Sometimes memories are erased so quickly it’s as if they’re zapped right out of us. That’s what happens when Eva, struck by lightning, wakes to discover that her mother has been murdered and she’s a suspect. She has no memory of her mother’s death, but police have evidence that she was with her mother when she was killed. In trying to clear her own name, Eva stumbles upon decades of secrets that will change her understanding of her family and herself. Told from Eva’s perspective, as well as that of her mother in the years leading up to her own murder, this story has so many surprises that you won’t be able to stop reading. 

Ten years ago, Lindsay’s best friend, Edie, committed suicide. Or so Lindsay thought. Blackout drunk on the night of Edie’s death, Lindsay has had to rely on the official story of what happened, but when she discovers a video from that night, she begins to wonder if her friend was actually murdered—and if she was somehow involved. Nostalgic, poignant, and blisteringly exciting, this novel will have you wondering what you might have done on nights you partied a bit too hard. 

Speaking of parties gone wrong, THE GIRLS WEEKEND follows a group of college friends, now in their thirties, whose weekend reunion on an idyllic estate turns nightmarish when the host goes missing, the women find blood in the house, and none of them have any memory of what happened. Did they simply drink too much, or did someone drug them? And worse, does one of them have blood on their hands? This exhilarating, atmospheric thriller reveals what can happen when long-simmering tensions finally explode.  

The first book in Tana French’s stellar Dublin Murder Squad series, IN THE WOODS tells the spellbinding story of Adam, a detective haunted by two cases at once: one he’s investigating, and one he can’t remember. When Adam is assigned to the murder of twelve-year-old Katie, whose body was left in the woods, he can’t help but see the parallels between his current case and a horrifying experience from his childhood: the night his friends disappeared from the very same woods and he was found gripping a tree, with blood in his sneakers, unable to recall the last several hours. Now, as Adam works to determine who killed Katie, he tries desperately to remember what else happened in the woods decades ago. Although Starz recently released a beautiful adaptation of this novel in their Dublin Murders series, the novel itself proves that nobody does suspense—or characters with memory repression—quite like Tana French.  

Although Riley Sager’s latest thriller, HOME BEFORE DARK, features a character who can’t remember a pivotal experience from her life, it was actually in his riveting debut, FINAL GIRLS, that Sager first explored our minds’ ability to protect us from trauma. Ten years ago, Quincy was the sole survivor of a massacre at a cottage deep in the woods. She’s worked hard to move past the suffering she endured, but when Lisa, another famous survivor of a massacre (this one at a sorority house) is found dead in her home, and Samantha (the third “final girl,” who once survived the madman who killed several people at a motel) turns up on Quincy’s doorstep, Quincy is thrust back into the past—and the truth she uncovers will shatter the comfortable life she’s tried to build.  

Sometimes a character isn’t even aware that they’re missing pieces of their lives. This is the case with Eliza, a debut author who wakes up in a hospital having almost drowned after being pushed into a pool. The problem is her family doesn’t believe she was pushed, seeing as she has a history of suicide attempts. Worse, people begin insisting that her completely fictional novel mirrors parts of her real life, even though she has no memory of the events in her book having happened. She’s also forgetting people and places important to her, and as she struggles to recover memories she didn’t know she’d lost, she ends up learning so much more than she bargained for. With its fascinating book-within-a-book structure, THE ELIZAS will have you questioning everything about its titular character—especially as her memories come back. 

Unlike the other characters on this list, the teenage girl at the center of ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN had her memories erased on purpose. Seeking to protect their daughter from the trauma of a rape, Jenny’s parents allow her to receive a controversial drug that will wipe the night of her vicious assault out of her mind. Still, emotions rage beneath the surface as Jenny’s body seems to recall what she cannot. As Jenny works with a psychologist to uncover her memories and try to determine who raped her, answers emerge that will have devastating consequences for her family and town. This compelling page-turner explores the psychology of trauma and the ethics of manipulating a person’s mind.