A strange read. Psychiatrist Henry Byrd is contacted by a woman, Jane who has experienced strange symptoms. She recalls having seen him 20 years previously. Jane has an incredible memory - she remembers every detail of times and places. But now she's having periods of blackout where she's not aware of what is happening. Fear of the deadly virus, Nippa, that's reached America in 2018 is overwhelming her. All is not what it seems. Henry is captivated by Jane's case. This reads like a factual report rather than fiction and I was hooked. #netgalley #thestrangecaseofjaneo

I found this book interesting rather than compelling. It is written from two perspectives: a patient, Jane O, who despite having perfect recall, has been experiencing periods of prolonged amnesia; and the psychologist who is treating her and trying to understand what is going on. Although well researched, it reads at times like a fictional account of a psychologist’s medical record or case study. I’m not quite sure what to make of it

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A young woman, Jane O., arrives in a psychiatrist's office having been suffering a series of worrying episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations and an inexplicable sense of dread. As the psychiatrist struggles to solve the mystery of what is happening in Jane's mind, she suddenly goes missing, only to be found a day later, unconscious in a park, with no memory of what has happened to her. Are Jane's strange experiences related to the overwhelm of single motherhood, or long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago, who warns her of disaster ahead? Jane's symptoms will lead her psychiatrist to question everything he once thought he knew . . .

This is a very cleverly written book, I particularly enjoyed how the author broke up the book into sections, each part alternating between the story being told by the psychiatrist and the journal written by Jane. The writing style where the characters are speaking directly to you, like you were sat in a room with them telling the story, is also very involving to the reader.

The information from the two main characters, Jane and Dr Byrd, is cleverly filtered through the case notes from their conversations, to the diary entries Jane writes for her son, to document her movements. It is in the latter half of the book that this psychological thriller really picks up speed and takes a completely unexpected, unnerving, but truly captivating direction.

There is only so much I’m able to say in this review without ruining any twists, but it’s definitely a book that gets you thinking, questioning if you have it all figured out before reaching an unexpected conclusion - an ending that you will definitely want to discuss with others that have read it!

Whilst I read a lot of crime fiction this novel was slightly out of my comfort zone and I’ve never read anything like it before. The dual time narrative and dual narrator I’m used to, it is common, but when one was extremely unreliable it was a little more unsettling.
The novel concerns Dr Byrd, a psychiatric and his patient Jane. Both are lonely, single parents and unhappy without being able to admit it. Both have suffered loss and as the novel progresses the reader sees the impact that has had on them. Dr Byrd was a character that many, including myself, would empathise with. A young child, as well as a career which wasn’t straightforward and when Jane’s situation makes headlines the errors he made in his past came back to haunt him. Jane was, for me, a lot more difficult to understand. Because of my lack of understanding I’m still not sure a few weeks after finishing if I liked or trusted her.
Jane’s narrative is told by a series of letters to her young son Caleb. In them she explains what she feels, the loss she suffered when a friend committed suicide. The same friend she claims to have met years later who had advised her it wasn’t safe in New York. But as well as her incredible and quite worrying memory she also has blackouts where she can’t remember anything. She disappears and the police become involved which makes her situation a lot worse. They understandably don’t believe what she says, questioning and doubting what she tells them. When she tells the police and Dr Byrd certain memories they are proved to be fake, but could eerily a premonition of the future her situation became a lot more complex.
In many ways this was also a love story, a difficult relationship between the two and I wanted it to be a happy ending for both of them. The ending was special but I’d have been more convinced if the narrator was a different one. But I hope it was true.
I thought at one point I knew which way the novel was going but there were differences. To know more I would recommend reading it.

This was a fascinating book, ordinarily the rule of thumb is that authors research well, but as readers we don’t learn too much of that research. Not so in this case; the research is scattered throughout the book and it was all the more interesting for it

I found this book to be a really interesting and engaging read. It delivered a fascinating insight into a complex and possibly damaged young woman’s psyche, and taught me more about the complexities of human psychology and psychiatry.

