Book Review: "Forget You Know Me" by Jessica Strawser
“Forget You Know Me” by Jessica Strawser
Publisher Synopsis: The next “masterful” (Publishers Weekly) novel from "the gifted Jessica Strawser" (Adriana Trigiani), hailed as “immensely satisfying” (Kathleen Barber) and “that book you can’t put down” (Sally Hepworth). A video call between friends captures a shocking incident no one was supposed to see.
The secrets it exposes threaten to change their lives forever.
Molly and Liza have always been enviably close. Even after Molly married Daniel, the couple considered Liza an honorary family member. But after Liza moved away, things grew more strained than anyone wanted to admit—in the friendship and the marriage.
When Daniel goes away on business, Molly and Liza plan to reconnect with a nice long video chat after the kids are in bed. But then Molly leaves the room to check on a crying child.
What Liza sees next will change everything.
Only one thing is certain: Molly needs her. Liza drives all night to be at Molly’s side—but when she arrives, the reception is icy, leaving Liza baffled and hurt. She knows there’s no denying what she saw.
Or is there?
In disbelief that their friendship could really be over, Liza is unaware she’s about to have a near miss of her own.
And Molly, refusing to deal with what’s happened, won’t turn to Daniel, either.
But none of them can go on pretending. Not after this.
Forget You Know Me is a “twisty, emotionally complex, powder keg of a tale” (bestselling author Emily Carpenter) about the wounds of people who’ve grown apart. Best friends, separated by miles. Spouses, hardened by neglect. A mother, isolated by pain.
One moment will change things for them all.
"[A] great hybrid of women's fiction and suspense...strong character development and unpredictable plot." - Library Journal—Macmillan
Rating (out of 5 stars): 2.75 stars
Review: When a book opens with a Skype chat interrupted by a masked intruder, it would be fair to assume you’re reading a thriller. Unfortunately, the thrill ended there. Molly and Liza, the best friends at the center of the novel, have been growing apart as Molly becomes increasingly consumed with her young children and chronic injuries. When a masked intruder interrupts their catching-up chat, Liza drives through the night to check on Molly, whose behavior regarding the incident is baffling. The same night Liza drives down, her apartment building burns down, killing some of the occupants.
So that provides us with a lot to unpack. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on the core relationship and initial dramas in the novel, Strawser threads in other confusing and unnecessary drama. Molly has a flirtation with her widowed neighbor who has a mute child. Molly is dangerously in debt to a predatory lender she used to pay off alternative medical debt. Liza’s potentially gay best friend whom she met on a date when he was taking a break from men (I’m sorry, but do you not ask your best friend about their romantic pasts/life?) is maybe in love with her. Liza’s brother and sister-in-law are going through a complicated pregnancy. Molly’s husband’s boss is stealing from their company. It’s…a lot.
With that much going on, there wasn’t a lot of time to focus on what was really important. Molly seemed like a selfish, spoiled brat. We’re supposed to empathize with her pain, but she comes off as nasty and withdrawn from her best friend and husband—neither of whom seemed to deserve that treatment.
Side note: everyone in this book is white and cishet (except for the completely neuter, maybe gay best friend). I just feel like we can do better than this in 2019.
The ending is pretty unsatisfying, and I admit to speeding through the last thirty pages or so. The book is marketed as a thriller, and tries to accomplish something like literary fiction. Unfortunately, it misses the mark.
TL; DR: The book has a great hook, and I really wanted to like it. I struggled to get past the first 50 pages and stuck it out solely out of stubbornness. The pace picked up a bit from there, but I wasn’t sold on the ending. Genre-wise, this also isn’t a true mystery/thriller, but the description could lead you to believe otherwise, so be forewarned.
If you liked this, you might consider this, too:
“Necessary People” by Anna Pitoniak
“The Woman in the Window” by AJ Finn
