Memories ground us to who we are, remind us of who we’ve been, and shed light on where we’re going. When that human constant is taken away, when the mind is flooded and our memories are scrubbed clean, who are we and who can we rely on if not ourselves? These are the kind of collar-stiffening questions amnesia and memory loss thrillers ask us time and time again. But, why is this trope always so effective? Why do all of these novels, despite their repetitive themes, elicit such a deep reaction from their readers? Because the fear of forgetting is enough to strike wonder and dread in us all.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of violence and murder. Please exercise self-care while reading.
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
Ogawa’s dystopian thriller The Memory Police takes place on a mysterious, remote island where an unknown force compels its residents to forget their attachments to objects and concepts; effectively eliminating them from existence and, thus, collective memory. The Memory Police enforce this phenomenon. Those who somehow remember these objects are rounded up and taken away. This surreal world is told to us through the eyes of a young novelist, fighting to maintain her career, who discovers her editor is in danger of being found by the Memory Police. To continue their writing and preserve the past, she hides her editor under her floorboards as they band together, clinging to hope, as fear and dread close in around them.
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
The global bestseller, spearheaded by the phenomenal Emily Blunt in its 2016 film adaptation, The Girl On The Train has become a classic contemporary psychological thriller. Rachel, a divorced alcoholic who rides the same commuter train every morning, becomes dangerously obsessed with a couple she spots from the window. She deems them the “perfect” couple, gives them the names “Jess and Jason”, and envies the life she’s created for them from afar, willing herself to be as happy as they are. Until, in a split second before the train moves, she sees something shocking. When “Jess” disappears, Rachel takes it upon herself to investigate the disappearance. But Rachel’s history of blackouts, unreliability, and obsessive tendencies makes her the key suspect in this winding, unmissable thriller.
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The spy thriller series that made Matt Damon a bona fide star began as a 1980 spy thriller by Robert Ludlum: The Bourne Identity. Found near death in the Mediterranean Sea, with multiple bullet wounds and face-altering plastic surgery, a man awakens with no memory of who he is. As he recovers, he begins to discover things about himself that allude to a dangerous past: a microchip implant in his hip containing a Swiss bank account number, super-human combat and self-defense skills, and the ability to speak over seven languages. Determined to uncover his past, the man unpacks the clues before him and hunts others down whilst being under constant attack from assassins chasing him around Europe. The first in the thrilling saga, The Bourne Identity, tells the story of a man who must confront his past in order to secure his future.
He’s Gone by Deb Caletti
After attending a lively party with plenty of wine, Dani wakes up Sunday morning to a hangover and a shock: her husband is not in the house. Figuring he went out to run errands, she continues her day as usual. But as the hours pass by, her confusion turns to panic and then certainty: He’s gone. As the investigation surrounding his disappearance unfolds, Dani plunges into an emotional inventory of their relationship, dredging up memories she’d rather keep buried. Deb Caletti’s He’s Gone is a meditation on memory, marriage, and the turmoil that comes with choice.
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Every night Christine goes to bed, and every morning she has no memory of any of the days before. A past accident has wiped her slate clean. S.J. Watson’s international bestseller Before I Go To Sleep is structured around the concept that memories define us, so what happens to a woman who has none? Who is she, and who can she trust? Determined to piece together her life, Christine decides to keep a secret journal charting her days. But this journal brings her to question the one person she believed she could rely on: her husband.
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty, a staple amongst contemporary thriller authors, thrives by exposing the mess thinly veiled under seemingly normal, idyllic life. In her 2009 novel What Alice Forgot, 39-year-old Alice bumps her head in a fitness class and wakes up 29, pregnant, and happily married. Or at least that’s what she thinks; she has no memory of the last ten years of her life. As she slowly pieces together the last decade of her life, she struggles to reckon with this unrecognizable version of herself and grapple with the mistakes she’s made. Though not a traditional thriller, What Alice Forgot’s suspension of reality and the narrator’s self-identity create a similar eerie, anxiety-inducing feeling that demands you keep reading.
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
When Amber wakes up in the hospital, she can’t open her eyes, she can’t move, and she can’t speak. But she can hear everyone around her, a fact they don’t know and one she uses to her advantage. Unfolding across three timelines (“now”, her hospital stay, “then”, the week of her accident, and “before”, her childhood diary entries), Sometimes I Lie tells you what it is from the title page: this is an unreliable narrator, sifting amongst her own lies to find the truth of what happened to her. As she pieces together what happened to her from her hospital bed, Amber begins to suspect the closest people in her life may be the ones to blame.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The dystopian, isolative setting of the Glade is one hard to forget, but that’s due in large part to the fact that the residents’ minds are wiped before they wake up there; it’s all they know. The Maze Runner follows teenage Thomas’s entrance into the Glade, his journey to unpacking his and his fellow boys’ identities, and getting them the hell out. The community lives in constant fear of the Grievers, deadly machines presumably made by whoever stuck them in there, that patrol the maze. Each day, they send boys into the maze for an escape route; each night, the maze changes on them again. When Teresa, the first girl ever to set foot on the Glade, arrives with a bone-chilling message, the group knows their escape is now or never.
The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood
The Darkest Secret opens with a lavish party where real-estate tycoon Sean Jackson celebrates his 50th birthday with his friends, wife, ex-wife, and his two three-year-old twin daughters, Coco and Ruby. The nanny quit right before the festivities, allowing Coco and Ruby to slip through the cracks as the weekend of drugs, alcohol, and debauchery rolls on. Then Coco disappears, and she is not seen again. Twelve years later, Sean Jackson is dead, and the same group from that fateful night is once again united for the funeral. Ruby and Mila, her older half sister, are drawn into the drama as the present intertwines with the past and long-buried secrets are finally dug up. Deemed by Stephen King as one of the best mystery-suspense stories of the decade, “transcend[ing] the genre”, The Darkest Secret is a must-read.
In The Woods by Tana French
The first novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, In The Woods, follows Detective Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox as they investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl who was found in the woods of a small Irish town. The murder holds disturbing parallels with one from Rob Ryan’s childhood, one he was present for and cannot remember. In 1984, three children ran off into the woods and did not return. Only one was found, and it was Ryan; his sneakers were soaked in blood, he stood paralyzed, gripping a tree in complete fear, and his memory was a blank. Now, Ryan takes the flashes from his past and the evidence of the present to uncover the mystery of two horrific cases.
The mind is something everyone has, few can steal, and none can afford to lose. A threat to it immediately raises the stakes, doubles the intrigue, and makes for an irresistible page turner. Your memories are a precious thing; revel in them with these recommendations, where the protagonists fight for their own.
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