I Know You Remember

I Know You Remember

YA/adult mystery/thriller
"The urn is smaller than I expected. It's green--her favorite
color--and even though it's less than a foot tall it's heavy. Dense
with her ashes. With her body.
With my mother broken down into a million crumbling pieces."
As you can see from the opening paragraphs of Jennifer
Donaldson's I Know You Remember, protagonist Ruth has just been dealt
a heavy blow. She'd been hiking with her mother on a promontory.
Suddenly her mom slipped and fell off the edge.
Ruth and her mom had left her dad three years earlier because he
drank too much and was a violent drunk. Now, since he's her closest
living relative, Ruth is going back to Alaska to live with him,
wondering how much he's really changed. Dear old Dad isn't the only
unknown. He's acquired a new recovering drug addict wife, Brandy, and
stepdaughter, Ingrid, who, like Ruth, is a senior in high school.
There is one person Ruth's looking forward to reuniting with:
Zahra who had been her best friend before she moved to Oregon. The
two had marched to the beat of a different drummer. Communications
had tapered off off over their years of separation. But surely they
can pick up where they left off...
...Or maybe not. When Ruth leaves a note in her friend's room
she sees no traces of the chum she left behind.
"...No twinkle lights, no tulle, no uncapped paint pen drying
out on the desk next to a half-drawn sign...There are no stuffed
animals, no empty cups or art supplies or scented candles."
But, weirdest of all, there are no books.
Sadly Zahra's eighth grade persona isn't the only being
missing. Zahra herself is. Her parents hadn't been alarmed when Ruth
stopped by, sure their daughter was on a weekend camping trip with her
boyfriend, Ben. By Ruth's first day at school Ben has returned solo
and Zahra has been declared missing, the object of police
investigation and searches.
Of course rumors fly. Right before she disappeared Zahra had
had a fight with Ben at a big party. Could he be as innocent as he
claims? After all, solo camping, he has no witnesses to his alibi.
And how about the boy Zahra allegedly cheated on him with?
Zahra is the granddaughter of the minister of a strict
fundamentalist hellfire and brimstone church. The sermons are often
centered on the need to physically punish one's children to save their
souls. Could he have taken his message a bit too far?
Join Ruth in her desperate search to find the one friend she
considers closer than family. If you can guess the ending you're a
lot smarter than me.
On a purrrsonal note, I hope you had a good weekend. I sure did. The
best part was mothers' Day. Eugene and I went on a lovely road trip.
We went to our first yard sale of the year. YASSS!! I found some
good stuff. He scored a free grill. Food always tastes better cooked
outside--especially if someone else is doing the cooking. We got
McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts. I talked on the phone to all 3 of my
wonderful children and had some lovely outside reading time. (Jules)
They iz good hooman kittens. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene, Amber, Katie, Adam, and
sweet fur baby Tobago.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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