Audiobook Review: Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham

Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Macmillan Audio (August 26, 2025)

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Author Information: Website

Narrators: Helen Laser, Karissa Vacker

Stacy Willingham has made a name for herself by writing twisty atmospheric thrillers, and her latest, Forget Me Not, hits a lot of the things I usually enjoy—and with a Southern flair to boot. But while this audiobook was immersive and moody, it ended up being a mixed bag for me.

The story follows Claire, an investigative journalist in New York who has recently struck it out on her own, but things haven’t exactly gone to plan. Feeling like she’s just spinning her wheels, Claire is in the middle of trying to figure out her next move when she gets an unexpected call. It turns out her mother has taken a nasty fall and may need someone to help care for her for the next little while, so with little to keep her in the city, Claire decides to return to her hometown in South Carolina after many years of being away.

But there’s a reason why Claire has stayed away for so long. This place where she grew up holds nothing by bad memories, ever since her older sister Natalie vanished more than twenty years ago. Even though an arrest was made for her murder, many questions remained, especially since a body was never found. Now back in town, Claire is forced to confront all the things that remind her of that terrible time, including the nearby Galloway Farm, an old vineyard where Natalie worked just before her death. Driven by a sudden desire to feel closer to her late sister (and a desperate need for funds), Claire impulsively agrees to take a job there as a seasonal worker, hoping the fresh air will help clear her head. But the discovery of a dusty diary hidden away in the guesthouse where she is staying changes everything, when Claire realizes that its owner and content may hint at secrets that lead back to Natalie.

There are a lot of things about this book that worked, especially the audiobook edition which strongly emphasized the book’s mysterious atmosphere and the languid, halcyon vibes of the South. Galloway Farm might look picture perfect on the surface—acres of flavorful grapes growing on the sunbaked land—but the sense of isolation and the detachment of the vineyard owners make it clear there’s something very wrong going on underneath.

There’s also a creative approach happening here with the novel’s structure. Interspersed with Claire’s present-day narration are excerpts from the diary she’s found, but rather than presenting these entries verbatim, Willingham stylizes them as a separate timeline and narrative. This change makes it so that the writer of the diary pages feels more present and alive rather than a distant echo from the past, creating the sense that we’re witnessing events as they happen rather than piecing them together after the fact.

But here’s the major area where I felt the book faltered: pacing. For nearly half the book, almost nothing happens. The setup is way too drawn out as Claire struggles with her failing career, her strained relationship with her mother, then all of her uncomfortable feelings about being home. Even after she settles into life at the vineyard, the story takes a while to gain momentum as she slowly pieces together the puzzle of the diary and why it matters. Compared to the author’s previous books, there just doesn’t seem to be all that much here to drive a thriller, making the story feel unusually slow.

Without giving too much away, the ending was also very confusing, especially when trying to figure out the timeline and the tangled web of relationships. The story might have made up for its slow start with a climax packed full of shocking revelations, but it came all at once and at the cost of coherence. Because of certain elements in the mystery, making the connections was challenging, and the sheer density of the events and people involved made it harder to see how everything tied together.

Ultimately, Forget Me Not is a slow-burn thriller that might be a little too slow burning, which at times will test patience and strain believability. That said, it does well at setting the mood and may work for readers who enjoy suspense with Southern Gothic vibes. While I wouldn’t say this was anywhere close to Stacy Willingham’s best (for that, look to A Flick in the Dark) there is still plenty to appreciate here, especially if you check out the audiobook. A special note on the narrators: Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker both did an excellent job bringing the story and its characters to life, with inflections that made the dialogue feel engaging and natural. Even when the pacing lags, their performances kept me engaged, making this format a strong way to experience this book.