Remember Me Like This

Remember Me Like This has, for some reason, the feel of a thriller. Maybe it’s the pace of the writing or the fact that I didn’t want put it down (I read it in two sittings). But, it’s not a really a thriller and it certainly isn’t a typical guilty pleasure that we sometimes look forward to blowing through over a weekend and then promptly forget about the next day. No, Bret Anthony Johnston has written a beautiful, pitch perfect novel that will stay with you for a long time.

Four years after Justin’s disappearance from a small Texas town he is reunited with his family. There have been plenty of books written about this topic but they usually stop here where the family is reunited, the book is tied up neatly with a clear happy ending.  But Remember Me Like This essentially begins with the return of a 16 year old boy to his family. Johnson takes us beyond that typical happy ending and we see that this is only the beginning for this family. Complicating matters(and this is not a spoiler), Justin has been living only miles away the entire four years, a fact that haunts not only his parents but Justin as well. 

I loved this book because it never really takes the easy way out and  the author respects the reader enough to know we don't need everything spelled out for us, and like life, the endings aren't tidy. I highly recommend this for your book group.