Kat Hausler

I received an advanced digital copy of this book and am a fan. I enjoyed the story and the characters are relatable and even a bit mysterious.

The story is about a woman, Helena, who is hit by a truck and her husband, Joachim, takes on the duty of caring for her. This is tricky because Helena is suffering from Retrograde amnesia and does not know that Joachim and her are estranged. He wants to tell her, but as the story progresses it is complicated.

Do you want to know more? Read this story. I appreciate the descriptions and small details and recommend it. The story flows well and kept my attention.… (mere)

A well-written and extremely uncomfortable story of a woman suffering from amnesia after an accident. Helena is separated from her husband Joachim, but after her accident he is contacted by the hospital. She doesn't remember their separation, and he attempts to conceal it from her as she recovers. As she tries to rekindle her memory, he tries to control her access to things that might trigger it. She knows something is wrong, but isn't sure what. A more realistic view of the "tell the amnesiac we were married/in love" trope, the story recognizes the power imbalance inherent in a relationship where one person cannot remember and shows the relationship dysfunction that requires no memories to exist.… (mere)

Admittedly, Retrograde took me a little while to get into. It was an interesting enough concept for a story, but the execution seemed lacking in the beginning. The characters were uninteresting and there was too much drabble for the amount of action happening were my main concerns. However, as the story went on, it became much more enjoyable. The characters grew on me a surprising amount. I'm someone who is very interested in amnesia as a condition, so this naturally helped my opinion of the story a great deal. My recommendation: stick with the story, even if it doesn't grip you from the start.… (mere)