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I Remember You
When her child is lost, she ll do anything to find him...
Heike Lerner has a charmed life. A stay-at-home mother married to a prominent psychiatrist, it s a far cry from the damaged child she used to be. But her world is shaken when her four-year-old son befriends a little girl at a nearby lake, who vanishes under the water. And when Heike dives in after her, there s no sign of a body.
Desperate to discover what happened to the child, Heike seeks out Leo Dolan, a television writer exploring the paranormal , but finds herself caught between her controlling husband and the intense Dolan . Then her son disappears, and Heike's husband was the last to see him alive ...
Heike Lerner has a charmed life. A stay-at-home mother married to a prominent psychiatrist, it s a far cry from the damaged child she used to be. But her world is shaken when her four-year-old son befriends a little girl at a nearby lake, who vanishes under the water. And when Heike dives in after her, there s no sign of a body.
Desperate to discover what happened to the child, Heike seeks out Leo Dolan, a television writer exploring the paranormal , but finds herself caught between her controlling husband and the intense Dolan . Then her son disappears, and Heike's husband was the last to see him alive ...
480 pages, Paperback
First published March 27, 2018
15 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
Elisabeth de Mariaffi
9 books129 followersElisabeth de Mariaffi is the author of a new collection of short stories, How To Get Along With Women (Invisible Publishing, 2012).
Her poetry and short fiction have been widely published in magazines across Canada, and she's one of the wild minds behind the highly original Toronto Poetry Vendors, a small press that sells single poems by established Canadian poets through toonie vending machines.
Elisabeth works as Marketing Coordinator for Breakwater Books, and is currently based in St. John's, where she lives with the poet George Murray and their combined brood of four children -- making them CanLit's answer to the Brady Brunch.'
Her poetry and short fiction have been widely published in magazines across Canada, and she's one of the wild minds behind the highly original Toronto Poetry Vendors, a small press that sells single poems by established Canadian poets through toonie vending machines.
Elisabeth works as Marketing Coordinator for Breakwater Books, and is currently based in St. John's, where she lives with the poet George Murray and their combined brood of four children -- making them CanLit's answer to the Brady Brunch.'
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 3, 2018
I REMEMBER YOU by Elisabeth De Mariaffi is a haunting and truly unique story that shrouds you in a grim and tense atmosphere the entire time that you are reading it.
Heike Lerner has a troubled history but looking after her little boy is everything she wanted it to be and more. So when they see a girl disappear in the water, Heike tries to save her but there is no sign that she ever existed. Desperate to uncover the truth, Heike decides to investigate further with the help of Leo and against her husband's wishes. But things are only going to get worse for Heike when her own child disappears too ...
Troubled, traumatised, and scared, Heike is one of those characters that you are never sure where you really stand with her. I don't want to give away too much of the plot as I don't want to spoil it for anyone but there is a dark, mystical element to the whole story that left me entranced and uncomfortable at the same time.
I REMEMBER YOU by Elisabeth De Mariaffi was different from what I expected but in a good way. The writing is unconventional, the plotline distinctive, and overall I found it to be a very solid story.
*I voluntarily reviewed this book from the Publisher
Heike Lerner has a troubled history but looking after her little boy is everything she wanted it to be and more. So when they see a girl disappear in the water, Heike tries to save her but there is no sign that she ever existed. Desperate to uncover the truth, Heike decides to investigate further with the help of Leo and against her husband's wishes. But things are only going to get worse for Heike when her own child disappears too ...
Troubled, traumatised, and scared, Heike is one of those characters that you are never sure where you really stand with her. I don't want to give away too much of the plot as I don't want to spoil it for anyone but there is a dark, mystical element to the whole story that left me entranced and uncomfortable at the same time.
I REMEMBER YOU by Elisabeth De Mariaffi was different from what I expected but in a good way. The writing is unconventional, the plotline distinctive, and overall I found it to be a very solid story.
*I voluntarily reviewed this book from the Publisher
April 7, 2018
A huge thank you to Titan Books for sending me an ARC of this book for review!
This was such a haunting and compelling read, it scared me and fascinated me at the same time. The writing was very different to what I normally read, it wasn’t what I was expecting but I soon found myself enjoying it. I was immersed in the story and couldn’t put the book down.
The start was really intense and grim, it’s opens in 1945 and Heike is all alone and she is dodging soldiers as she attempts to escape from the world of war she lives in. It paints a very vivd and powerful picture of what it feels like to be all alone in such a horrible place. She witnesses such tragic things and it just sets the atmosphere for the rest of the story. You know right away that this is going to be a very uncanny story.
