In the dark we forget by Sandra Wong had a really great story line. Unfortunately to me the description was better than the book itself. I was really looking forward to reading this but I had a very hard time following along and keeping myself interested. Which I'm not gonna lie I am not easily entertained but this book just didn't do it for me. I found my self lost and re reading paragraph after paragraph. I will definitely be checking out her other books in the future because it does seem ms. wong has a lot potential as an author.

In the Dark We Forget is a fast-paced twisty thriller that will take readers on a rollercoaster of a ride. When a woman wakes up with amnesia and no memory of who she is, she learns her parents disappeared after her mother bought a winning lottery ticket. Highly recommended! Be sure to check out In the Dark We Forget today.

The synopsis for this book was on point and I loved the cover. It was spooky and let me know what I'd be getting myself into! Very good read.

Cleopatra wakes up disoriented, in the woods. Her body has signs of an attack and her memory is gone. Trying to find out who she is , she discovers that her parents are missing from the resort. One thing after another, shows that her mother has won the lottery, they have sold the duplex when Cleo lives next to them. And are forcing her to move with them or be disinherited.. strong Asian- Canadian suspense story.. it was continually reminding me of all the cultures of the characters and their family customs. Many lies and hidden truths.

I was hesitant going into this one, because it could have been really cheesy, but it turned out to be better than I expected! The synopsis was true to form; a woman awakens near a highway in Canada, with no idea of her name, where she is, and why she has obviously been attacked.

After going to the police, she finds out who she is … and also finds out her parents are missing. They’ve recently won a ton of money in the lottery, so immediately suspicion turns to everyone surrounding them - including their own daughter, who is still suffering from amnesia.

The book obviously is about finding out what happened, so the rest would be verging into spoiler territory, but it was good. It didn’t blow me away and there were a couple of things that annoyed the hell out of me, so I was planning on giving it 3.5 stars. The rounding would depend upon the end, and as I got there, I decided I’d round down to three stars.

THEN … I read the last few pages and generously decided to round up instead! This was a fun story and while not truly a solid four stars from me, it was still a very entertaining read.

(Thank you to Harper 360, Sandra SG Wong, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

If you love suspense you will love this? What would you do if one day you woke up and your couldn't remember anything and your family is missing? That what the main character faces when realize that her life has forever changed. It a great physiological suspense. It has a lot of page turning moments. I liked a few things about the book that show how modern it was a great debut by Sandra SG Wong.

Overall i found this book to be relatively average. It had a good story set up with an Asian Canadian family- a great story line following their heritage, however i found this book to be pretty un-suspenseful and bland. I was able to predict the plot twists easily and i felt that it could have had more to really draw me in. All and all i still give this book 3 stars for both the writing quality and the family storyline which i found to be very good.

Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me. Sandra SG Wong has great promise, but at this moment, I just hate to spend all of my time reading a thriller with such an obvious ending.

In the Dark We Forget
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 6/21/22
Author: Sandra S.G. Wong
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 355
Goodreads Rating: 3.33

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: When a woman wakes up with amnesia beside a mountain highway, confused and alone, she fights to regain her identity, only to learn that her parents have disappeared—not long after her mother bought a winning $47 million lottery ticket. As her memories painfully resurface and the police uncover details of her parents’ mysterious disappearance, Cleo Li finds herself under increasing suspicion. Even with the unwavering support of her brother, she can’t quite reconcile her fears with reality or keep the harrowing nightmares at bay. As Cleo delves deeper for the truth, she cannot escape the nagging sense that maybe the person she should be afraid of...is herself.

My Thoughts: I was immediately drawn to this book by the cover and pretty much I knew I wanted to read without really knowing what the story was. For a debut thriller, just amazing! The story opens up with a firework, then does some back building, and slowly building up the plot, with twists along the way. The story is divided up into three parts and narrated by Cleo, as an unreliable narrator, from her POV. The storytelling of the culture was extremely descriptive and detailed, an aspect that I loved. The characters were very well developed with depth, cultural exploration, mysterious, and just worked so well for this novel. The author’s writing style was complex, with more layers of complexity, suspenseful, tense on the edge of your seat moments, and family dynamics that tear at your heart. The author did a fantastic job at building the characters, layering in the twists while building up to the plot, while the ending was a little vague, I do believe this is just the brilliant writing of the author. I cannot wait to see future novels from Wong. I highly recommend you go pick up this page turning psychological thriller that was released last month.

After being approved on @netgalley for 𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑊𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 by Sandra SG Wong I immediately stopped what I was doing and dived in. I absolutely love the cover, so gorgeous!

I was super hyped up for this read but unfortunately, I did think it was a little slow and the ending was inconclusive. Although the storyline was intriguing part one and two took me almost a week to complete due to it being slow.

