You Must Remember This

A Novel

By: Kat Rosenfield

Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez, Katherine Conklin

Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

A Knives Out-style whodunnit with a twist of Taylor Jenkins Reid, You Must Remember This is an immersive Gothic mystery, with a long-ago love affair, icy death, and a rich family gone bad, from Kat Rosenfield, the acclaimed author of No One Will Miss Her.

On Christmas Eve, 85-year-old Miriam Caravasios steps onto the ice that surrounds her seaside estate on Maine's Mount Desert Island. As a younger woman, she used to steal out on winter nights to meet her lover, walking across the frozen reach to their secret meeting place. She knows the way—but not the year. Miriam, her mind clouded by dementia, doesn’t hear the snap of thin ice until it’s too late.

Was it an accident? Suicide? Or worse: Did someone lure the old woman onto the frozen reach, to her death?

There are plenty of suspects; Miriam’s fractured and complicated family has gathered in their Bar Harbor mansion to celebrate what everyone believed would likely be the matriarch’s last Christmas. The guests include Delphine, Miriam’s granddaughter, a frightened and insecure young woman who adored her grandmother, and Miriam’s live-in aide, Adam, whom Delphine has been secretly dating. There is Miriam's former housekeeper, Shelly Dyer, who left the family's employment years ago under mysterious circumstances. There are Miriam’s children: Theodora, who gave up everything to assume the role of caretaker; Diana, who seems just a little too eager to inherit her share of the estate; and Richard, whose longtime grudge against his mother has curdled into gleeful contempt at her deterioration.

But it’s Delphine who comes in for the greatest scrutiny when they learn the shocking news that Miriam’s will cut off her children, leaving her granddaughter almost everything.

As tensions rise, Delphine is emboldened to start asking questions: not just about her grandmother's death, but about her life, and the love story that defined it as the rest of her memories faded. The trail will take her into the past, into dark places—and eventually, onto thin ice.

©2022 Kat Rosenfield (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Modern Gothic

This book is well narrated and has a gothic feel. The atmosphere of a seaside mansion combined with the haunting dementia driven memories and fantasies of the family matriarch make this a suspense filled book. Even when the villain is revealed the danger still builds until the final resolution. Worth the time!

Couldn't get past 2.5 hrs

Good God. After a couple hours of this atrocious narration and plotless drag, I am convinced this author is playing a joke on us to see how long we hang on before eventually just not really caring what happens to all of these entitled rich brats with several generations of boring "problems". Supposedly a murder happens and perhaps it will pick up but after 2.5hrs I cannot go on. I am disappointed as I really enjoy other works by this author.

good stuff

this book has been described as a whodunit in the style of Glass Onion, but other than its almost cliche murder mystery set up, it really doesn't resemble a conventional whodunit in most ways.
it's more of a meditation on the tragic aspects of aging, the unreliability of memory and the power of personal narratives.
and unlike the brash, overexcited tone of Glass Onion, this story is a bit meloncholic, a good book for a rainy afternoon, I liked it.

Loved the story and suspense with subtle humor.

This was wonderfully written. I loved listening to the women narrating telling the stories from the different generations. The story was a major plot twist I did not see coming at the end.

Unexpectedly good

Wanted something different. Started slow but couldn't stop listening towards the end. Will have to check out Kat Rosenfeld's other books.

Liked one narrator but not the other. Story ok.

I enjoyed Ms. Rosenfield's other book a bit more. I liked the narrator who did the voice for Miriam. The narrator for Delphine was kind of annoying. I certainly enjoyed the book overall, but found it a little bit wordy and dragging at times.

Drawn out!

The gyst of the story is good, narrators are good, but the journey was a bit long and tedious. Soap opera like.

Story timeline transitions

I liked the story overall but I would have wanted a slightly different voice for the two main characters a bit.

Already a 2023 favorite!

This was an atmospheric, mysterious, creepy, heartbreaking, and, at times, even a little romantic slow-burn domestic drama.

I loved Kat's first book, it was gritty and raw, and while this one is so different, it's just as good. She's going to be someone who can write anything and bend genres. I only wish it had been released in time for Christmas.

I received an ARC so thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for that and I finished with the audio that I purchased on my own, because I've been more into that lately and the quality was fantastic.

So about the audiobook: The narration was amazing. I don't know if the narrator for Miriam is really an old lady but she sounded like one without being cartoonish, which will literally make me return an audiobook.

Side note: I don't know how KR got into the mind of an old lady because some of their jokes and banter I could just see my own Nana and her friends saying. That cracked me up while feeling very genuine.

It was beautifully written and I'm sad it's over. I miss them. I loved it so much!

What a performance and book!

Cleverly wrought… 2 women reading the mystery. They wove the story back and forth spanning 3 generations. So well read by Katherine Conklin and Stacy Gonzalez. I loved how the vernacular of both these women reflected their generations and I loved the change of empowerment of women over the generations. Wonderful book AND audiobook.