The Sudden Appearance of Hope

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is a 2016 speculative literary thriller by Claire North (a pen name of Catherine Webb), catalogued here under the title 'Forget Me Not'. It follows Hope Arden, a woman cursed with a singular affliction: everyone who meets her forgets her the moment she leaves their sight.

Unremembered and unrecorded, Hope becomes a master thief — no witness can hold her in memory — while aching for genuine human connection. When she collides with Perfection, a lifestyle app that gamifies self-improvement and conformity, her invisibility turns from curse into the means of resistance.

North blends thriller momentum with meditative prose on memory, identity, self-worth and the modern pressure to optimise oneself. The novel won the 2017 World Fantasy Award and appeals to readers of speculative fiction that probes what it means to be seen and remembered.