All Is Not Forgotten

Humiliated at a party by a boy she likes, Jenny Kramer runs out into the woods, where she is then brutally raped by an attacker. The doctors offer Jenny's parents the option to give Jenny a controversial new drug that will erase her memories of the experience. Believing that forgetting will make things easier for Jenny, her parents agree to the treatment. But Jenny is haunted by the emptiness the erasure of those memories has left in her. When she attempts suicide, she is sent to psychiatrist Dr. Alan Forrester. The choice to make Alan the narrator is, at first, a perplexing one. His clinical tone distances the reader from Jenny and the aftermath of her trauma. When the novel's shocking twist occurs, the reasons for choosing Alan become clear. For some readers, this twist will feel cheap and dissatisfying.