Review ~ The Last Thing I Remember ~ Deborah Bee

Twenty7
28th July 2016

A bit of blurb...

Sarah is in a coma. She was mugged. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t deserve any of it. She’s a nice girl from a nice family. She’s a victim. That’s what they say.

Kelly is in the waiting room. She’s just a kid. A typical schoolgirl. Bullied a bit, probably. She doesn’t know anything. That’s what they say. So why is she there? Why does she keep turning up?

Can Sarah remember what happened to her, and work out who is it that keeps coming into her room at night?

My thoughts about the book...

Two very different narrators take us by the hand and lead us through this refreshingly different psychological suspense story. Sarah has been the victim of a severe assault and lies comatose in the critical care unit of the local hospital where she is, to all intents and purposes, brain dead. However, Sarah can listen and think, the only trouble is she can't make anyone hear her. Kelly is Sarah's fourteen year old neighbour and in the months leading up to Sarah's attack these two unlikely companions have become friends. They both have a story to tell and each story is compelling in its own way.

Sarah trapped in locked-in syndrome can communicate to the reader only by her thoughts, but with emotional depth she shares her reactions to her dream like state and reveals much about her life, her childhood and her marriage, whilst Kelly, on the other hand, is feisty, fierce and determined to help Sarah and, at the same time, tell her own side of the story.

This is a well put together psychological suspense story which looks at the repercussions of a devastating crime from diverse perspectives and, in doing so, allows two completely different narrators to tell their unique version of events. The author writes a good story and has created characters which stay with you. I especially enjoyed reading Sarah’s thought processes and feel that the locked in process was described really well. I would have liked less profanities coming out of Kelly’s mouth, but I realise that was necessary to emphasise the social differences between Kelly and Sarah’s life experiences.

So, overall,The Last Thing I Remember is a good debut by a talented author who I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength in future novels.

Best Read With... Cheese and bacon grilled baguettes and a frothy chocolate milk shake...

About the Author

Deborah Bee studied fashion journalism at Central St Martins. She has worked at various magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Times and the Guardian as a writer, a fashion editor and later an editor. Currently, she is a Creative Director at Harrods.

Follow on Twitter @BeeDeborahBee1

Amazon UK - Paperback release date 28th July 2016

Read a guest post by the Author here

Thanks to the publishers for my review copy of The Last Thing I Remember

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