I Know My Name - C.J Cooke
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This author was suggested to me on Instagram, I'd never read any of their books before but love to get new recommendations and find new authors and stories to enjoy!
There was alot of books to choose from and this is one of those book selections that I can't quite explain! I effectively played eeny meeny miny moe. It's not a particularly specific way of making a selection but it can be effective when there's too much choice. I didn't read the blurb, just the tagline
which was enough to solidify my decision. The book is called I know My Name, and the tagline is 'But what if that's the only thing you can remember?' Right up my street!
BLURB
...But what if that's the only thing you can remember?
Kommeno Island, Greece: I don't know where I am, who I am. Help me.
A woman is washed up on a remote Greek island with no recollection of who she is or how she got there.
Potter's Lane, Twickenham, London: Eloise Shelley is officially missing.
Lochlan's wife has vanished into think air, leaving their toddler and twelve week old baby alone. Her money, car and passport are all in the house with no signs of foul play. Every clue the police turn up means someone has told a lie...
Does a husband ever truly know his wife? Or a wife know her husband? Why is Eloise missing? Why did she forget?
The truth is found in these pages...
AUTHOR
Carolyn Jess-Cooke was raised in Belfast, and now lives in Glasgow. She has been writing most of her life, from age 7 and has had 16 books published, winning awards and TV rights for many of them.
She has a focus on, and interest in, mental health, trauma and motherhood and how these influence (and can be helped by) creative writing. She has also published academically on Shakespeare and Film. She has a website with loads of info about past and future releases.
Check it out HERE
PLOT/STORYLINE
As you can see from the blurb, the basic premise is that El (short of Eloise) is missing, leaving her kids and husband behind in London, vanished without a trace.
The story follows her husband, Lochlan, as he traverses an absolute nightmare situation. His wife has disappeared in a high profile missing person's case. His entire life is being picked apart by the police, and his in laws, he has two young children (one of them a 3 month old) to suddenly take care of, maintain routine for, all while trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
There are two main points of view, Lochlan, and the mystery woman (no surprises here, she's El, the one and only missing wife) who's washed up on the shore of a remote Greek island and is being looked after by a group of writers who found and rescued her and are staying on the island for a creative retreat. She's got no memory of who she is, or how she got there, and her new companions are acting a bit strange to say the least.
A couple of other points of view creep in there too, to give context and backstory, but the main focus on the book is the progression of these two stories simultaneously.
CHARACTERS
Lochlan, the husband, is a really relatable character. He's flawed and has the traditional character trope of being a husband who is more invested in his work than his family. He's thrust into the middle of a catastrophic situation and experiences his family's dirty laundry being aired for all to see, and judge. I found his character to be really well padded out, the narrator did a great job of bringing him to life, and though he does have parts of his personality that are unlikeable, he felt very real.
El is a little more difficult to pin down. This is, of course, intentional. After all, entire point of the book is that she doesn't have any memory of her life up to that point, so her character and personality is fed gradually to the reader, both by El as she tries to remember, and by Lochlan who reminisces and uncovers truths about his marriage and about El. I did quite like her though, as her memories started to surface and even as she was initially introduced, I found her to be written in an engaging way, I WANTED to know what was going on and why.
The side characters, including the group of writers, and El's grandparents are also well written, each with their own quite distinct personalities, though not too much is given away at the start. I enjoyed reading the grandparent's interactions with Lochlan in particular, there was alot of undercurrent that kept things very intriguing.
I listened to this on audiobook and each character was narrated by a different person when in their perspective, something that worked really well for this book. It gave a sense of realness to the characters, and immersement came easily.
OVERALL REVIEW
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
SPICE: 🔥(some uncomfortable inferences)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The pacing was spot on for the type and style of narrative, with just enough oomph to keep things moving forward.
The twist wasn't quite out of the blue, with little clues peppered throughout that are discreet enough to not leap out at you, but are definitely there. Some I spotted at the time, some only in hindsight so while I had my suspicions about where the book was going, it didn't all click fully for me until it did for the characters.
I also really liked the separation of the story, both main characters on their own journey, following their own mystery entirely independently to one another. This added an air of intrigue, mini cliff hangers that I needed to wait for the conclusion of and each story leading me to the eventual answers that, by the end, I was desperate to know!
It was psychological and actually quite creepy in parts, when things started to come together I was holding my breath. I wouldn't say it was a twist as such, more of a reveal, peeling back rather than being a bolt out of the blue or that has your head in a spin. But it was built up really well and felt relatable.
If I have a tiny critique, it's that the ending was a little lackluster, I did like how there was a bit of a follow up from the big events, but wasn't sure that it was totally necessary and feel confident that the story would not have lacked in any way if it had finished a little earlier. It was a really enjoyable read, I was sad when it was over!
This book ticked my boxes for a comfort genre read and I now have a new author (and 15 more books) to add to my TBR! Some of her others seem more gothic and supernatural, which I think will be interesting to explore.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
This book is great for thriller lovers who want something psychological, in a contemporary setting, with an air of mystery and intrigue, and that will keep them guessing.
There are some trigger warnings about childhood trauma - nothing explicitly happens on page, but the inference is there. There are also mentions of significant drug use and mental health disorders which I know can be a no-go for some people
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