Book Review for The Forgotten by M. Stringfield

The Forgotten, by M. Stringfield, is a horrific dystopian about betraying your loved ones to protect a crumbling future.


Evelyn Moore is a mother who wants to see her beloved daughter again. All the while, she keeps hearing the quiet, tinkering sounds of a music box, one that will bring the bloody reminisces of a past she tried so hard to bury. Char Moore is a new recruit for an elite force that safeguards the city, Felicity. After a series of frightening experiences she is confronted by a family legacy that threatens the lives of everyone she loves. Alexander Moore is a young boy who stumbles across s scandal from long ago, one that begins to suffocate him until it finally claims him for its own. The fate of the Moore family rests upon a man named Charles, a man who led his family down an abyss of murder. The story cultivates an eerie beauty that deals with what happens when you stubbornly cling to what should have been forgotten so very long ago.


Evelyn was such a twisted character. Her twists and turns were so complex I was forced to wonder if I was reading about the same character. She was sweet and naive in the beginning, but as the book went on, I realized there was more to her than what I initially thought. Then there were Char and Alex, two children who were robbed of their innocence, if only to find their place in a society that had long lost its sanity. The three did what they thought was right, despite the terrible consequences in the end. Through these characters, Stringfield shows that the strict boundary between good and evil doesn’t exist. The system humanity had devised to save themselves is deeply flawed. We risk everything for the sake of feeling safe, even though it may be just a lie in the end.


This leads to one of the themes of the book, of forgetting everything that hurts and succumbing to a place where reality has no jurisdiction. Patricia believed that her son was in a better place, despite what Char had to say. Mara’s haunting death, with the words ‘Let them forget’ , was an illustration of how far people would go for the sake of believing that they did something for humanity. Even Evelyn felt this way as well, so much so she would kill her own husband and allow her children to suffer. The populace was robbed of the youth; all they had left was a lie they desperately cling to. This theme reflects the reality of the real world, such as that of Nazi Germany, and even the Cold War in America.


This book reminds me of a demented retelling of Alice in Wonderland. It’s as if these characters fell down a rabbit hole, before endeavoring to follow a morbid trail that leads to the Red Queen herself. How many people have died for her delusions, I shudder to even think about. Stringfield scripts a macabre world in which the dead go missing, and only the memories remain. As such, I would give this book a 4.6 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it to fans of dystopian worlds and the Brothers Grimm.


 

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Published on March 21, 2018 07:00
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