After the opening paragraph, the story fasts forward to 1956 and shows Heike in her new life. She lives a very charmed life, she has a husband and a four year old son. She has come a long way from the girl you are introduced to at the start. The author paints a picture perfect life for Heike but then cracks start to show. Slowly, slowly the perfect life Heike has starts to unravel and you end up on a rollercoaster ride. There’s a lot of creepy scenes and when I was reading it alone at night, I actually felt scared. The writing was so haunting, I felt like I was pulled right into the story and was right there with Heike.
I actually got goosebumps when the little girl vanishes under the water of a nearby lake. I had no clue what had happened and it really started to mess with my head. I loved how twisty the story was and how psychological it was. The story really takes off when Heike’s son goes missing and she is determined to find him. I didn’t have a clue what had happened to her son and what was going to happen next, I was in the dark the whole time. It kept surprising me and I loved it!
Heike is a very unusual character, she seems so unsure of herself most of the time and she lets her husband tell her what to do a lot. She has great character development and by the end of the book, she is unrecognisable. She becomes stronger and more determined to solve this mystery. I felt bad for her but by the end I was happy with how far she had come and how she ended up conquering her controlling husband.
As you can probably tell I did not like her husband Eric. He is very controlling and dominating. He dictates what Heike wears, where she goes and what she does. I really didn’t like him because when she was anxious or afraid and tried to seek comfort from him, he just completely belittled her and crushed her into a pulp. The ending though was so unexpected, it was like they had switched roles.
This is one of those books where the plot is a slow burner and then everything just completely explodes at the ending. The ending took me completely by surprise, I was left with my jaw hanging open. Considering it is a psychological thriller that messes with your head, I probably should have seen it coming but I didn’t. I couldn’t believe it at first and I had to let it sink in a bit. It was a very good ending and I loved how the author took me by surprise!
Overall, this was a very mysterious and thrilling story. It’s different to other thrillers I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. It literally gave me chills and made me regret reading it in the dark. I loved how it focused on mental health and how the author incorporated that into this twisty thriller. It was so strangely written but in a good way because I found it hard to put down. It took me by complete surprise and I really enjoyed it!
This was such a haunting and compelling read, it scared me and fascinated me at the same time. The writing was very different to what I normally read, it wasn’t what I was expecting but I soon found myself enjoying it. I was immersed in the story and couldn’t put the book down.
The start was really intense and grim, it’s opens in 1945 and Heike is all alone and she is dodging soldiers as she attempts to escape from the world of war she lives in. It paints a very vivd and powerful picture of what it feels like to be all alone in such a horrible place. She witnesses such tragic things and it just sets the atmosphere for the rest of the story. You know right away that this is going to be a very uncanny story.
After the opening paragraph, the story fasts forward to 1956 and shows Heike in her new life. She lives a very charmed life, she has a husband and a four year old son. She has come a long way from the girl you are introduced to at the start. The author paints a picture perfect life for Heike but then cracks start to show. Slowly, slowly the perfect life Heike has starts to unravel and you end up on a rollercoaster ride. There’s a lot of creepy scenes and when I was reading it alone at night, I actually felt scared. The writing was so haunting, I felt like I was pulled right into the story and was right there with Heike.
I actually got goosebumps when the little girl vanishes under the water of a nearby lake. I had no clue what had happened and it really started to mess with my head. I loved how twisty the story was and how psychological it was. The story really takes off when Heike’s son goes missing and she is determined to find him. I didn’t have a clue what had happened to her son and what was going to happen next, I was in the dark the whole time. It kept surprising me and I loved it!
Heike is a very unusual character, she seems so unsure of herself most of the time and she lets her husband tell her what to do a lot. She has great character development and by the end of the book, she is unrecognisable. She becomes stronger and more determined to solve this mystery. I felt bad for her but by the end I was happy with how far she had come and how she ended up conquering her controlling husband.
As you can probably tell I did not like her husband Eric. He is very controlling and dominating. He dictates what Heike wears, where she goes and what she does. I really didn’t like him because when she was anxious or afraid and tried to seek comfort from him, he just completely belittled her and crushed her into a pulp. The ending though was so unexpected, it was like they had switched roles.
