The Once and Future Me

A Novel

De: Melissa Pace

Narrado por: Xe Sands

Dark Matter meets Girl, Interrupted in this gripping psychological thriller about a young woman teetering on the edge of reality.

Virginia, 1954. When a woman wakes on a patient transport bus arriving at Hanover State Psychiatric Hospital, she remembers nothing of her life before that moment, none of the dark things she must’ve seen and done that forged her into the skillful and cunning fighter she is. Doctors tell her she’s Dorothy Frasier, a paranoid schizophrenic, committed for her violent delusions. She’s certain they’re wrong—until disturbing visions of a dystopian future in which frantic scientists urge her to complete “the mission” and save mankind begin to invade her reality.

Believing it’s Hanover causing the hallucinations, she tells no one and focuses only on escaping—until there’s a visitor. A man whose loving face—and touch—she remembers, a man who knows all about her visions, because he’s spent years helping her cope with them: her husband, Paul Frasier.

Now she’s sure of nothing, caught between two realities. Believe in the future, and she might save the world. Believe in her husband and doctors’ plans for her treatment, and she might save herself. She needs answers, but to get them she’ll have to harness the darkness inside her as she risks her freedom, her mind, and ultimately her life in a heart-stopping quest for the truth.

©2025 by Melissa Pace. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Multiple loose ends make for unsatisfying ending

This novel was described as a standalone story, but, after a story drawn out by occasionally frustrating complications, the ending was abrupt and unfinished, with many loose ends and unresolved plot points. This would be acceptable if this book were the first in a duology or trilogy, but it is clearly advertised as a standalone novel.

Also, I listened to this book because it was this month’s selection of a book club I belong to. Out of 12 members, not a single person gave this book a thumbs up.

perfirmances

liked evrryything. best I hav read in years! hope u can find something comparable for my next read. that's the problem with a great book it spoils you for the others after!!