BOOK REVIEW: What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr @nevadabarr @minotaurbooks #bookreview #whatroseforgot

Heart-pounding and unique! In Nevada Barr’s latest thriller, What Rose Forgot, a woman wakes up in a memory care unit with no knowledge of how she got there but certain of one thing—the drugs meant to save her may be killing her. The pace of this book moved quickly and the characters were outstanding! I imagine this would be a great vacation thriller because you will want to be able to read it through without stopping!

About the Book

Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog, only to discover that she’s been committed to an Alzheimer’s Unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she’s “not making it through the week,” Rose is convinced that if she’s to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication, putting on a show for the aides, then stages her escape.

The only problem is—how does she convince anyone that she’s not actually demented? Her relatives were the ones to commit her, all the legal papers were drawn up, the authorities are on the side of the nursing home, and even she isn’t sure she sounds completely sane. But any lingering doubt Rose herself might have had is erased when a would-be killer shows up in her house in the middle of the night. Now Rose knows that someone is determined to get rid of her.

With the help of her computer hacker/recluse sister Marion, thirteen-year old granddaughter Mel, and Mel’s friend Royal, Rose begins to gather her strength and fight back—to find out who is after her and take back control of her own life. But someone out there is still determined to kill Rose, and they’re holding all the cards.

Reflection

So I want to talk about something that never occurred to me about psychological thrillers until I read this book—they aren’t very diverse in age or gender of the main character! I was marveling at this amazing 68 years-young protagonist, and the more she commented on ageism and how she sometimes feels younger than her biological age, I realized that the majority of psychological thrillers feature female protagonists typically between the ages of about 25-45. Well, this book turns that on its head because Rose is an amazing leading character!

Here’s the other thing I found interesting and fun—this is not a slow-burn psychological thriller where the lead character succumbs to the gaslighting around her and spirals into self-destruction and doubt. This book is action-packed. Fights, rough-and-tumble drag outs, and battle scars. These characters will not escape the same way they went in! And I found this not only unexpected, but delightful.

Rose is amazing. She has this healthy balance of “Well, I really might be suffering from dementia” to “I’m pretty confident that I’m healthy which means someone is out to get me.” It would have been disingenuous if Rose didn’t question her diagnosis at all, but it also was amazing to see her so grounded and sure of herself and how she feels. Rose is a boss, don’t let her hippie-ish clothes and marijuana fool you! Rose is razor-sharp and fearless. We should all learn to be a bit more like Rose!

I also loved Rose’s granddaughter Mel and their relationship. In addition to Rose’s reclusive sister who happens to have a knack for “exploring” the internet (aka Hacking), Mel is her closest resource. Mel is wise beyond her years and brave. I love how much she respects Rose, both checking on her health but hearing Rose out when she presents some pretty wild sounding conspiracy theories. Lovely!

I highly recommend this book. Nevada Barr is a delightful writer and I’ll be looking into more of her books!

About the Author

Nevada Barr is a mystery fiction author, known for her “Anna Pigeon” series of mysteries, set in National Parks in the United States. Barr has won an Agatha Award for best first novel for Track of the Cat.

Barr was named after the state of her birth. She grew up in Johnstonville, California. She finished college at the University of California, Irvine. Originally, Barr started to pursue a career in theatre, but decided to be a park ranger. In 1984 she published her first novel, Bittersweet, a bleak lesbian historical novel set in the days of the Western frontier.

While working in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Barr created the Anna Pigeon series. Pigeon is a law enforcement officer with the United States National Park Service. Each book in the series takes place in a different National Park, where Pigeon solves a murder mystery, often related to natural resource issues. She is a satirical, witty woman whose icy exterior is broken down in each book by a hunky male to whom she is attracted (such as Rogelio).

Currently, Ms. Barr lives in New Orleans, LA.

Thank you to St Martins Press and Minotaur for my copy. Opinions are my own.