This is one of those books where the plot is a slow burner and then everything just completely explodes at the ending. The ending took me completely by surprise, I was left with my jaw hanging open. Considering it is a psychological thriller that messes with your head, I probably should have seen it coming but I didn’t. I couldn’t believe it at first and I had to let it sink in a bit. It was a very good ending and I loved how the author took me by surprise!
Overall, this was a very mysterious and thrilling story. It’s different to other thrillers I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. It literally gave me chills and made me regret reading it in the dark. I loved how it focused on mental health and how the author incorporated that into this twisty thriller. It was so strangely written but in a good way because I found it hard to put down. It took me by complete surprise and I really enjoyed it!
June 3, 2020
Set mainly in post WW2 America. Heiki has a charmed life. Stay-at-home mother married to a prominent psychiatrist, a far cry from the damaged child she used to be. But she is shaken when her son befriends a girl at a nearby lake, who vanishes. Caught between controlling husband & intense Leo Dolan, a tv writer exploring the paranormal, Heiki is desperate to find out what happened to the girl. Then her son disappears...How I loved this!! I absolutely adore Heiki, the protagonist. She is so beautifully crafted and multifaceted. The story has the kind of slow, descriptive, enveloping narrative I love. Very evocative and emotive. Not the one to choose if you want a fast paced punchy thriller, but if you like creepy and haunting you'll love it
April 13, 2019
Very dark
September 17, 2018
1950's: German lady is married to abusive American, may or may not see ghosts, breaks down when son disappears, skulks about the local asylum, hooks up with Rod Serling. I liked all the components of this dreamlike suspense novel. Too bad this British edition is marketed with a cover that is indistinguishable from any other common thriller, and under a different name than the superior Canadian edition: Hysteria
May 5, 2019
Boring and predictable. What’s wrong with using speech marks?!
October 23, 2021
It took half the long book to get to the menacing centre of what is a gripping idea. The controlling husband, ( or is he) the missing son ( never was) the tonics and experimental pills which ensure that Heike is never quite in the real world create a tension and a mystery that is compelling and the desire to find out more grows. It is well researched and quite scary in its implications… altering the mind of the suggestible - keeping someone in a state teetering on the edge of sanity for the sake of experimentation . Or is Eric just cruel and heartless??? His friend Leo is not much better… only sister Arden seems to show some compassion though it takes ages to get through the ‘Gatsby’ like sequences and even more ages to understand what is true and what is not.
February 23, 2022
I wasn’t expecting much given the review I’d read but right from the beginning, I was hooked. It had a creepy feel to it which built up as the book went on - was it a psychological thriller or a ghost story?
A satisfying ending to a great read.
A satisfying ending to a great read.
April 30, 2019
An incredibly boring book. I couldn't even finish it. It was so slow moving and there was nothing to the main characters at all. The title says I Remember You however i know i will forget this book
April 14, 2019
I wasn’t a fan of this book. Far too psychological for me and got a little confused
June 11, 2018
This book doesn’t make sense. Heike’s son is missing and the title says a mother will do anything to find her son. However, the story drags on and it goes off topic. She isn’t looking for her son but instead in another mans house assuming Eric has his Daniel. The part with the ghost girl also doesn’t make any sense as I don’t see what that has to do with the story apart from Daniel being missing. I didn’t finish this book because to be honest it was dragging on. Does anyone agree?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2018
A mother will do anything to find her child.
Heike Lerner has a troubled history, but her son is her lifeline, so when they see a child disappear under the water she tries to save her but there is no sign of her.
Troubled by the event, she and Leo decide to investigate what exactly happened but things get worse when her own child disappears.
What is happening? Can she find her beloved son?
This book was ok if a little contrived and Heike isn’t the most likeable character. The story overall was intriguing and dark and I had to keep going to the end which is always a good sign in a novel.
It offered a very different style of writing and storytelling that I haven’t come across in a while which all added to an alright and fairly good read.
Chester
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Heike Lerner has a troubled history, but her son is her lifeline, so when they see a child disappear under the water she tries to save her but there is no sign of her.
Troubled by the event, she and Leo decide to investigate what exactly happened but things get worse when her own child disappears.
What is happening? Can she find her beloved son?
This book was ok if a little contrived and Heike isn’t the most likeable character. The story overall was intriguing and dark and I had to keep going to the end which is always a good sign in a novel.
It offered a very different style of writing and storytelling that I haven’t come across in a while which all added to an alright and fairly good read.
