TLDR:
I loved this story from beginning to end. The mysteries you uncover as you turn the pages are all very engaging with satisfying conclusions. There is a clear sense of natural progression and discovery that I enjoyed. The story is told through the lens of a dementia patient, which is an incredibly unique perspective, one that has been written very well. The characters are told through said patient’s perspective, which gives them all a layer of complexity. Reading this was truly a beautiful and fun experience. Thank you to Atria Books, NetGalley, and Bruce Nash for providing me with the opportunity to read this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Plot: ☆☆☆☆☆
The plot follows Rose, an elder in an assisted living facility who has dementia, and who is trying to solve the suspected murder of her best friend. She often forgets details about herself and her past which makes her character a mystery to uncover alongside the murder. I have truly never read anything quite like this book before, and it will stick with me for a long time. Despite her being a bit out of her mind, she is written in a profound way both in her moments of clarity and in her states of deep confusion, which really provides insight and perspective. There is some deciphering to do throughout the book as you navigate how much of the information you’re being given is based on reality. You have to do some mental gymnastics to uncover the reality behind her experience, which I thought was the most immersive and unique part of the book.

Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆
Bruce Nash has a way of drawing you into the main character’s reality in a very immersive way. His writing has a lot of personality and the main character really came alive through that writing. The concept of this book is a bit abstract and I imagine it would be hard to write it well, but he definitely pulls it off with flying colors. The book is a balance of humor, poignancy, and suspense, and the way he tackles each tone leaves nothing more to be desired. I found myself thoroughly invested from start to finish. My only criticism is that, at times, the portrayal of memory loss symptoms got repetitive. I don’t think that is necessarily subtractive though, as I imagine it would be repetitive and redundant at times in a person with dementia’s brain.



World Building: ☆☆☆☆
The story was grounded in the modern day, but that doesn't mean it is lacking in worldbuilding. As someone who has experience working in assisted living facilities, I thought that the portrayal of the setting was very realistic. The author does a wonderful job of showing you Rose’s experience exactly how she experiences it. This means that at times it's abstract and detached from the original concept, but it is still understandable.

Characters: ☆☆☆☆☆
Every character we encounter is through the filter Rose’s illness gives her. This makes for some very interesting characterizations. We do not get to know the characters themselves, only Rose’s interpretations or remembered knowledge about them. As her perspective of them changes, so does how we perceive them as well. Despite this, they are by no means one-dimensional or underdeveloped. It makes for very complicated and engaging characters. I found myself wanting her to have more interactions with them, in order to understand the other characters better.


Overall: ☆☆☆☆☆ (4.5)
This story was incredible. The characters were intriguing, especially Rose. I enjoyed the unique insight and perspective her experiences and thoughts provided on things in my own life. The mysteries in the book were engaging and had satisfying conclusions. I enjoyed the natural progression and discovery as she revealed what was truly going on despite her illness’s discredidation of her. It is a truly unique read, unlike anything I’ve read before.

An elderly woman in a care home alternates between keen observations with punny associations and forgetfulness but suspicious activity keeps her focused on uncovering a variety of secrets in Bruce Nash’s All the Words We Know.
Spending her days roaming the halls of the care facility she calls home, the octogenarian Rose’s mind alternates between forgetting words and forging clever connections between words, sparking memories of things past as well as a sense of things just beyond her mind’s grasp amid a routine of visits from her children and grandchildren. After a fellow resident, her Scrabble-playing friend, is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, Rose becomes fixated on investigating the small, odd details around the facility that stick out in her mind revolving around people disappearing and the role of money, which is reinforced by behaviors of staff members, other residents, and her family. Though she is generally harmless, Rose’s determination and moments of lucidity prove to be valuable in exposing the truth and the secrets kept obscured under the veneer of care, as well as those within her past, intentionally or not.
The wordplay, mental associations, and roving trains of thought, punny or otherwise, navigated are cleverly crafted and entertaining, offering a sense of levity to the heavier, more frightening emotional burden of memory loss and devolution of agency affiliated with dementia. The narrative depicts the vulnerability of elderly, disabled, or otherwise impaired populations and how they may find themselves targets of schemes and scams to defraud them of the very resources meant to care for them in a plot that is presented in a manner that seems a touch outlandish given Rose’s perspective but sadly isn’t far from real situations. There’s a fair amount of repetition within the text as Rose describes her days or details her thoughts, but that would be reasonably expected in depicting the confusion and general state of her mind, which isn’t a static thing but instead a complex entity that varies from moment to moment in what she knows, remembers, and is capable of making sense of within herself and in conveying what she knows and wants to be known to those around her.
Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think this one suffers from the "clever construct" problem... It's one I've stumbled upon (and into) several times in the past year or so, and continues to confound me. Writing like a person with dementia (or a young child or a person with a very severe learning disability) may sound like a way to give voice to the unvoiced - but it makes for a very difficult reading experience and eventually starts to feel forced and disingenuous. Even if it's not, and even if it's well-meaning. That is the issue I had here. Nash holds tight to his narrator's voice - and while that stranglehold may be commendable, it makes for a story that halts and stutters and doesn't move forward well as a result. In a movie you may be able to utilize this to some advantage - or possibly even in an audiobook? - but in a print copy, it makes for a very frustrating reading experience. While that may be the point, it wasn't for me.

All the Words We Know is a hilarious whodunit where the narrator is utterly unreliable, but determined to ferret out the truth even if it costs her - but she probably will forget the cost anyhow. This book is full of witty malapropisms that kept me laughing, punny plant humor, and a beguiling inability to stay politically correct.

