REVIEW: REMEMBER MIA, BY ALEXANDRA BURT

 

 

There is something profoundly troubling to me about Remember Mia.  A missing baby, a car accident, amnesia…all of these events are seen from the perspective of an unreliable narrator.  A woman probably suffering from Postpartum Depression, possibly even a psychosis. If we see the other characters from Estella’s view, they are very sinister, or at the very least, annoying.  Her husband Jack is so annoying as to be someone I might suspect of nefarious deeds.  Yes, he is cold, he is detached, and he is critical…from her view.  Then there are the various construction workers at the house where she lives, all alone, with a baby who never stops crying.  And the constant criticism she gets from her husband, from the neighbors, and from almost anyone she encounters.

But no matter what we may wonder about “Amnesia Mom,” as the press has dubbed her, because she was in a car accident with a gunshot wound and no memory of events, we must ask certain questions: Who, if anyone, took the baby?  Why was every evidence that a baby had even lived there missing, too?  And who can we trust?  And finally, if Jack was so concerned about Estella’s state of mind, why did he set her up in a construction zone, literally, while he went to another city?

Committed to a psychiatric facility, Estella and her doctor slowly work to recover her memories. And when that happens, will there be a happy ending? The long, tedious journey kept me rapidly turning pages, my heart in my throat, hoping for answers. A book I could not put down, and despite my feelings about many of the characters, especially Jack, I felt a kind of peace at the unexpected conclusion. The middle section, and the psychiatric sessions were a little frustrating, especially since events flipped back and forth between the past and the present. In the end, however, I was glad I slogged my way through. 4.0 stars.