How about a thriller where the unreliable memory is weaponized? 'The Other Mrs. Miller' by Allison Dickson. The protagonist, Phoebe, is in a depressive stupor, drinking and spying on her neighbors. When a shocking event happens, she's not sure if she saw it, dreamed it, or caused it. Her vulnerability makes her a target for someone who exploits that foggy memory. It’s a slick, modern thriller that plays with perception in a suburban setting.
Want something that feels like a bad dream? 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' by Iain Reid. The entire narrative is steeped in dread and uncertainty. The female protagonist's memories of her relationship feel off, like details are slipping or being rewritten as the story progresses. It’s a short, deeply unsettling read where the unreliability is the whole point. Don't read the Goodreads spoilers! The ambiguity is the best part.
A more philosophical take is 'The Buried Giant' by Kazuo Ishiguro. In a post-Arthurian Britain, an elderly couple sets out on a journey through a land shrouded in a mist that causes collective amnesia. The novel asks whether forgetting, even of great trauma, is sometimes necessary for peace. The 'unreliable memory' here is a literal, magical force affecting everyone. The literary fiction discussions on Goodreads for this one are deep and thoughtful.
2026-07-24 00:55:05
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関連書籍
The Memory Trial
Washing Wheat
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After my best friend Lily Warren was assaulted, she took her own life.
I was the only person who knew who had done it.
And I was the one who helped cover for him.
When Lily's mother knelt at my feet, begging me to tell the truth, I turned away with a cold face.
When the people in town called me heartless and smashed my door, I let my dog, Buddy, attack them without hesitation.
Ten years later, I was dying.
My long-lost best friend, Claire Sutton, returned as the wealthiest woman in the country. The first thing she did was drag me onto the memory-trial platform normally reserved for death-row prisoners.
"Rachel Vale, you disgusting animal. You protected a rapist. Lily and I were blind to ever call you our friend!
"Lily has been dead for ten years, and you let her attacker walk free for ten years!
"Today, I'm going to use the memory extractor I developed to see exactly who you've been protecting!"
But when the real culprit appeared before everyone, Claire Sutton collapsed on the spot.
She could barely stay on her knees.
His Forgotten Love Returns: The Return of the Ex-wife
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For three years, Rachel lived a double life—his wife in private, his secretary in public.
Bound to billionaire Slade Pierce by a secret marriage contract, she followed two impossible rules: no children, no falling in love.
She broke them both.
With the contract’s final days ticking away, Rachel discovered she was pregnant. Afraid of shattering Slade’s trust and certain he was meant to marry another, she signed the divorce papers and vanished, determined to protect her unborn children from a love she believed was never real.
Then fate intervened.
A tragic accident stole her memories, her name, her life. To the world and to Slade, Rachel was dead.
Years later, Slade still lives with her ghost. He’s built an empire, but his heart never healed. Until the day he sees her again—alive, breathing, and looking at him like he’s a stranger.
Rachel doesn’t remember the secret marriage. She doesn’t remember the nights they shared or the promises they broke. Yet something deep inside her stirs whenever he’s near, a connection she can’t explain, a pain she doesn’t understand.
As fragments of the past begin to surface, so do the secrets that tore them apart.
Will she remember the man who never stopped loving her?
Can love survive even when memory is gone,
or is fate about to take her away all over again?
You’re my wife. You’re supposed to be mine.”
But Damian Blackwood doesn’t remember Elena Rivers-not the woman he married, not the life they shared.
After a devastating accident, the ruthless billionaire wakes with no memory of their marriage or the secrets that bind them. Elena is left fighting for her family’s survival, a fragile love, and the truth hidden in Damian’s forgotten past.
“Why should I trust you… when I don’t even know who you are?” Damian’s voice is cold, but beneath it lies a flicker of something lost.
In a world where power and betrayal collide, can Elena reclaim the man who has forgotten her? Or will their shattered past destroy them both before a second chance can begin?
