Before You Knew My Name – Jacqueline Bublitz

“I think you generally experience memories from the outside in, like your old life is a movie you once starred in…” ~ 

As I start this review, my absolute only regret is that I did not get to this book sooner…. 

Alice Lee & Ruby Jones are two women, one from Wisconsin – the other from Australia – who arrive to New York City on the same chilly March day.  Alice, a budding teen-aged artist from Wisconsin, is running from an exploitative relationship, while Ruby is looking to forget the past and re-invent her life after being the ‘other woman’, watching her lover prepare for his wedding to someone else.  From the start, the women are connected spiritually somehow, as Alice will explain, but they have never met – not until Ruby finds Alice’s discarded, injured body by the river one morning…

It’s a stormy morning when Ruby, fresh off a fitful night of anger, decides to brave the weather for a run. As she takes a detour by the river, she catches a glimpse of purple, and then yellow by the rocks, being buffeted by waves at the river’s edge.  Traumatized by her discovery, a nameless girl left to die, Ruby finds herself irrevocably tied to Jane Doe and is obsessed with discovering all she can about the young victim. 

Told from the perspective of Alice after her death – who desperately wants to be remembered – the reader slowly unravels the stories of both women, the traumas that lead them to New York, the inexplicable ties to one another they both have, and the eventual discovery of Jane Doe’s true identity, and how she came to be found by the river….  

This book was absolutely incredible and is by far the best book I’ve read this year…. And it will resonate with me for a long time to come…  The prose is…almost lyrical…it is so beautifully written, with dozens of lines giving pause as they are thought provoking standalone quotes, with my favorite being the header to this review.  A heartbreakingly sad, yet amazing read that you cannot miss…  

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Atria Books in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!