Forgotten

London Lane cannot remember the past. A near-fatal car crash after which she died and was revived causes her memory to reset itself daily at the time of her ‘death’. In addition to this problem she is also able to see into the future and it is the combination of these two states which provides the tension at the centre of a story which is as much psychological drama as romance.

Memory can be both a blessing and a burden but to lose it is to lose a large part of what makes us who we are, what connects us to those around us. London is compelled to make copious and exhaustive notes at the end of each day in order to be able to bring some sense of order and progression to her life, especially her most intimate relationships, with her rather shallow best friend Jamie and her utterly perfect boyfriend, Luke.

She is troubled by the fact that she cannot see Luke in her future and is she is repeatedly visited by a disturbingly grim vision of a funeral which she cannot decipher. This takes her on a quest to find the father who disappeared when she was very young and to solve the mystery of the funeral. The end of the book is its weakest part – she unties the knot of the funeral too soon and too easily for readers to be convinced: the writing feels rushed, with a strained urgency.

However, the characters are credible, as are London’s relationships with her friends and family and the narrative cracks along, taking the reader with it. The film rights for the book have just been sold where it will come up against such movies as 50 First Dates, The Time-Traveler’s Wife and Memento.