I Remember Certain Things

by Eliza Danvers

El Stanley-twenty-one years old and introverted-fails at the only thing they've thought about for years. Backdropped by the cold corridors of a psychiatric hospital, El searches for a reason to keep going amid the hazy aftermath of trauma, stumbling into unexpected friendships and a reality they never thought they could face.



El Stanley-fourteen years old and insecure-shuffles from home to theater practice, searching for a friend and somewhere to belong. Backdropped by the warm Tennessee sun, El meets James-sandy-haired, blue-eyed, and harboring a dangerous secret-stumbling into a situation that will test the boundaries of trust, loyalty, and regret.



I Remember Certain Things is a novel about sorrow and hope from someone crying out to be heard. Purposeful, authentic, and laced with humor, it weaves through time, tracing the line between mourning innocence lost and fighting to persevere-all while searching for belonging in any place that will offer it.

344 pages, Paperback

Published September 22, 2025

About the author

Eliza Danvers is a Nashville-based author, illustrator, and movie enthusiast. They've spent most of their life reading books, finding solace and identity in other people's words. While fighting through depression, they finally learned the ability to write their own, finding freedom in writing and learning the steps of self-publishing. Eliza resides in a cozy townhouse they cannot afford with their husband and pet gecko.

Reviews

[kendra eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

woah who’s the really cool indie author who wrote this? 👀

[Rebecca Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot stress enough how profoundly this story has affected me. It’s one of those rare books that doesn’t just tug at your heartstrings, it wraps both hands around your chest and doesn’t let go.

Eliza Danvers has crafted a beautifully raw, hauntingly intimate portrait of what it means to live with the weight of your own mind. I Remember Certain Things is not just a story, it’s an experience. I felt like I was walking every step of El’s journey, breathing in their pain, their small moments of hope, the moments they wanted to give up and their attempts to keep going when everything feels unbearably heavy.

It’s achingly human. The kind of book that makes you clutch your chest, sit in silence after finishing it, just staring at the wall, letting the emotions settle. It’s about the resilience it takes to exist, about love in all its fragile and imperfect forms, and about the slow, uneven process of healing.

There are lines that have carved themselves into my memory, words that feel like they were written directly into my bones:

“It seems that as people grow, they grow into their skin, but my skin just gets tighter around me.”

“They’re gnarled and vicious, mean and taunting, and so deep inside me that they seem as real as my teeth and fingernails, wrapped up by the fear that no one will ever really, truly love me because I am fundamentally, irrevocably broken.”

“All I can do is my best. All I can do is keep counting a streak, even if it breaks.”

Not to mention the last line of the book (I won’t spoil it) struck me right in the heart and is going to live there forever.

This book is viscerally sad, but also breathtakingly honest. It lingers. It hurts. It heals. And I know it’s a story I’ll be thinking about for a long, long time. I can’t wait to see what Eliza Danvers writes next.

[matt smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s so beautiful and sad and human. eliza does an absolutely incredible job at showing both the beauty and pain that comes with mental health struggles, the friendships that can come from seeking help, and knowledge that there ARE people who care about you.

[Taylor (taylorreadsalatte on IG) Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check on your friends, for everyone fights a silent battle that you know nothing about. <3

I had the honor of reading Eliza's book and I am so proud of the story that they wrote. While the subject matter is a bit heavier and on the more serious side (TW: mentions of self-harm, mental health issues and abuse), it is important to talk about. I did take a star off for the subject matter as it is not something I choose to read about although I myself have dealt with the issue in my teenage years. It was a bit difficult and heavy to read about for me. Book pacing felt slow for the first half for me personally but picked up after that and the backstory was expanded upon.

El is a sweet, soft spoken character who unfortunately suffers in silence as we move back and forth from their past to their present. The group of people surrounding El in their present time are sweet and endearing and perfect at helping El stay grounded and present when with them.

I unfortunately related to the inner dialogue from El way more than I thought I was going to when going into this book but it also helped to show me that we aren't alone in our struggles and people have common threads way more than we think.

[CourtWhoVotes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read something that breaks your heart and you feel really close to? But then, you finish it and you sigh and feel a sense of lightness. Because everything you just read was so wonderfully written and you just know that whatever this author produces in the future will be just as amazing.

[Annie Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was profoundly impactful to me. As someone who experienced childhood abuse and domestic violence in both my childhood and adulthood, reading El’s vulnerability to abuse was heartbreaking. And yet, it felt like a mirror into my own experiences. I wanted so badly to protect El from the situation I could see playing out on the pages, a situation so familiar that I couldn’t put the book down.
It was such a beautiful moment when I made the connection between the cover and the mental sanctuary El found during her disassociation. I also really appreciated the ending and El stating that the didn’t need to fully remember the past in order to move forward. It was something I and, I can imagine, many others needed to hear.
Wonderful book full of heartbreaking moments.

[Madison Madej · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eliza Danver creates a world that is so painfully open and raw, that there is pretty much no way to make it through this without shedding a tear. El is the kind of character you want to root for from the start with the way El cares so deeply for every person in this story. That kind of love pulls you in completely.

One of the most beautiful things about art is the ability it has to take you on a journey in someone's shoes that aren’t your own. Eliza Danvers creates a world that sweeps you away and you feel every laugh, spark of joy, and every quiet moment of hope. You equally feel each moment of pain portrayed on the page until is just sort of sits in your chest and stays there.

What stayed with me most is how Eliza writes with such vulnerability about something that everyone has felt at least once before. The desire to belong, the need to be chosen despite what you are going through. By the very last pages all you really want to do is wrap past El in a hug and feel grateful that present El is choosing the cards.