Forget Me Knots

by Owen Brookes

When the idyllic love shared by Julie Wells and Barry Irving is threatened by Jo-Jo, an imaginary companion from Julie's childhood who sets forces in motion to keep Julie to himself, Julie turns to psychiatrist Russell Dunn

261 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book I picked up randomly at Goodwill, which is always a gamble and this time it did not pay off. The premise as described on the dust jacket was chilling and promising – a young woman's childhood imaginary friend returns years later but is now sinister, obsessed with forcing her to fulfill her promise to one day marry him through his supernatural powers. Seemed like a haunting, Stephen King-like story, but the narration was dogged by long passages of very dated psychoanalysis, interspersed only very rarely, especially in the latter half of the book, with action sequences of the imaginary friend's attempts to eliminate everyone in the young woman's life but himself.

Again, it sounds like a chilling premise, but it was just made so tedious by all that Freudian psychoanalysis that it never really captured my attention and I almost put it down. Would have given it one star if it were not for the originality of the premise - I'm reserving one star ratings for books without any redeeming features.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading a less popular book. I'm never heard anyone mention this one. It's a very classic "pulp" type of horror novel from this genre. The foreboding tone is built up well, the story plot is good, but I didn't enjoy many of the characters, their development over the book, or the slightly misogynistic vibes of the book. Most would say a "product of the times" but in that case it would have needed to be so excellent to transcend those doubts, and this one didn't land that balance for me personally.