Perfectly Unmemorable

This is one of those fast paced books that you can’t put down, that completely evaporates from your mind the moment you complete it. Interesting in the moment, but no lasting impact.

Zoe Maisey, perfect teenage piano player, killed several of her classmates in a drunk driving accident a few years ago (there’s more to the story, but it gets parceled out bit by bit). She served her time, and now she’s out and back in school in a new town. Her mother has remarried and had a child with a man who knows nothing about Zoe’s past (yes, because hiding that sort of information will work out well for everyone). One evening, she’s playing piano for an audience when a man jumps up and starts screaming. Before he’s able to fully reveal that Zoe killed his daughter in the wreck, her mother has dragged her out of there. Unfortunately, this sets off a series of events which ends in her mother’s death — was it the man? the new husband? the new stepbrother?

Like I said, it’s a pretty gripping read, with lots of secrets coming to life over the course of the novel. But once the killer gets revealed (and you’ll figure out who it is well before the characters do), the whole thing kind of inflates. Bring this book on an airplane — it’s good for killing a few hours — but don’t expect anything magical. It certainly doesn’t like up to something like The Girl on the Train, but I guess that’s our new Gone Girl for cover blurbs!