I’ll be honest, this is one of the most disorienting books I’ve ever read, and while I can kind of piece together what has occurred, I couldn’t confidently say one way or another. I can tell you I had fun with this book, and it definitely made me consider if I’m treating my children today how I would like to be treated as I’m aging and becoming more dependent on their care. This was a fun and thought provoking book; though, it may be an emotionally challenging read if someone close to you has walked through dementia.

I would like to thank Atria Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rose lives in a nursing home and is suffering from dementia. One day, her friend falls from a window and rose sets out to find out the truth. If only she can remember. An interesting read.

The writing style is exceptionally difficult to get through and really overpowers any possibility of enjoying the story.

This was a great read. I highly recommend it. You will fall in love with the characters and the writing style. This is my first book from this author. I will definitely be reading more.

⭐⭐⭐✨ 3.5/5

An engaging read with a lot of heart, but it’s one that asks for the right mindset to truly appreciate.

This book needs to be read with compassion—its portrayal of Rose’s journey through memory loss and her resilience is both touching and thought-provoking. It’s not a fast-paced thriller, but rather a quiet exploration of life’s complexities, and I think it’s one that I wouldn’t mind re-reading :)

Thank you Atria Books 🫶🏻

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Although I had high hopes for this novel, but for me it became a frustrating DNF (did not finish) book.

Perhaps it is that I have too many elderly relatives in nursing homes, but I found the protagonist's extreme (and CONSTANT) confusion about her every thought or interaction with others too distracting and depressing.

Trigger warning: If you are empathetic to mental confusion or if you have dear family members experiencing memory and/or comprehension issues, you too might find yourself a bit unable to find delight and humor in this story.

Additionally, attempting to determine what is going on it this book (or even what is actually being said in even ONE conversation in this story) is nearly impossible.

The story is about 80-year old Rose who has dementia and a resident of a nursing home. She loses her friend to a freak accident, causing Rose to be aware of a cunning plot- or does she?

This book has a clever whodunit plot. Rose flips through words before landing on the correct one. Her children are involved in her life.

I will say the novel is a bit repetitive, and confusing at times. With that being said, I did enjoy it.

Overall a good book touching on a hard subject . Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher fir letting for letting me review book

I enjoyed the word play by 80-year-old Rose, a nursing home resident with dementia, whose love of nature, plants, and trees comes through when she remembers the botanical names of each flower and plant she cherishes in her memory. Though in her 80s and a widow, she still has enough determination to ferret out the center's secrets and the crimes she thinks she sees being done to employees, her friends in the home, and other residents.

Rose lives half of her time in a remembered garden with her second husband, now deceased. It spurs her on to also take note of the present and her circumstances. And in a very roundabout way, she achieves her goals.

The story was clever, cute, and even suspenseful, with an ending that brings relief and a sense of completion. Her use of malapropisms, misuse of words that sound alike, was also entertaining.

Rose is a feisty octogenarian who has lost her ability to remember consistently. Her memory comes in and out of focus—but mostly out. She searches for the right words in circuitous flip-throughs of malapropisms and puns before landing on the correct word. Her adult children have put her in a memory care facility and visit her every day, giving her a journal to record events. On her dresser are photos from her and her children’s lives. If only she knew who the strange man in the front photo was.

When she loses her friend in a freak accident, Rose becomes aware of an insidious plot—or is it just her imagination? Through disjointed details, snippets of clarity and hallucinations, she learns that those who are supposed to have her best interest at heart may in fact be putting her in danger.

Told through Rose’s memory limitations and perceptions, the storyline can be challenging to follow at times. But if we stay with her, Rose eventually makes sense of the kaleidoscope of clues.

I liked the creativity and wry humor in this story. While sometimes maddening, Rose’s failing memory also allows us to see her world and her heartbreaks with empathetic eyes. And while I found the ending chapters a little overwritten and drawn out, I appreciated the clarity of the resolution

The story was okay. I was drawn to the story when it mentioned the main character had dementia, but reading the story, I felt the wording was a bit repetitive and annoying to follow along. I liked that her children were an active role in her life , but the story seemed a bit bland to me

This book is a great concept, however, just as in life being around a person suffering from dementia can be draining. Since our narrator is the patient this ends up feeling monotonous. If you have had a loved one with dementia you well know it is very difficult to be around for long stretches. This type of unreliable narrator that ends up solving a crime, just feels unrealistic. A little less of the self correction when she is thinking would have been helpful. With all that said I did like the cozy murder mystery vibe of the book.

As the reader, you are privy to the jumbled thoughts and life of a woman with dementia living in an Australian care facility. Despite her cognitive challenges, and with the love and concern of her attentive children, she manages to reveal the dark truth about the financial dealings going on around her. A unique voice and a fascinating, though very sad, short novel.

This story revolves around a care facility for elderly patients, a woman who is a patient with dementia, and how her adult children and grandchildren interact with her. In part, it is also a love story, as well as a glimpse into how dementia changes how these patients view their new world, and how it affects the other members of the family.

Many thanks for the opportunity to read this story of family, aging, and love.


Pub Date: July 1 2025

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books

thank you so much to the publishers and authors for the arc. I absolutely loved this book and enjoyed the word play a lot. As a psychology student who has always loved to attend seminars about dementia and Alzheimer's, this book was the perfect book for me!!

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

This book was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the humor and wordplay, but it became a little repetitious for me. I also found the revelation of the crime at the end confusing. I thought the author did a great job showing the interplay between the mother with dementia in a nursing home and her adult children. How her children and grandchildren chose to spend their time visiting with their mother was fascinating. I also enjoyed the mother's surprising understanding of her children and their behaviors and her insights and observations of other residents and the staff. In many ways, this book demonstrated love and acceptance in challenging circumstances. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.