All Is Not Forgotten

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review. The only thing has influenced is writing the review rather than just a star rating. Stars are easy, reviews are hard!]

Wow. I started reading this book on an evening and so wasn't able to finish it in one sitting, but from almost the start the book had a powerful hold on me. The description of the book is somewhat vague - a horrifying and degrading attack - but the book itself is fairly merciless on the full details. But with that said, it was artfully done. In fact, I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one.

In a nutshell, Jenny Kramer is subjected to a pretty horrific rape and a strange mutilation on top of that. She is medicated with a treatment designed to suppress those memories forever. The story is essentially the journey to undo that, and all the lives that are effected from seemingly inconsequential things... the threads of a web that link people together.

As with some of the other books I've tried to write a worthwhile view for, it's difficult to describe without dropping spoilers. A number of bombshells are dropped in the course of the story (a slight understatement, especially when you get about halfway through), and each time I decide I've guessed the ending or even what happens next, I turn out to be wrong. It kept me guessing right to the end and I didn't even begin to see what eventually transpired.

The story is narrated from a third party, but definitely not from a disinterested and unconnected third party as is sometimes the case. Although the underlying subject matter of the book is distasteful, it is handled with skill and such an enjoyable tale is woven around it.

Some books you read don't linger in your mind for longer than it takes to close the book / turn off the reader and some burrow their way into your head and take up residence. This book... for me, it's the latter - it is still in my head, it has made me think about issues, about consequences, about all those little threads.

A definite winner, I think the whole thing was superbly put together.

My rating of 5 stars is for the author who wrote such a wonderful piece. I have quite another rating in mind for the publishers. PDF is a shockingly awful format for reading a novel. Please consider other formats, EPUB, MOBI, whatever takes your fancy, you can still cripple it with DRM if you please, but at least it's easier to read than a PDF document. With that said, I found the layout and style of the document to be pleasing.