She Treads Softly: Don't Forget the Girl

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Don't Forget the Girl

Don't Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna
6/20/23; 368 pages
Sourcebooks

Don't Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna is a so-so novel dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic incident.

Jon Allan Blue is about to be executed. Blue is the serial killer suspected in the murder of 18-year-old University of Iowa freshman Abby Hartman. Her body was never found. Abby's friends, Bree and Chelsea are still mourning her and upset that the memory of Abby is being overshadowed by the story of Blue's other victims. Now, twelve years after Abby disappeared, Blue's upcoming execution is news and a podcast is planning to focus on the story.

Rather than being a thriller, the narrative is really a deep-dive focus on the personal lives and feelings of Bree, Chelsea, and Abby, with Abby's chapters set in the past. At the beginning with the revelation that Bree was having an affair with a student, I was ready to set the novel aside. I stuck it out but perhaps should have DNF it. Adding to my discordant feelings is the fact that Bree and Chelsea's chapters are written in third person, while Abby's are written in first person. I found this incongruous and it made the flow of the story rough. However, since I was never fully invested in any of these characters and their feeling, it really didn't matter after awhile because I didn't care. This may be more of a new adult novel and I'm simply not the target audience.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Sourcebooks via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.