Forget Her Name by Jane Holland

Forget Her Name by Jane Holland

My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine and her family have a huge secret: she has an older sister, Rachel, who died in a skiing accident when Catherine was a pre-teen, and they were all scared of her. Since her death, it's like she never existed. Even daring to speak her name is enough to upset everyone. Years later, Catherine is getting ready to marry the love of her life when someone starts terrorizing her in Rachel's name. Everyone's acting like it couldn't possibly be Rachel because she's been dead for many years. Or is she? What is everyone hiding from Catherine?

This is such an interesting read because it's like one big puzzle that I was sorting out while Catherine was trying to get answers. There's the main set of characters, which include Catherine as well as her parents and fiance. Then there's the characters that pop in and out, such as friends and the people Catherine work with. These characters are presented in a way that made me aware that something was amiss. It's clear that Rachel is the huge ghostly elephant in the room that everyone is avoiding like the plague. As the story continues, we get to know these characters better, including Rachel through Catherine's memories.

The mystery is a slow burn as we watch Catherine become more agitated by whoever is terrorizing her. It starts with someone mailing her Rachel's snow globe with an eye inside of it and slowly escalates to destroying Catherine's property. The odd thing is that no one believes Catherine, not even the police. Everyone thinks she's imagining things, doing it for attention, or that it's stress related and she just doesn't remember. Poor Catherine just wants answers, but no one wants to talk about it. Once the story gets rolling, it quickly spins out of control and we understand exactly what's happening and why everyone was so tight lipped until the 65% mark.

As I got closer to the halfway point, I had more than one theory about what was happening. My first theory was close, but didn't hit the nail on the head. The layers just peel off and I was left with an answer for everything. I was shocked about some of the revelations pertaining to one character that seemed a bit off, but I wasn't sure what it was until the ball was rolling. Sadly, I didn't care for the ending. I understand where Holland was going with it, but it just seemed too good to be true. However, it is a wonderful book and I was sitting on the edge of my seat until the very end and I would read it again.