The story is told through two voices , Dr Byrd is a psychiatrist who has started to treat Jane O, the second voice is from Jane‘s own perspective and told in diary form to her young son. She is brutally honest in her writing, desperate to explain herself to her son.

Jane has a condition which means she has perfect recall and her memory is infallible. This has proved to be a poisoned chalice as she can’t forget anything that has happened to her .

Jane goes to see Dr Byrd because she has been found in an amnesia state and can’t recall anything that has happened to her. She remembers meeting Dr Byrd twenty years previously and details the layout of his study to demonstrate her total recall. .
Dr Byrd’s own background is complex and possibly unreliable. As the story develops we find out more about his life and his personal interest in premonitions.
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The storyline captured my attention completely; the plot developments were brilliantly plotted and delivered. I could have read more , which is very rare for me to say!

I found this book to be fascinating and unusual. Written mainly from the perspective of Dr Byrd, a psychiatrist working with a young woman called Jane. Jane disappeared from her life and for a woman with a prodigious memory, she has no recollection. She also experienced a hallucination in the form of a conversation with a friend. The problem being that said friend died twenty years previously.

As Dr Byrd delves deeper into her mind he finds it impossible to diagnose any known disorder. He is fascinated by the concept of premonition and believes there is far more we don't understand about our brains and how they seemingly malfunction. Defying logic perhaps, he comes to believe that Jane may be entering not so much a dissociative fugue as a parallel one.

I found this to be such an interesting concept and I was enthralled throughout this brilliant book.

The Strange Case of Jane O is a unique and fiendishly clever book that manages to combine psychological thriller with a sprinkling of sci-fi in a way that challenges the reader but works so well.

The story centres around Jane O and is told from her point of view, in letters to her son Caleb, and through Jane’s psychiatrist Dr Byrd and his account of her very perplexing case.

It is one of those books that is hard to sum up without giving too much away but suffice to say it will have you questioning everything and everyone as you try to piece together the puzzle that is Jane’s mind. It is beautifully written, it is thought provoking and it will keep you on your toes - it is definitely different but I enjoyed it all the more as a result.

I loved this book. Despite it being a novel it read like non fiction plus I found the different ideas explored fascinating as well as the characters.

The Strange Case of Jane O is going to challenge you, and really make you think about all those memories that we lock away. As time passes do our memories change, become embellished or less than we originally experienced. What about what we experience on a daily basis, do we have times when we ‘float’ through life slightly detached from reality? Do we wonder how we got from one place to another but cannot remember the in between?

Using Dr Byrd, a psychiatrist and his patient Jane, Walker attempted to unlock these perceptions and thoughts. Sounds a bit heavy? Not at all, it’s was cleverly done, the individual voices of her characters brilliantly portraying each side of the story.

Dr Byrd, the widower, single parent, fascinated by Jane O and her presentation. Theories whirled in his mind, his confusion, his need to assign terminology, use science to diagnose and explain was fascinating. The trauma of grief, of past professional misconduct made him lonely and vulnerable.

Jane, a young single mother, a librarian, quiet, reserved, a loner, friendships always hard to form. The trauma of her one true friend committing suicide as a teenager followed her to present day, maybe the trigger for her vacant episodes? Jane’s first episode of memory loss short, the second three weeks, her parents, Dr Byrd and the police all involved in looking for her.

The connection between Byrd and Jane grew stronger, as if they needed each other, as if the loneliness they each experienced drew them together. I found it quite touching and poignant, and wondered where Walker would take us and them.

Jane’s final fugue episode was perhaps the most dramatic and traumatic, a culmination of a woman detached from all reality. You had to feel empathy and sorrow, admiration for Byrd’s persistent doggedness, or was it something else that bound him to her.

The final scenes were incredibly touching and highly charged, the reader left bereft at leaving the characters and the novel behind.

It was novel of superb narrative and exceptional characters that will stay will the reader long after the final page has been turned.

Thanks to NetGalley and Karen Thompson Walker for this ARC!

I was NOT expecting genre-bending in this book. I won’t say why, as a lot of the joy of reading this book lies in its unexpected twists, but I really enjoyed it.