The Billionaire’s Lost Memory - a gripping tale of love, loss, and redemption.
My husband, Fabian Hunt, is a neurologist.
To spend the rest of his life with his colleague, Yelena Walker, he's been working day and night in the lab for the last three months. Finally, he succeeds in developing an experimental drug that can erase memories.
I happen to see his tablet one day. He forgets to log out of his account, so I go through his chat history.
Yelena: "Fabe, when can we finally be together without hiding?"
Fabian: "Darling, just wait a little longer. Once I switch Anya's vitamin pills for the experimental drug, she'll lose her memory. After that, she'll ask for a divorce herself, and I won't have to take any blame."
In an instant, I feel a chill run down my spine. So, he's willing to erase my memories of our time together just to get me to leave him.
Since that's the case, I'll give the adulterous pair what they want.
But when I start to forget one anniversary after another, Fabian asks me in a panic, "Anya, how can you forget everything about me?"
After a tragic accident erases her memory of the last five years — including her marriage — a woman wakes up believing she’s still engaged to the man she loved in college… not the husband who would die for her.
But what if she fell in love with her husband for a reason she no longer remembers?
And what if the truth about their love story is darker than she thinks?
To find the missing fake heiress, my family forced me to undergo a memory extraction.
They were convinced that I had bullied her for the past three years and driven her to run away.
I gave a bitter smile and let them continue.
As the memories surfaced one after another, the truth became clear. I was the one who had been bullied all along.
My parents, overcome with guilt, clutched my hands so tightly they nearly fainted.
My brother’s eyes were bloodshot, his teeth grinding until he drew blood.
In their arms, I looked up in confusion and asked softly, “Who are you?”
I'd suggest 'The It Girl' by Ruth Ware. It's set partly in the present and partly in flashbacks to Oxford University. The protagonist, Hannah, is haunted by her memory of discovering her vibrant roommate's body and later testifying against the man convicted. A decade later, new information surfaces, making her question every single detail she thought she remembered about that night and the people involved. The book brilliantly captures how memory solidifies around trauma and how doubt can completely dismantle a person's sense of the past.
What's fascinating about the 'Kay Scarpetta' series by Patricia Cornwell is how the unreliability creeps in over time. In the early books, Scarpetta is a supremely competent, rational medical examiner. But as the series progresses, through personal betrayals, professional sabotage, and trauma, her worldview becomes increasingly paranoid and fragmented.
Her memories of her niece Lucy, of her husband Benton, and of key cases are constantly being challenged by new revelations. By the later books, you question her interpretations of events almost as much as she does. It's a long-form character study in how a sharp mind can be worn down, making its recall and conclusions less a forensic tool and more a symptom of damage.
What about games? Not a novel, obviously, but 'What Remains of Edith Finch' is an interactive story that's entirely about exploring the fragmented, fantastical memories of a cursed family. Each memory is a mini-game with its own rules, showing how we mythologize our past. It's a brilliant piece of storytelling that uses its medium to simulate how memory feels—interactive, immersive, and deeply subjective. Just a thought!
I keep thinking about 'Gone Girl,' obviously. Nick and Amy's narratives are direct weapons against each other. Their entire romance, as presented in Amy's diary, is a meticulously constructed fake memory designed to frame Nick. The book is the ultimate testament to how a shared past can be fictionalized and used as a trap. The thriller aspect is 100% fueled by the catastrophic failure of two people to agree on the basic facts of their marriage.
It's less about forgetting and more about malicious, artistic remembering.
Honestly, I find a lot of modern psychological thrillers use memory loss as a cheap gimmick. It's become a template: protagonist wakes up, doesn't know who they are, finds a clue, runs from bad guys, big twist. It can feel repetitive.
The ones that truly stand out, like the Ishiguro or the Ogawa, use memory as a theme to explore deeper questions about self, society, and love, not just as a convenient plot engine to create mystery. I'm more drawn to those that treat the psychological aspect as the core of the horror, not just a setup for a chase.