What We Forgot To Bury - Marin Montgomery - A Short Summary & Review

What We Forgot To Bury - Marin Montgomery - A Short Summary & Review

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review

A girl meets the maker of her father's prison sentence, who, in turn, has a dark agenda of her own.

 A short summary:

After her father’s imprisonment shattered their family, a young woman comes face-to-face with the woman responsible for his conviction. What begins as a chance encounter quickly reveals itself to be something far more unsettling. The architect of her father’s downfall carries her own secrets, motivations, and a carefully concealed agenda, one that refuses to stay buried.

As their lives become entangled, the story peels back layers of trauma, obsession, and moral compromise. Past wrongs surface, identities fracture, and the line between victim and villain grows disturbingly thin. What We Forgot to Bury is less about justice than it is about what happens when unresolved pain is allowed to fester.

My favorite quote from the book:

"It's always better to have someone owe you a favor, especially when it's an enemy."

-Marin Montgomery, What We Forgot to Bury

Questions to ponder while reading:

Should you always trust your parents?

Do you have any ulterior motives?

My review:

This novel is unsettling in the best and worst ways.

Marin Montgomery populates this story with deeply flawed, damaged people, each shaped by systems that too often fail the vulnerable. It’s disturbing, compulsive reading: the kind of book you don’t exactly enjoy, but can’t put down either.

Beneath the psychological thriller surface lies a sharp social critique, particularly of the foster care system and the cycles of trauma it can perpetuate. The story forces uncomfortable questions about responsibility, retribution, and how much of our past we are ever truly able to escape.

So many unstable minds, so little time.
Disturbing, yes, but undeniably engrossing.

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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

✨ #TakeTheBackRoads

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