THE SECRET HISTORY OF US

Given a second chance at life, Liv must unravel the mysteries occluded by her memory loss.

When Liv’s car is hit by a truck, she and her boyfriend, Matt, plunge into the bay along with the car. Matt is able to swim to the surface, but 18-year-old Liv is trapped. When town introvert Walker finally pulls Liv out of the water, she is already dead. Walker breaks her ribs giving her resuscitation, but her life is saved. When she awakens in the hospital several days later, it comes to everyone’s slow realization that Liv has lost several years of memories, specifically all of high school, in a syndrome called post-traumatic retrograde amnesia. She doesn’t know Matt or how to drive. She doesn’t even know that she’s a vegetarian now. As Liv tries to piece her life back together, there is something a little off about the information her family and friends, mostly white, are supplying…as though they want to re-create her in their own best image. Schadenfreude will stir in readers as Liv obsessively watches the video of her death online, but the rest of the tale is humdrum. Written in Liv’s tentative, first-person voice, the big reveal is incredibly predictable, but there are a couple of sweet surprises at story’s end.

A weightless romance meant to elucidate that one’s true self is unsinkable.