Books reading recommendations Five SFF Narratives That Start With Characters Waking Up With Amnesia “Who am I?” is always a great way to kick off a story… By Lorna Wallace | Published on December 3, 2025 Photo: David Matos [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: David Matos [via Unsplash] The idea of waking up without memories is terrifying to me, but I can’t help but be captivated when it happens to the main character at the start of a story. Whether they don’t know anything at all about who and where they are, or whether it’s more specific information that they can’t remember, I love the mystery element that this introduces into the story from the very start. Here are five sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books and stories that follow characters experiencing temporary memory loss. Pines by Blake Crouch (2012) Pines is a fast-paced thriller that starts with a man waking up next a river in a small town surrounded by mountains. He can only remember a few specific things, such as the name of the current president and the fact that he’s 37 years old. He’s also in a lot of pain; not only does he have a raging headache, but he’s suffered some kind of blunt force trauma to his left side. He stumbles into town, which he learns is Wayward Pines, Idaho, with two hopes: that something will trigger his memory and that he’ll find a hospital. It’s not long before he passes out again, but this time when he wakes up (in hospital, thankfully) he has a bit more information. His name is Ethan Burke and he’s a Secret Service agent who came to Wayward Pines in search of two missing colleagues. But Ethan still has a lingering feeling that something is very wrong—is it his faulty memory, is it the strange town itself, or is it both? These big questions are answered by the end of the book, but there’s still more story to tell in the next two installments of the Wayward Pines trilogy. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (2018) Technically, the protagonist of The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle doesn’t wake up with amnesia, he simply snaps into his current consciousness while he’s standing in the middle of the woods and yelling out “Anna!” But now he doesn’t remember who Anna is or even who he is. Even worse, he doesn’t feel a single twinge of familiarity when looking down at his body. It turns out that there’s a good reason for that: he’s not in his own body. Our main character soon finds out that his name is Aiden Bishop and that he’s trapped in a time loop murder mystery. Aiden is tasked with solving the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, who is due to be murdered at a party thrown at the manor house next to the woods later that night. He’s forced to relive the day eight times in a row, but each time he inhabits the body of a different party guest. And it’s not just the identity of the killer that’s a mystery, with the details of Aiden’s previous life and how he ended up in this situation also remaining unknown. I found the constant body-hopping and time-looping to be a little confusing to begin with, but it’s worth getting to grips with these mechanics in the first few chapters so that the reader can be rewarded with the satisfaction of the mystery gradually unravelling. “How Alike Are We” by Kim Bo-young (2019) (Translated by Jihyun Park and Gord Sellar) HUN-1029—usually simply called HUN—is the Crisis Management AI of a spaceship who has just been transferred into a prosthetic body. Unfortunately, the transfer didn’t go totally smoothly, so when they wake up there are some gaps in their short-term memory that the ship’s human crew have to fill in. HUN learns that they wanted to be treated like a human, complete with a human body, and went on strike until this demand was met—all of which comes as a surprise. Although seemingly not as pressing, HUN is also aware that something important—yet not mentioned by the crew—is missing. This lost piece of programming subtly haunts HUN in the background of the story, but at the forefront is the crisis that the crew are currently facing—one that they desperately need their Crisis Management AI to solve. HUN does their best to be helpful, but the human crew is cracking under the pressure. Of all of the places to suffer memory loss, this novella makes a compelling case for deep space being the worst, which leads me onto the next book… Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) A man wakes up from a coma covered in medical tubes and wires, with no idea of what his own name is. He thinks he must be in some sort of high-tech hospital—there are robot arms in the ceiling trying to look after him—but then he sees that his two roommates have been reduced to desiccated corpses. After further exploration, but still not knowing his name, he realizes that he’s aboard a spaceship. Flashes of his life slowly start coming back to him while he tries to figure out why he’s in space. He learns his name (Ryland Grace), his job (high school science teacher), and what his mission is (humanity’s last hope of saving Earth). Feeling entirely unequipped—in no small part thanks to some remaining gaps in his memory—he gets to work trying to figure out the science to save everyone back home. Project Hail Mary (perfectly balances all of its various elements. The science feels grounded without being overcomplicated, there’s a substantial sprinkling of humor to lighten the tense situation, and the novel’s portrayal of both isolation and connection tugs at the heartstrings. (And of course, the movie adaptation will be out in March next year, though the latest trailer reveals quite a lot, edging into what some readers might consider spoiler territory). The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson (2025) Space might be the worst place to be when dealing with amnesia, but there’s an even worse location to suddenly wake up in (with or without memories): a coffin. That’s where a woman finds herself at the start of The Burial Tide. Understandably panicked, she kicks and claws her way out of the grave and stumbles to the first house she can find to try and get help. She can’t remember anything about herself, but the doctor she sees finds it far more surprising that she’s alive at all. She’s told that she’s called Mara Fitch and that she was the first casualty of an Ebola-like outbreak on the Irish island of Inishbannock. How she survived what was seemingly her death is unknown, but she’s assured that her memory will return as she settles back into her old life. And yet Mara can’t help but feel that something is amiss. The Burial Tide goes to some creatively weird places with its style of horror, which is rooted in Celtic mythology, but you won’t have to wait long to figure out what’s happening on this strange and eerie island because the short chapters ensure things move along at a rapid pace. Have I missed out any notable stories or books that start with the main character experiencing amnesia? Feel free to recommend your own favorite works of fiction involving memory loss in the comments below![end-mark] The post Five SFF Narratives That Start With Characters Waking Up With Amnesia appeared first on Reactor.