Publisher's Weekly Review
In Walker's novel, a controversial mind-altering drug erases a rape from teenager Jenny Kramer's memory. Her parents, Tom and Charlotte, consider it a kindness when the drug works. But Jenny is stuck with damage to her body and a sense of fear and unease that, to her, have no cause. Dr. Alan Forrester, the story's narrator, is a psychiatrist who eventually treats Jenny and others connected to the rape. The doctor's approach to the story is professional and clinical, interrupted by his views on psychopharmacology; the book is more case history than thriller (except for certain sequences). Actor Baker has no trouble presenting most of this tale of rape and its aftermath in a voice as bloodlessly objective as the author intended. He does display emotion when necessary---such as when depicting Charlotte's close-minded denial, Tom's obsession with finding the rapist, and Jenny's tragic decline as she searches for an explanation her increasing trauma. A St. Martin's hardcover. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The traumatic memories of a teenager's rape are medically erased, but lingering thoughts of the attack remain, infecting everyone in her close-knit community. 15-year-old Jenny Kramer thought the party she'd been invited to would be the moment when she'd finally blossom, maybe even get a moment alone with the dashing Doug Hastings. Instead she found herself drunk, in the woods, the victim of a vicious hourlong rape, of which Walker spares the reader no detail in this unnecessarily explicit debut. After she's rushed to the hospital, Jenny's parentsblubbering car salesman Tom and tightly put together homemaker Charlotte decide to give her an experimental drug cocktail to erase her memories of the attack. If the process were successful, there'd be no book, so enter the skin-crawlingly smug narrator, soon introduced as psychiatrist Dr. Alan Forrester, who begins treating Jenny, along with her whole family, after her nearly successful suicide attempt. It's difficult to empathize with a characterour narrator no lesswho looks at a 15-year-old assault victim and wonders to himself "why [he] could not see the rape in her eyes." As the well-to-do enclave of Fairview, Connecticut, tries to regroup in the wake of zero viable suspects, Tom Kramer makes it his mission to find Jenny's rapist, jumping on every slim lead, like the sighting of a blue Honda Civic near the party. The introduction of one of Alan's other patients, a soldier who endured the same treatment as Jenny, merely clutters an already busy story whose resolution is anything but satisfying. A repugnant narrator, even an unreliable one, makes it difficult to focus on the true victim, one who is crushed under the weight of this ridiculous plot. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After 15-year-old Jenny Kramer is raped, her parents allow doctors to administer a new drug that interrupts memory creation. Jenny loses her traumatic memories but is filled with an unrelenting, targetless anger that leads her to attempt suicide. Fortunately, the resident psychiatrist in Fariview, Connecticut, where Jenny lives, has experience recapturing memories from treating Navy SEAL Sean Logan, who received the memory-inhibiting drug after losing his unit in Afghanistan. As Jenny and Sean develop a strong dependency on each other, Jenny has flashbacks implicating people within their sheltered community. At the same time, Jenny's family struggles with her father's obsession with finding her attacker and her mother's denial about the rape's devastating consequences. Narrated by Jenny's psychiatrist, this exploration of the dangerous repercussions of erasing traumatic memories will appeal to fans of S. J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep (2011) and William Landay's Defending Jacob (2012). Some thriller fans may find the pacing slow, but the cast is immensely relatable and book groups will enjoy debating their decisions, from the drug's administration to the surprise conclusion.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Humiliated at a party by a boy she likes, Jenny Kramer runs out into the woods, where she is then brutally raped by an attacker. The doctors offer Jenny's parents the option to give Jenny a controversial new drug that will erase her memories of the experience. Believing that forgetting will make things easier for Jenny, her parents agree to the treatment. But Jenny is haunted by the emptiness the erasure of those memories has left in her. When she attempts suicide, she is sent to psychiatrist Dr. Alan Forrester. The choice to make Alan the narrator is, at first, a perplexing one. His clinical tone distances the reader from Jenny and the aftermath of her trauma. When the novel's shocking twist occurs, the reasons for choosing Alan become clear. For some readers, this twist will feel cheap and dissatisfying. Verdict While Walker's (Social Lives) novel is advertised as a psychological thriller, it is more a slow-paced treatise on the nature of memory and trauma. Book groups will find much to discuss and debate. [A July LibraryReads pick.]-Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