I was really drawn to the premise of this book and eager to read. The story is told from two perspectives – Jane, who begins experiencing amnesia and hallucinations, and the psychiatrist she turns to after being found in a park with no memory of how she got there.

I found the mystery element engaging and intriguing, and I enjoyed how the story unfolded through the alternating perspectives of Jane and Dr. Byrd. However, the book ended up being quite different from what I had expected. It’s listed as literary and science fiction, but I also saw it tagged as a psychological thriller, which led me to anticipate a different kind of story. I was waiting for that element to emerge with each page turn. While it does have psychological and police procedural aspects, at its heart, it’s a story about memory, fate and love.

If you enjoy reflective, genre-blurring narratives, this could be one for you! Likewise, if you enjoy love stories but weren’t sure about this one based on the description, I’d recommend giving it a try.

Thank you to Manilla and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a cracking read. A delicious mix of so many genres - a suspense,a thriller, a love story and a sprinkle of sci fi/ psychological twitsts.
I didn't know what to expect or where this one was going and I loved that. Kept me turning pages way too late in the night. Recommend.

#Netgalley #Gifted

I’m a big fan of Karen Thompson Walker’s books; I loved both The Dreamers, and The Age of Miracles, so I had high hopes for her new novel, and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed.

Set in New York in 2018, we’re introduced to Jane O, via both her own diary entries, and the case notes of her psychiatrist Dr Henry Byrd. Jane went missing for a day, unintentionally leaving her young son in the care of crèche workers overnight. The next day Jane is found in a park, seemingly unharmed, with no recollection of where she’s been or what happened.

Dr. Byrd is perplexed by this short-term amnesia, and becomes more involved in Jane’s case in an effort to find a solution for this bizarre incident. Jane also has a form of autobiographical memory called hyperthymesia, so she can remember every tiny detail outside of these amnesiac breaks. Soon it happens again, this time Jane takes her son with her, and with more serious consequences.

This is really just the bare bones of this storyline; to say more would be revealing too much, and I feel this is one you need to go into with a clear and open mind!
One thing I love about this author is how her books have an almost dream-like quality but are also fully grounded in reality. It feels a bit mind-bending at times, in the best possible way.
I spent the book guessing as to what was happening, but of course, at the end, Thompson Walker pieces it all together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle. Very satisfying!

I really enjoyed this neat little piece of sci-fi/mystery/speculative fiction.
At times it has similar vibes to Emily St. John Mandel’s writing; another author I love.
This is a slower burn. Take your time with it and you’ll be rewarded with a thought-provoking and thoughtful story, that you’ll be pondering for some time after you finish it. Recommend!

With many thanks @netgalley and @bonnierbooks_uk for my early ebook copy. All opinions are my own, as always. #TheStrangeCaseOfJaneO is available to buy now.

I really liked that the story was told from two separate points of view - Jane who is writing to her baby son Caleb and Dr Henry Byrd who is a psychiatrist and Jane becomes his patient.

Jane comes into the office of Henry and insists they met twenty years ago when she came to see him. She tells him that something has happened but doesn’t seem to want to give too many details. She leaves the office and Henry doesn’t see her for a while until she is found in a park with no memory of how she got there. Henry is intrigued and wants to see more of Jane and help her piece everything together. Jane can’t remember anything about the blackout and her baby son was left at nursery and she can’t find any memory of the episode at all.

Henry works with Jane and quickly establishes that she has an amazing memory and can remember every detail of his office from twenty years previously but her memory totally failed her in relation to the blackout. Jane suffers another, much longer, blackout and this time she takes her son with her.

Henry thinks she is suffering from some sort of disassociative condition and has to convince the police that Jane isn’t pretending that she can’t remember anything.

Henry starts to think he may feel more for Jane than he should but can’t stop himself from digging more into her background and her condition.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It was a book full of twists and surprises and i enjoyed it.

This is quite a tough book to review. I read it as part of an online book club and loved the title and blurb of the book. I thought it was going to be a mystery with a twist which it was, it not a twist that I had imagined

It is obviously centred around the life of Jane O and her son, her psychiatrist Dr Byrd and her parents. Jane goes missing and when she returns has no recollection of anything from the time she was missing. This wouldn’t be unusual for most people but Jane has an incredible memory and can remember, with clarity, what happened on any given day at a particular time.

