find a world that she didn't know existed and was definitely not ready for.
Years later in Seattle, when a new neighbor moves in, Anvi, Linda tries and hopes that she can maybe make a friend. That she can maybe be normal. Anvi introduces Linda to virtual reality and a whole different way to see things. But when your memories from your past are as muddy as Linda's are, the virtual world is both a blessing and a curse. Linda is not a good narrator of her own life, she at times can't tell what memories are hers and what memories are made-up. There are reasons for that, and we, the reader, figure them out slowly as the story is told.
Things start to look promising for Linda, but then another disaster strikes.
Forget Me Not is a mixture of mystery, suspense, the upside and the downside of social media, the consequences of trauma, and the beauty of new friendships.
Linda's life story and the way her brain works and processes both past and present is fascinating. It demonstrates how things we see as simple and mundane can be so complicated and hard to understand if you grow up alone, with no one to point you to the right direction and teach you the basics.
The book makes you think and keeps you wondering and guessing 'what happened' all the way. It is a fantastic psychological mystery by a great Pacific Northwest Author.
This really does sound like a story made for the screen—the unreliable narrator, layered trauma, and slow-burn mystery would translate beautifully into a psychological film. I enjoy exploring books like this through a cinematic lens, and I recently came across a thoughtful take on book-to-movie storytelling on
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Stories like Forget Me Not stay with you long after the last page.