“It’s as though the more he forgets the more I remember.”
Genre: Fiction, Mysteries and Thrillers
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings: Dementia, insinuations of incest and child molestation, explicit pet death,
Hillary Greene is left with some hard tasks: take care of her senile father and write his memoir. Her father is a renounced author and, after years of writing, is losing himself and all the secrets he tried so hard to bury. Hillary, on the other hand, is an aspiring author and is grieving the loss of her sister. She is left with a choice: share, through the memoir, who her father really was or cover it all up so his legacy as a writer can live on.
This was an extremely depressing and disturbing read. Let’s start with the fact that the daughter—and caregiver—calls her dad Baby? We then find out why that is, but it still made me uncomfortable at times, even if it was a nickname.
Personally, I think that the most devastating part of this book was how, through her endeavors, she uncovered truths that were there all along, not only about her father, who the memoir is about, but of her dead sister as well. I can’t say I agree with all the actions Hillary took throughout this book, but at the same time I could mostly see where she was coming from.
I would highly recommend this book, especially if you’re fond of dark stories. If you read and liked “A Little Life” by Hanya Tanagihara or “My Dark Vanessa” by Kate Elizabeth Russell, then “What We Both Know” is for you.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: May 03, 2022
“They say a man becomes a man when he loses his father, but what does he become when he loses himself?”
andrea's galley 