Book: Before You Forget: a Paranormal Mystery Halloween Romance Novella by Zara Monzel
Reviewed by NIN freak
Rating: 4.5/5
This story has loneliness, forgiveness of self, regret, love, sadness and a small need for tissues. There were a few parts where I had tears in my eyes, and I don't cry or tear up easily. There are curses, talking skeletons and ancient Irish script. Having to solve a 100-year-old mystery in the span of five days...
We are introduced to Dr. Meg Jones, an anthropologist, who is called in from Bristol to help Vernon Vale with a problem. The problem? Carnival workers digging a pit for a foundation encountered four skeletons. She doesn't want to go, but the anthropologist in her can't pass it up. She gets there in the morning, she hasn't been back to her hometown since her father’s funeral.
When she gets to town the next day, she does a preliminary inspection of them and finds some odd things on the fourth skeleton. She then tells the police to take that one to the lab in her dad's house. Declaring the site is a historical burial, due to the fact that the bones appear to be over 100 years old, but needs more tests to be sure. She gets the skeleton labeled SK4 to the house, notices the carvings on the bones. Goes upstairs for a minute and when she comes back down to see a walking, talking skeleton....
‘Every skeleton was a person once,’ she says. ‘It’s my job to tell their stories.’ She pauses. ‘Yours is just more talkative than most.’
SK4, called Four, has no memories, but she deduces from bone markers that it was male, approximately twenty-four years of age, wrote and walked a lot. The two of them search for his past in the five days he has till he loses his memories again on Halloween at midnight.
The writing is great and very compelling. The author puts you in the minds of the characters and conveys what they feel perfectly. The feelings of loss and regret when you lose someone close to you or a beloved family member really shine through. The character of Meg reminds me of the character of Temperance Brennan from the show Bones, her methodical logic and emotionless when working. This is a must-read, especially if you like Halloween and skeletons.
For a long time, nothing happens. And then the reflection in the glass moves. He sees it in the window – a face. A face with skin, eyes, a mouth. A face he’s seen before, in a photograph he couldn’t recognise hours ago, in mirrors he’s only just remembering. His own face.