Remind Me Again What Happened by Joanna Luloff

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

What happens when all your memories from age 17-34 disappear? That’s exactly the situation Claire Scott faced when she learns it has been 3-months since she was admitted to the Lower Keys Medical Center in Florida. Claire was working as a journalist in India when she develops Japanese encephalitis from a mosquito bite. She suffered central nervous system damage with febrile seizures and consequent memory loss.

The story is told through alternating perspectives of Claire, Charlie and Rachel. The trio developed a bond while in grad school. After Rachel’s parents die, Claire and Charlie move into her parent’s Boston brownstone to support Rachel. They are the best of friends until Charlie and Claire get married and move to Vermont. Through each character’s perspective you learn the past relationship was more complicated.

Once Claire is medically stable they settle into a routine at Claire and Charlie’s home in Vermont to continue her rehabilitation. Rachel soon moves in to assist with her physical care and hopeful of rekindling her memories. They soon experience the frustration of Claire’s memory loss and fragile health. It seems Charlie and Rachel become overwhelmed by the past memories often filtering stories to Claire who senses that things don’t feel right.

Life after a serious illness can be frustrating especially when having to overcome physical and mental obstacles. The story seemed disjointed and incomplete by the end. I felt frustrated and unsatisfied with the conclusion as there didn’t seem to be a resolution. I suppose it’s similar to what the characters felt in the book. Remind me again...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2393251133

https://www.bookbub.com/books/remind-me-again-what-happened-by-joanna-luloff ( )

Hard to follow. Written book may have been easier. ( )

Told from three character's voices as a woman regains her current memory. While not much action, much introspection on the part of all three. The audio was hard to follow. Maybe the book form would be easier. ( )

I really enjoy the amnesia stories that are so popular these days. Much in the same way I enjoy books that revolve around sociopaths, characters with memory loss allow me to experience a different viewpoint without experiencing a massive accident or illness. They confirm how much our memories complete our personalities and reiterate how deceiving outwardly appearances are without the backstory. So I always open these types of novels expecting secrets and other little twists that will shock the main character (and the reader) into understanding that his (or her) life was not quite how others presented it. Unfortunately, in Remind Me Again What Happened, the story is less about the past and the secrets and more about moving into the future. I am less of a fan of this type of amnesiac story.

For one thing, Remind Me Again What Happened is not a thriller. There is no one deliberately keeping secrets from Claire, manipulating the past to force a different present. There is no danger; there is no toxic relationship about which Claire is oblivious. Charlie loves her. Rachel loves her. She remembers them both from when they were in college. They are open with her about her job and her missing past, providing her with all of her notes and photographs; it helps that she was a journalist and therefore kept copious notes that could help her fill in the gaps. Yes, the group dynamic may be different than it was twenty years ago, but the raw emotions are still there and continue to connect one to the other.

Another aspect of the story which makes it different from other amnesiac stories is the fact that we get three different viewpoints of Claire’s past and present. We see how things used to be in college and later as a married couple through Charlie’s and Rachel’s memories. We see how much of a struggle it is to remain patient with someone with almost no short-term memory and a twenty-year gap in memories. We see the strain this causes on all of them, including Claire. The lack of one-sidedness to the story helps flesh out the characters and adds depth to the story itself.

While Remind Me Again What Happened is a lovely story about relationships and how they change over time, it is not my preferred type of story. I want more drama. I want tension and conflict and all of the messy highs and lows of emotions. Instead, Remind Me Again What Happened is placid. The emotions are muted, and there is no real tension to give you that urge to keep reading. The characters interact as if everyone is walking on eggshells, and no one wants to be the person to break one. For the right reader, there is plenty to enjoy. Ms. Luloff’s writing is very pretty as well as being effective, and all three characters have a depth to them that avoids them falling into the caricature trap. Remind Me Again What Happened might not be what I wanted in an amnesia-based novel, but I can still appreciate how others would find a lot to love within its pages.

3.5 SECRETS AND BURIED RESENTMENTS are brought to the forefront front when three long standing friends are brought together again after a tragic illness. Claire, out of the country working on a story, is bitten by a mosquito and contracts Japanese encephalitis. The result is brain damage that effects her memory and seizures. Although they had all once been closer than close, each other family, Claire had married Charlie. Charlie, trying to find his wife in the new Claire, has trouble coping and calls on Rachel to come to their Sid.

A very insular novel as the whole story is the alternating thoughts of just these three characters. Everything we learn about them are in flashbacks or menories. Things are far from as simple as they appear as they harbor thoughts, secrets not dealt with, from their shared paths. Claire, of course, remembers little of this, and that is a source of frustration, not only for her, but for Rachel and Charlie. The story is very reality based, could definitely see something like this happening, but it is also not terribly exciting. I never felt close to these people, felt like I was observing them from a distance, though I was privy to their most personal thoughts. Never quite got a handle on Charlie, didn't feel as if I knew him.

The ending I liked, it fit with everything that came before, and again felt real based on what we learned throughout the novel. So, I did like it, glad I read it, but never fully embraced the characters.

ARC from Netgalley. ( )