Title: BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME
Author: Jaqueline Bublitz
Publisher: Atria / Emily Bestler Books
Read: August 2022
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!
Book Description:
This is not just another novel about
a dead girl.
When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600
cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just
one month later, she is the city's latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder
victim.
Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world
only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice's body by the
Hudson River.
From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond.
Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life - and
death. And Ruby - struggling to forget what she saw that morning - finds
herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.
Before You Knew My Name doesn't ask whodunnit. Instead, this powerful,
hopeful novel asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind? The answers
might surprise you.
My musings:
It’s wonderful how the books that will most affect
you emotionally somehow find their way to you. When I was first invited to read
BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME, the book hadn’t even been on my radar but its premise
intrigued me. “this is not just another novel about a dead girl” is an apt
description of Jacqueline Bublitz’s
debut novel, because it is unlike any other story I have ever read.
We know from the beginning that
Alice Lee, the narrator of the story, is dead, telling us about her fate from
beyond the grave. The catch was that I hadn’t counted on how Alice would reel
me in, show me the world through her eyes and utterly break my heart in the
process! Then there is Ruby Jones, who arrives in New York City on the same day
Alice does, with just as much baggage and just as many hopes and dreams for a
better future. The one thing that will link the two women together is Alice’s
death, because it is Ruby who will find her body, and who will not be able to
put the unidentified dead girl out of her mind.
BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME captures the
essence of being alive, trying to make a mark on the world. Alice Lee, the
riverside Jane Doe, the unidentified victim of a brutal murder, is not ready to
be forgotten, lost among all the other nameless girls out there who have never
gotten justice. Her life has been cruelly robbed just as she was forging a new
bright future for herself. But how do the dead get justice, how can they make
themselves heard? Ruby, the jogger who finds Alice’s body, could have simply
moved on with her life, filed the experience away, tried to forget all about
it. Instead, she becomes obsessed with finding out more about the dead girl she
found on the riverbank that horrible rainy day. A life has been taken, and Ruby
cannot let it go. Just like that, a connection is formed between two strangers,
one dead and one alive.
If I had any doubts about a narrator
telling her story from beyond the grave being able to touch me emotionally, I
was soon swept away by Bublitz’s beautiful prosaic writing and the emotional insights
she offers on every page. Both Alice and Ruby are flawed in ways most readers
will be able to relate, from a time they too tried to find their place in the
world. Alice’s mix of street smarts and innocence immediately got under my skin
and I found myself caring deeply for her, which opened doors to emotions deeply
buried and not often explored. It’s always the sign of a great book if it has
the power to make you cry, and this book certainly hit hard. My heart shattered into a million pieces the
moment Alice’s life was stolen from her, and I couldn’t stop reading until the
story reached its finale.
Summary:
BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME is a poignant, beautifully
written and emotionally charged book about connection, grief and new beginnings
that shot an arrow deeply into my heart and lodged there. It is one of the best
books I have read this year. Don’t miss it!
Thank
you to Netgalley and Atria / Emily Bestler Books for the free electronic copy
of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
