Imagine finding yourself wandering by the side of the road, barefoot, and not remembering how you got there. You're covered in blood and scratches and know something is not right but you can't remember what. Then, on top of that, you have a cop who is asking questions that go along the lines of this:
Answer: I don't know.
Question: What's your name?
Answer: I don't know.
Question: How old are you?
Answer: I don't know.
Question: What are your parent's names?
Answer: ...I don't know.
You have no idea who you are, who you were, and you have no idea how you ended up where you were found. This is what happened to Samantha. She found herself stumbling on the side of the road without any shoes on, covered in scratches and blood, and doesn't know a thing about herself.
She has to learn things about herself that she should know. For example, her parents and brother, or her boyfriend that she's been with for the past four years. Samantha desperately wants to remember who she was and what she was like. To add on to her trying to remember who she is, she's trying to recall the events that led to her and her friend's, Cassie, disappearance. The detective keeps asking the same questions over and over again, and seemingly isn't taking "I can't remember" as an answer to his questions.
Scott, her brother, and his friend, Carson, become her best friends while she's trying to remember who she is. They tell her the things she's done, the people who she was supposedly best friends with, and how she was with her boyfriend, Del. But the more Samantha learns about who she was, the more she realizes she doesn't want to become that again. In fact, she finds that she can't stand her circle of previous friends and boyfriend. Not only that, but she also finds herself utterly attracted to Carson, who displays the same affections towards her.
On the outside, Samantha seems to be recovering. On the inside, however, she's full of anxiety and confusion. She doesn't understand why she continues to receive these ominous notes, why she is seeing shadow figures while she is visiting the cliffs, or why no one wants to talk about Cassie willingly. Detective Ramirez is still pressing Samantha for details, and, as time goes on and Cassie's body turns up, Samantha becomes the number one suspect to him. This only puts more stress on Samantha, leaving her swimming in her own despair.
Samantha has fallen down the social ladder when she remembered what happened seven months earlier with her now ex-boyfriend, Del. The only people she feels she can trust now is her brother, Carson (who is now her boyfriend and rock), and Julie, her brother's girlfriend. Samantha doesn't seem to mind that she doesn't have all the rich kids behind her. She just wanted to feel normal, and her small group of friends gave her that.
After it is revealed that the notes were in her own handwriting, Samantha's parents take her to a therapist who tells her that the shadow man is hallucinations brought on by stress and anxiety. She is put on medication to control her panic attacks. This doesn't stop her memories from resurfacing, though.
Samantha remembers who killed her friend, and who left her to die. When the truth comes out, her mother doesn't care about appearances and her life is changed in different ways than she could have ever imagined.
I really enjoyed "Don't Look Back." I have never enjoyed mysteries, but this novel didn't come across as a mystery. It was more of a girl who wanted to know what happened, who was relearning things about herself, and was experiencing things that would bring her family down on the social latter. It's a book about a teenage girl experiencing teenage girl things. Most mysteries that I've read focus on the murder victim. Not many focus on the living. This book does. It also includes aspects such as mental illness that not many books include. It made it feel more real, which is what readers want. We want a book that makes us feel, and "Don't Look Back" makes the reader feel many different feelings.
It's definitely a book that I would suggest to anyone who wants to read something different and fairly undiscovered.