Finally things did pick up around part three and I was hoping for a huge twist and an unpredictable ending, but it just didn’t happen.

LIKES: Like I said, this WAS an interesting story and I was invested in it. I enjoyed how the author included a lot of cultural elements and it was interesting reading about a different type of family dynamic. The Canadian setting was also a plus and the author did a great job with meticulous details.

SYNOPSIS: “When a woman wakes up with amnesia beside a mountain highway, confused and alone, she fights to regain her identity, only to learn that her parents have disappeared—not long after her mother bought a winning $47 million lottery ticket.

As her memories painfully resurface and the police uncover details of her parents’ mysterious disappearance, Cleo Li finds herself under increasing suspicion. Even with the unwavering support of her brother, she can’t quite reconcile her fears with reality or keep the harrowing nightmares at bay.

As Cleo delves deeper for the truth, she cannot escape the nagging sense that maybe the person she should be afraid of...is herself.”

✨✨✨

Thank you Netgalley and Harper360 for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I think what boils down to it is that I’m not a fan of books about amnesia. I’m not sure why because in theory it seems like it’s a really interesting topic, but they never hit the mark for me. What I really enjoyed was the fact that this book was centered on a Chinese-Canadian main character because I feel like the representation is incredibly important. I also really enjoyed how her culture was an important aspect of this mystery. However, besides that, I found it really difficult to connect with the book. It wasn’t the WORST, but it’s just not something I really enjoyed.

This book was creepy but good! I loved that it had me on the edge of my seat from the start and all the way til the end! Highly recommend it!

This book had potential; there was plenty of mystery and intrigue but no action or suspense. It was slow, so slow. Nothing happened for most of the book. It was just people talking in a room trying to regain memories which got redundant and did not hold my interest.

Interesting read. Cleo wake sip alongside the road, most of her memory wiped. Most of the book is jer worming with officials to tease her memories but also to discover what happened to her parents.
It’s a decent read, but I still felt in limbo after the ending.

DNF at 15%
I don't think this is a bad book. It's just not what I expected it to be and I don't personally want to read it. It's well-written, but nothing has happened so far, and based on other reviews not much happens the entire time.

Overall, In the Dark We Forget was a suspenseful whodunit mystery.  When a woman wakes up on the side of the road with no memory of who she is, she must work with local police to discover what happened to her.  After finding out her name is Cleo, reconnecting with her younger brother Cass, and being told her parents are also missing, the mystery really just begins.  While interesting, the story's pace was a little slow for my preference, and the ending left me thinking a lot more than I would have if everything was completely wrapped up by the last page, which somewhat saved the book for me.  This is a good book, but not one of my favorites.  
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Thank you to the author, Harper 360, and NetGalley for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.  #InTheDarkWeForget #NetGalley

This was an interesting story; however, I was very out off by the author’s PC tangents that did nothing to enhance the story. It actually took away from the flow of the story in my opinion. Also her obvious disdain for “white people” was aggravating and offensive. It was a good mystery about Cleo and Cass and their parents who are missing. The twist of a $40+ million lottery winning was enjoyable as well.

Interesting premise and great characters, id love to read this again another time, but I just struggled to engage with it right now

Note: the review for this is past the publishing date because it was requested and read after that

I was super excited to pick up a book by a Chinese crime writer and I wasn’t disappointed. Cleo wakes up and finds that her parents are gone and her memories are missing. As she raves to figure out what happened and what role she possibly played in her disappearance we are taken on a ride through her life. As you flip pages to race to the end you will be questioning everything that you think you know. The cultural details and the family dynamics are rich and provide so much atmosphere for the book. Make sure you grab this one because it is one that will stick with you for quite some time.

This was a frustrating one for me. There were things I really liked about the book, like having a Chinese Canadian protagonist and LGBTQ representation. That said, the book really dragged for me. Wong describes everything with such detail that it almost felt like a writing exercise. I don't know if I would have finished the book if I weren't reading it for review and if I didn't really want to find out what happened to Cleo.

That brings me to my biggest problem with the book. You don't really find out what happened. WTH? The ending is so ambiguous and I hate ambiguous endings. The main premise is that Cleopatra Li comes to in a desolate part of Canada all banged up with no memories. She makes her way to the police and eventually finds out who she is and that her parents are missing. They determine that she's been drugged with rohypnol, but that doesn't explain the lack of her long term memories. We then go with Cleo and she tries to figure out what happened to her and to her parents, and accompany her as she finds out what a terrible person she used to be.

I appreciated the social commentary that others have noted. I don't have any experience as a Chinese Canadian woman and this really helped me see a lot of the culture and her family dynamics. But the ending left me with no less than 12 unanswered questions, most of them very big ones. That was a real disappointment for me. In the end, it felt more like a really long character study with shades of unresolved mystery thrown in.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.