Title: The Forgotten Ones
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
Elle is a survivor. She’s managed to piece together a solid
life from a childhood of broken memories and fairy tales her mom told her to
explain away bad dreams. But weekly visits to her mother still fill Elle with a
paralyzing fear she can’t explain. It’s just another of so many unanswered
questions she grew up with in a family estranged by silence and secrets.
Elle’s world turns upside down when she receives a deathbed request from her grandfather, a man she was told had died years ago. Racked by grief, regrets, and a haunted conscience, he has a tale of his own to tell Elle: about her mother, an imaginary friend, and two strangers who came to the house one night and never left.
As Elle’s past unfolds, so does the truth—if she can believe it. She must face the reasons for her inexplicable dread. As dark as they are, Elle must listen…before her grandfather’s death buries the family’s secrets forever.
Elle’s world turns upside down when she receives a deathbed request from her grandfather, a man she was told had died years ago. Racked by grief, regrets, and a haunted conscience, he has a tale of his own to tell Elle: about her mother, an imaginary friend, and two strangers who came to the house one night and never left.
As Elle’s past unfolds, so does the truth—if she can believe it. She must face the reasons for her inexplicable dread. As dark as they are, Elle must listen…before her grandfather’s death buries the family’s secrets forever.
My musings:
To me, it’s always the sign of a good book when it evokes a
range of strong emotions. The Forgotten Ones certainly managed to do that! One
minute I was on the edge of my seat, biting my nails in shock and trepidation,
the next I wanted to fling the book across the room in anger and horror. There
were also many teary moments as the characters live through horrible ordeals,
and some frustrating ones due to secrets, secrets, SECRETS! I wanted to yell at
some of the characters and simply shake the truth out of them, but they were
very slow in coming clean, and I hung on their every word. In summary, this
book really grabbed me by the throat and kept me interested, to a point where
it interfered with my activities of daily living, as I walked around the house
with my headphones on listening to the audio-version 24/7 (and getting labelled
as “anti-social” by my family).
I have hinted at this already, but I will say it again: The
Forgotten Ones is all about family secrets, and you need to expect quite a few
skeletons in the family closet with this one (quite literally). Young Elle has
no idea what she is in for when she finds out that a dying stranger at the
hospital she works at is in fact her grandfather, a man her mother has claimed
died a long time ago. Then again, her mother is not the most reliable person,
suffering from dissociative personality disorder and refusing to tell Elle
anything about the childhood trauma that is believed to have triggered the
condition. Elle has grown up in an environment where questions can’t be asked
for fear of tipping her mother over the edge, triggering a psychotic episode
that may last for days. She has become so accustomed to taking everything she
has been told with suspicion that she initially doubts the “stories” her dying
grandfather tells her about her mother’s past, even though she is desperate to
get the answers she has always wanted, before it is too late. But is it better
to know a truth so terrible it will shake your whole world, or to stay
ignorant?
I love stories about dark family secrets – who doesn’t? We
have quite a few in our own family’s closet, but a lot of people who could have
shed light on them have taken those secrets to the grave with them, and I will
never know now. But oh – the possibilities! The imagination runs riot! Holmes
did an excellent job in drawing me deeply into Elle’s search for the truth very
early on, and from then on I was totally at her mercy. I could not put this
book down, and it touched me deeply on many levels. There are a lot of
emotional triggers in this book, from childhood trauma, to mental illness, to
loss, grief, loyalty and doing unthinkable things in the name of love. Holmes
tells her story so well that I found empathy even for the most disturbed
characters (whilst being terrified of them at the same time).
I only had one little quibble: as we were nearing the end,
and I had formed and discarded several theories, I realised that with the few
chapters left I would not get all the answers I had longed for, and this proved
to be correct. After the nail-biting tension, the final reveal tied together a
bit too quickly and neatly for me, which didn’t quite tie in with the
characters’ previous actions. It did not mar the pleasure I got from reading
the book, but did give me the tiniest pang of disappointment.
Summary:
In summary, The Forgotten Ones was the perfect read for me, the type of mystery that contains everything I look for in a good story: true-to-life characters, secrets galore and a constant edge-of-your seat tension that made it nearly impossible to tear myself away for long. If you are fan of stories revolving around dark family secrets and dysfunctional relationship, then this is a must-read – you won’t be disappointed!
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