2024 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Mystery (nominee)
"A heartbreaking story of female friendship, first love, and betrayal, Rebecca McKanna explodes onto the thriller scene. Absolutely phenomenal!" —New York Times bestselling author Julie Clark
We never remember the dead girls. We never forget the killers.
Twelve years ago, 18-year-old University of Iowa freshman Abby Hartmann disappeared. Now, Jon Allan Blue, the serial killer suspected of her murder, is about to be executed. Abby's best friends, Bree and Chelsea, watch as Abby's memory is unearthed and overshadowed by Blue and his flashier crimes. The friends, estranged in the wake of Abby's disappearance, and suffering from years of unvoiced resentments, must reunite when a high-profile podcast dedicates its next season to Blue's murders.
Tense and introspective, for readers of Megan Goldin and Heather Gudenkauf, Don't Forget the Girl is an astonishing debut thriller that mines the complexities of friendship and the secrets between us that we may take to the grave.
Genre: Mystery
We never remember the dead girls. We never forget the killers.
Twelve years ago, 18-year-old University of Iowa freshman Abby Hartmann disappeared. Now, Jon Allan Blue, the serial killer suspected of her murder, is about to be executed. Abby's best friends, Bree and Chelsea, watch as Abby's memory is unearthed and overshadowed by Blue and his flashier crimes. The friends, estranged in the wake of Abby's disappearance, and suffering from years of unvoiced resentments, must reunite when a high-profile podcast dedicates its next season to Blue's murders.
Tense and introspective, for readers of Megan Goldin and Heather Gudenkauf, Don't Forget the Girl is an astonishing debut thriller that mines the complexities of friendship and the secrets between us that we may take to the grave.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"A heartbreaking story of female friendship, first love, and betrayal, Rebecca McKanna explodes onto the thriller scene with her debut, Don't Forget the Girl. Absolutely phenomenal!" - Julie Clark
"Absorbing and unforgettable, Don't Forget the Girl is an extraordinary debut fueled by complex rifts and haunting regrets. In McKanna's deft hands, love and trauma are two ends of an equally weighted cudgel, always looming, hungry to do its work." - Katie Lattari
"Be ready to be wowed by McKanna's deft hand, which holds a mirror up to a society that glamorizes the killer but too often forgets about the girl who was lost and the people who loved her. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Laura Lippman will love this haunting and heartbreaking literary thriller." - Natalie Lund
"This is the kind of book I crave. It's an insightful, courageous exploration of friendship, sexuality, reputation, and self-deceit... AND it's a mystery novel I could not put down. Rebecca McKanna has written a nearly perfect subversion of the true crime genre... I cannot wait to press Don't Forget the Girl into the hands of all my friends." - Kate Reed Petty
"McKanna punctuates the 'girl' thriller phenomenon and punctures our societal fascination with true crime with a page-turner that gives voice to the victim. A talented new voice in crime fiction." - Lori Rader-Day
"Rebecca McKanna has made a thorough study of the true crime zeitgeist: she knows our hunger for gory details, our ghoulish speculation; she knows all the tropes of podcasts and Netflix shows. In her smart, layered debut, she takes all this and asks us: But what of the bereaved? What do they hold to when the world makes a spectacle of their loss, turning the flawed, complex, funny person they loved into a scary show to binge? The result is a page-turner that's also a fresh story of forgiveness, memory, and hope. McKanna shows us past the sensationalization of the brutal and untimely death of a pretty girl to something deeper: a love story between three friends." - Kelsey Ronan
"Don't Forget the Girl has everything you'd want in a genuine literary thriller: clear and beautiful writing, complicated and nuanced characters, clever and unexpected turns in form and plot, and a ripped-from-the-headlines story at the core that makes you slow down and race ahead all at once, forward to a murderer's execution and backward to his unthinkable acts and their devastating shock waves. Rebecca McKanna has written a vivid, propulsive, sensational debut that's both an indictment of our violent and toxic culture and a celebration of women and survivors and the essential role of collective memory in bringing about change." - Porter Shreve
"Absorbing and unforgettable, Don't Forget the Girl is an extraordinary debut fueled by complex rifts and haunting regrets. In McKanna's deft hands, love and trauma are two ends of an equally weighted cudgel, always looming, hungry to do its work." - Katie Lattari
"Be ready to be wowed by McKanna's deft hand, which holds a mirror up to a society that glamorizes the killer but too often forgets about the girl who was lost and the people who loved her. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Laura Lippman will love this haunting and heartbreaking literary thriller." - Natalie Lund
"This is the kind of book I crave. It's an insightful, courageous exploration of friendship, sexuality, reputation, and self-deceit... AND it's a mystery novel I could not put down. Rebecca McKanna has written a nearly perfect subversion of the true crime genre... I cannot wait to press Don't Forget the Girl into the hands of all my friends." - Kate Reed Petty
"McKanna punctuates the 'girl' thriller phenomenon and punctures our societal fascination with true crime with a page-turner that gives voice to the victim. A talented new voice in crime fiction." - Lori Rader-Day
"Rebecca McKanna has made a thorough study of the true crime zeitgeist: she knows our hunger for gory details, our ghoulish speculation; she knows all the tropes of podcasts and Netflix shows. In her smart, layered debut, she takes all this and asks us: But what of the bereaved? What do they hold to when the world makes a spectacle of their loss, turning the flawed, complex, funny person they loved into a scary show to binge? The result is a page-turner that's also a fresh story of forgiveness, memory, and hope. McKanna shows us past the sensationalization of the brutal and untimely death of a pretty girl to something deeper: a love story between three friends." - Kelsey Ronan
"Don't Forget the Girl has everything you'd want in a genuine literary thriller: clear and beautiful writing, complicated and nuanced characters, clever and unexpected turns in form and plot, and a ripped-from-the-headlines story at the core that makes you slow down and race ahead all at once, forward to a murderer's execution and backward to his unthinkable acts and their devastating shock waves. Rebecca McKanna has written a vivid, propulsive, sensational debut that's both an indictment of our violent and toxic culture and a celebration of women and survivors and the essential role of collective memory in bringing about change." - Porter Shreve
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Rebecca McKanna's Don't Forget the Girl