Jennie Jacques Instagram – Recently, my mind has been plagued by the “the survival of consciousness after death.” I don’t know if I picked this from the shelf consciously or subconsciously, but I’m glad – #forgettingtime is centred around reincarnation; children remembering past lives & needing to resolve them; beautifully written, thought provoking. Noah, 4 years old, our protagonist, appears to remember extreme trauma from a previous life; he used to be called Tommy & he was murdered at 9 years old. His single mother, Janie, from Brooklyn NYC, is confronted re her sons unusual behaviour, when the school question his well being & lean toward involving social services. Janie steps up, attempting to find the right doctors to help her son, but when an anti-psychotic drug is prescribed (at such a young age) it doesn’t sit right & Janine wants more information. Lost, she researches intensely, online, stumbling across Dr Anderson… a man who has dedicated a huge part of his life to investigating children’s connection to potential “former lives.” Anderson has Aphasia – difficulty with language, speaking, reading – but remains determined to finish his book about the aforementioned, desperately seeking an American case to add to the many others he has duly collected from other countries. Weaved into Guskins fictional novel, there are real life excerpts from a non fictional book called “Life before life; extraordinary cases of children who remember past lives.” At times, to me, it felt abrupt moving from the fiction to non-fiction – but it was easy to follow & a clever “method” to reiterate that this obscure concept of a little boy remembering a past life, isn’t as far fetched as some might think. As humans, I guess it’s part & package of survival for the brain to constantly attempt to “predict” what’s next and plausibly explains why we often fear the “unknown.” In tarot, the Death card isn’t just about an ending; it’s rebirth, change & transformation. The themes in this book are exactly that. Tidy story structure, arguably a bit of a thriller with the murder mystery, good character arcs & it held my attention throughout… I’d recommend this book 4.5/5 💥#readersofinstagram #bookstagram