"She'd started to understand there was a chasm between how people saw their lives, how they wanted others to see them, and how they really were. A chasm that was too deep and dark to explore."
-Katie's musings, from the novel
This was another free book from Amazon First Reads which happens to be the debut novel for this author. Not long ago I read This Terrible Beauty by the same author; I liked it better than this one, perhaps because of the historical aspect.
The Forgotten Hours begins with the summer of 2007 and moves forward to 2016 where characters are still consumed by what happened 9 years before, especially Katherine "Katie" Amplethwaite nee Gregory, our protagonist. Katie's family was summering at Eagle Lake in June of 2007 as they had done regularly. Katie has great memories of times with best friend, Lulu Henderson, and falling for Jack Benson while all were in their teens. But something happened that shook those relationships to the core. Lulu accused Katie's father, John Gregory, of rape and he was tried and sent to prison for 6 years.
As the story begins, John is soon to be released from prison and Katie is still as convinced as ever that her father was innocent. Her relationship with Lulu ended when charges were brought and Katie cannot forget her betrayal. Issues of loyalty and a restlessness of spirit keep Katie from being able to move forward. She begins to dwell on "forgotten hours" and jumps into a search for the truth of what really happened that summer.
I give this novel a 3----liked it, didn't love it. It was compelling enough that I wanted to finish it. There was a lot of introspection and not much action and the time transitions could have been smoother. The title is a bit of an enigma because the "forgotten hours" seemed not to have been forgotten at all.
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