How do you know you've read a book too many times? When you look at the sentences in other languages and know exactly what they say because you remember google translating them the last time you read it.

In my defense, this is my third time (I think?) reading The Knowing. As a companion novel to The Forgetting, it focuses on the aftermath of society realizing they don't have to forget anymore...meaning they now NEVER forget.
The story takes place on another planet where people either forget everything every 12 years or they remember everything and are forced to relive their most horrific memories frequently. Samara is one of the Knowing, and she seeks a way to Forget the memories that haunt her. Beckett has just arrived on a new planet with the intent of exploring it. There's a fair amount of adventure, plenty of politics and betrayals, and just a tinge of romance. The beginning and the end are fairly fast-paced, although the middle can admittedly drag at times. However, the last 50 or so pages are incredibly fast-paced and I was on the edge of my seat because somehow I managed to forget how it ended.
The characters are relatively intriguing as well. The practical uses of Samara's memories intrigued me the most (she can tell time and temperature perfectly), and I thought her interactions with Beckett were neat, too. I liked Beckett mostly because of his interest in anthropology, and his sense of humor was good as well. Jill kind of got on my nerves from the beginning and I need to know how old Nathan is because I picture him as like 12...and he's clearly not. The other characters - specifically the Knowing like Reddix - were also interesting, but they weren't the focus of the story.
Fans of The Forgetting will enjoy the easter eggs in The Knowing, but it also functions as an interesting sci-fi story about healing from the past.

4/5