About This Book:
A funny, heartfelt, late coming-of-age story that examines the role of memory in holding us back—and in moving us forward—for fans of The Collected Regrets of Clover and Maame.
Call it inertia. Call it a quarter-life crisis. Whatever you call it, Cricket Campbell is stuck. Despite working at a zeitgeisty wellness company, the 26-year-old feels anything but well. Still adrift after a tragedy that upended her world a decade ago, she has entered early adulthood under the weight of a new burden: her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
When Cricket’s older sister Nina announces it is time to move Arthur from his beloved Adirondack lake house into a memory-care facility, Cricket has a better idea. In returning home to become her father’s caretaker, she hopes to repair their strained relationship and shake herself out of her perma-funk. But even deeply familiar places can hold surprises.
As Cricket settles back into the family house at Catwood Pond—a place she once loved, but hasn’t visited since she was a teenager—she discovers that her father possesses a rare gift: as he loses his grasp of the past, he is increasingly able to predict the future. Before long, Arthur cements his reputation as an unlikely oracle, but for Cricket, believing in her father’s prophecies might also mean facing the most painful parts of her history. As she begins to remember who she once was, she uncovers a vital truth: the path forward often starts by going back.
With laugh-out-loud humor and profound grace, Before I Forget explores the nuances of family, the complexities of memory, and how sometimes, the people we know the best are the ones who surprise us the most.
My Thoughts After Reading:
It’s only March but I think I’ve found my favorite read of 2026; the easiest 5 stars I have ever given.
I picked up Heart the Lover by Lily King after Before I Forget. A quote from Heart the Lover sums up how I felt about Before I Forget: “You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.” Having just lost my own father to cancer, Before I Forget was that book for me. It’s difficult to write a blog post on a book that was so deeply personal. But, I feel, regardless of related experiences, this is absolutely book worth reading.
Readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with a touch of magical realism, strong family relationships, light romance, and thoughtful reflections on grief and growth will find a lot to love here. It’s the kind of book that will leave you teary-eyed (in my case sobbing) and also smiling and hopeful.
The characters are charming. The topics are heavy. The humor is witty. The plot is restorative. The book is magical.
– Michelle
