Scan barcode
A review by lucyblackbirdreads
How to Remember by Cari Dubiel
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I received this book through the kindness of the author. As sweet as she is, this in no way has any impact on my feelings towards this book.
When it comes to mysteries with possible unreliable narrators and twists throughout, I tend to not be a fan. So I went into this loving the idea and excited to read it, yet knowing past feelings with things like Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, The Couple Next Door, In a Dark, Dark Wood... You get the picture.
I'm so glad I was plesently surprised with this!
One thing I loved is I didn't fully realize the truth right away. Normally I do, and then the writing doesn't hold up for me personally for me to enjoy it. With this, I figured it out about a third of the way through...
Which leads me to the other thing I loved: the writing! The story held up the entire time. There were points you felt for the characters, and times where you wanted to just smack them because they were so annoying. No matter how I felt, I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to know what they'd do this time.
I was pleasantly surprised with how the back and forth with each chapter and character went. The story alternates between present day Miranda and past Ben during the time Miranda doesn't remember. This could very easily get convoluted and just hard to read, but it didn't. I don't know if this story would have been as successful if it wasn't written like this - if, for example, it was just told from present day Miranda's view and we didn't have the view of Ben and what happened to lead up to Miranda's memory loss. I think it would have lacked for sure.
After this, I can't wait to read more from Cari Dubiel as I'm sure I will enjoy them as much as How to Remember.
When it comes to mysteries with possible unreliable narrators and twists throughout, I tend to not be a fan. So I went into this loving the idea and excited to read it, yet knowing past feelings with things like Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, The Couple Next Door, In a Dark, Dark Wood... You get the picture.
I'm so glad I was plesently surprised with this!
One thing I loved is I didn't fully realize the truth right away. Normally I do, and then the writing doesn't hold up for me personally for me to enjoy it. With this, I figured it out about a third of the way through...
Which leads me to the other thing I loved: the writing! The story held up the entire time. There were points you felt for the characters, and times where you wanted to just smack them because they were so annoying. No matter how I felt, I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to know what they'd do this time.
I was pleasantly surprised with how the back and forth with each chapter and character went. The story alternates between present day Miranda and past Ben during the time Miranda doesn't remember. This could very easily get convoluted and just hard to read, but it didn't. I don't know if this story would have been as successful if it wasn't written like this - if, for example, it was just told from present day Miranda's view and we didn't have the view of Ben and what happened to lead up to Miranda's memory loss. I think it would have lacked for sure.
After this, I can't wait to read more from Cari Dubiel as I'm sure I will enjoy them as much as How to Remember.