Title: The Forgotten Girl
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Publication: May 2014
When I read it: May 2014
My Rating: 4 Stars
Series / Stand Alone: Stand Alone
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In the aftermath, Maddie’s left struggling with who she is—the forgotten girl she was six years ago or the Maddie she is now. Sometimes it even feels like she might be two different people completely—the good Maddie and the bad one.
Good Maddie goes to therapy, spends time with her family, and works on healing herself. Bad Maddie rebels and has dark thoughts of hurting people and sometimes even killing them.
Maddie manages to keep her twisted thoughts hidden for the most part. That is until she starts having blackouts. Each time she wakes up from one, she’s near a murder scene with no recollection of what happened the night before and this helpless feeling like she’s losing control of her life. Maddie doesn’t want to believe she’s a killer, but she begins to question who she really was in her past. If she was bad Maddie all along and that maybe she was a killer.
Whoa. That’s my review.
Okay, not really. But I will keep it short. Because I had no idea what I was in for with this book–and I still can’t even fully wrap my head around it, but I think it’s best experienced as a totally WTF read.
I love when authors step out of their “genre.” I’m a firm believer in never being pigeon-holed–in your job, your life, your clothing or music style. This goes for anything. So for Jessica to step away from new adult contemporary romance and write this crazy thriller is awesome … and the fact that I really enjoyed it and she kept me on my toes is even better.
We meet Maddie–and she’s a bit whacky. Suffering from major amnesia after an accident six years prior, she doesn’t know anything of her past, and isn’t sure what to make of a future, but she’s got these murderous thoughts, and a possible dual personality. It was really frightening to be inside this girl’s head–and I can definitely say that the further into the story I got, the more freaked out I was. In fact, I randomly woke up the other night at like 2 AM. I figured I’d read until I could fall asleep again. THIS IS THE WRONG BOOK TO READ. Totally creeped me out. I loved it, though. Anymore, I read a lot of romance–whether it’s YA, NA, or just A. It’s romance. This was a thriller, all the way.
As a reader, you typically try and figure things out as you read. Mostly, you want to be say, “YES! I knew it!” With this, though, I could not figure anything out. I was 76% in and had ABSOLUTELY no idea where the story was going to go. And I appreciated that. It’s not easy to keep readers on their toes, especially voracious readers. So major kudos to Jessica for that. I was floored.
Then came the “conclusion.” There’s no cliffhanger. This isn’t part of a series. YAY. But that ending. WHOA.
Without a doubt, I recommend The Forgotten Girl. It’s different. It’s suspenseful. It’ll nearly scare the piss out of you at times. But you’ll be taken on a great ride along the way, and as expected from a Jessica Sorensen novel–the characters are damaged and dark, but the story is superbly told.
EXCERPT:
“I’m afraid,” I admit aloud and shudder at the truth. Because of not necessarily afraid of the danger the crying could lead to, but how much I like that it could. My thoughts drift to what the crying could be. Someone hurt? Someone upset? Someone locked up who I could hurt?
“What the fuck is wrong with me?” I ask as the last thought streams through my head. I start to back away, tugging at my hair, but invisible strings tug me forward, toward the crying. At this moment, I’m a puppet and Lily is my puppeteer and suddenly she’s in front of me, taking my hand and tugging me down the bare hallway. She leads through the stale air until we reach the end where there’s a single shut door. Light is slipping through the cracks underneath and cries are flowing from the outside. Pain. Whoever’s in there is hurting.
“I don’t want to see,” I whisper in horror as my trembling hand reaches for the doorknob.
“You need to see,” Lily insists.
My fingers brush the brass knob. A jolt of heat shoots up my arm as I turn it and push it open. Light spills over me. Screams pierce my ears. Something flies at me that’s heavy and strong. Pain. Heat. Tears. Blood. My insides feel like they’re ripping out of my body.
Fire!
Fire!
Fire!
Burning!
Burning!
Burning!
Help me!
Help me!
Help me!
“You killed me.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Jessica Sorensen, lives in the snowy mountains of Wyoming. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.
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