This intriguing novella from indie author Kathryn White offers great insight into a young woman damaged by a fractured family, flawed parents and sibling rivalry.
The clearest memory nineteen year-old Kellie Sue Jones has is the knowledge she killed her cheating ex-boyfriend and was arguing with her twin sister right before she had a car accident. When she wakes in hospital, Kellie-Sue discovers she is twenty-one with a husband and a step-son she barely knows, and a kind, supportive sister she only remembers as competitive and selfish. Is this some kind of hoax or has she really forgotten almost two years of her life? And why does she keep getting texts from her dead Ex?
Best Forgotten hinges on the reliability, or otherwise, of Kellie-Sue’s memories. She is an absorbing character and her story is a mystery that begs to be solved. The domestic dilemmas and dramas are well realised, and though her twin sister rarely appears there is a great sense of her on the page. Kellie Sue is unwittingly an unreliable narrator and that, combined with the time-slip nature of this novella, may mean some will find this story confusing at first. As with most tales of this type the clues to what is going on – what is real and what is imagined – have greater resonance on a second reading.
Reminiscent of What Alice Forgot, Best Forgotten is an exploration of the fallibility of memory and the distortion of truth.