The. Ok started brilliantly, a typical mystery with several characters and an unexplained happening. Although the rest of the book was really interesting, it read more like a text book than a novel which slightly took the shine off it for me. The ending was ok, for a text/non-fiction book but somewhat lacking for a novel.

I will rate this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ because it was incredibly interesting but I hadn’t chosen this to “learn” anything

An intriguing and complex novel, which follows Jane O. through her psychiatrist's patient notes and her own letters to her young son.

Jane has blackouts, hallucinations and a feeling of fear and dread, after giving birth to her son. Surely more than post-natal depression? Dr. Byrd, her psychiatrist, seems equally baffled and there is a slight sense of the supernatural when Jane seems to have contact with his deceased wife and memories that seem impossible for her to have.

The writing is quite clinical, due to the nature of the story being told through medical notes and this gives a creepy vibe which fits the story perfectly. There were some unresolved elements to the story which I'm undecided on in terms of whether I need the answer or can draw my own conclusion, so there's food for thought at the end of the book.

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Karen Thompson Walker and Bonnier for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I previously read and enjoyed The Dreamers by the same author when I read it a while back so I was intrigued to see what she had in store for me this time. And I wasn't disappointed.
We start with a woman, Jane, who, during her first year of motherhood starts to suffer from strange episodes. The first one being apparent when she fails to collect her son from nursery, and disappears, only to be found a day later unconscious in a park with no memory of what happened to her.
Her story is told through the journals of her psychiatrist Henry Byrd initially, with later additions in the form of letters to her son Caleb. And, to be honest, apart from teasing you with the addition of a character from Jane's past who died a fair few years ago, I am saying nothing more about the plot of this book. In fact, my advise to you would be to go in as cold and blind as you can as discover all the mind-bending delights this book has to offer in your own time, as the author intended...
Suffice to say that even a couple of weeks after finishing it, I am still thinking about it and gagging to get my hands on the Audiobook when it is released so I can revisit it. I don't re-read, I don't have the luxury of time to do so, but I do re-listen certain books. I also, about half way through, completely gave up trying to work out what was going on. I think I had a better time once I made the decision to just go with the flow.
Characterisation, as you might expect, is a bit tricky to talk about, especially that of Jane who is one of the most complex characters I have come across in a while. But again, you need to meet her as the author intends. Dr Byrd is also a funny fish, not a professional as he should be, and his connection to Jane is intriguing.
I would say that reading this book is kinda like playing a game of chess. There is a lot of positional play for the most of the book, setting the scene, introducing certain topics and other characters, until eventually everything is in place for the final denouement which both shocked and satisfied. I say that even though it also left me pondering some...
It also intrigued me so much, and I connected (eventually) with Jane so well, that I was actually rather sad to have to say goodbye to her at the end. I would absolutely love to reconnect with her in a future book as I wholeheartedly believe she has much more to give.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was a different kind of book to read! I liked the dual perspectives, from Jane and Dr Byrd.

It wasn't what I was expecting but definitely kept my interest. I'd say it's psychological, with a little bit of sci-fi mixed in.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Strange Case of Jane O
By Karen Thompson Walker

A brief recap of my long, gushing and somehow lost earlier review.

A fascinating exploration of memory and how it compares to reality. The novel alternates between the clinical notes of Jane's psychiatrist told in objective, analytical style, and Jane's letters to her young son which offer a more emotional, intimate perspective of her perplexing condition and her past experiences. There are many similarities between the two narratives, but also quite a few differences, some subtle, some, not so subtle, and through these variations we are invited to speculate on how reliable either narrative is.

This novel touches on so many ways that memory can be edited, warped, thwarted and revised, blurring the lines between personal truth and reality. I love stories that contain psychological and psychiatric study and this one captured my imagination from the first page. Even the metaphysical element somehow gave me pause for thought.

A suspenseful and compelling read that delivers an emotional and intellectual punch.

Publication Date: 6th March 2025
Thanks to #Netgalley and ##BonnierBooks for providing an eGalley for review purposes