Chester
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
September 16, 2018
I Remember You is a haunting and psychological thriller that follows the sheltered but troubling life of Heike, her psychologist husband Eric, and young boy Daniel. They seem to live almost in the middle of nowhere, and things just don't quite seem right within this family dynamic; until Heike stumbles upon a deserted house that looks like it's previous occupants left in a hurry - or just never came home. Things get stranger when Heike finds a little girl playing with Daniel one day by the lake, but then she mysteriously disappears under the water. What's more, Daniel himself goes missing - and Eric was the last to see him.
This book was totally not what I was expecting- it is technically a thriller, but I often found myself feeling like I was reading a paranormal or horror novel. It was so creepy and unsettling at times. I also didn't realise this was going to be set in the 1950s which gave an interesting twist, especially upon Eric's line of work in the field of psychology.
I personally didn't connect with the main character, but I know others have when reading this book. I felt sorry for her at times, but I don't think the writing did her true justice in order for me to fully understand and empathise with her.
I did find the ultimate plot twist predictable, and the ending was a little 'thrown in there', but overall it wasn't a bad read. I also didn't like the dialogue set up in this book - speech marks are not used but rather hyphens instead. As such, it made it a little difficult to decipher what was dialogue and what was narrative.
This book was totally not what I was expecting- it is technically a thriller, but I often found myself feeling like I was reading a paranormal or horror novel. It was so creepy and unsettling at times. I also didn't realise this was going to be set in the 1950s which gave an interesting twist, especially upon Eric's line of work in the field of psychology.
I personally didn't connect with the main character, but I know others have when reading this book. I felt sorry for her at times, but I don't think the writing did her true justice in order for me to fully understand and empathise with her.
I did find the ultimate plot twist predictable, and the ending was a little 'thrown in there', but overall it wasn't a bad read. I also didn't like the dialogue set up in this book - speech marks are not used but rather hyphens instead. As such, it made it a little difficult to decipher what was dialogue and what was narrative.
August 14, 2022
5 stars for me. Descriptive, emotive and creepy but a brilliant book. Nothing much came from Leo Dolan who was exploring the paranormal. No investigative insights to Heike’s experiences which I thought he would have found fascinating.
Eric the psychologist has his devious side and interestingly he thought he was helping with what he was doing
But I did enjoy this book immensely and the end turned everything on its head. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.
Eric the psychologist has his devious side and interestingly he thought he was helping with what he was doing
But I did enjoy this book immensely and the end turned everything on its head. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.
March 29, 2020
This twangs of paranormal and dark magic. I felt for Heike you can almost walk through her terror. I hated the control and almost constant threat to her.
I couldn’t put this down although it didn’t really grab me until about twenty or so pages in when I then just couldn’t stop!
There was some confusing bits but in the whole a great read!
I couldn’t put this down although it didn’t really grab me until about twenty or so pages in when I then just couldn’t stop!
There was some confusing bits but in the whole a great read!
January 17, 2022
The twist though...I love how psychological this story is. Although I got to admit I got confused a a lot of time because of the storyline, but I guess that's because since it's focused on one point of view. Got me question everything until the end.
May 4, 2018
Strange eerie and different took me quite a few chapters to get into it but an enjoyable read as the pace built up
July 25, 2018
Wonderfully written, kept me on edge....wanting to know more.Loved it,a special book to keep treasured.
August 28, 2018
A bit different than I expected - and the style is rather unusual - but I enjoyed the atmosphere and constant sense of disorientation and menace.
October 22, 2019
Quite a unique book, but slow and written in a strange style.
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January 27, 2022Gripping!!! Read this!!
March 26, 2023
I’ve decided to abandon this book for the time being. It’s just not agreeing with me: it is really colourless. However I never like to give up on a book so I will just put it aside until another time
August 15, 2023
Hard read
December 28, 2025
only got part way through- too jumpy
hard to understand what is actually happening
hard to understand what is actually happening
July 22, 2018
What a brilliant read, i was completely gripped towards the end of the book. I struggled at first but once i got in to it that was it. Story line was brilliant, never read a book like this before so it was all new to me. I am hoping that there is a follow up of this story with the same characters in it
May 2, 2018
A haunting, beautifully written book, with a corner-of-your-eye creepiness reminiscent of Susan Hill, Henry James, Sarah Waters. Set on Long Island, the dreamy party sequences reminded me of The Great Gatsby, deliciously lyrical. The sensational cover belies the subtle content. This psychological thriller slow-builds tension and there are some truly frightening scenes. If you shivered at The Little Stranger or Shutter Island, you’ll love this one.
Excellent.
Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews