The Book Look NO ONE ASKED FOR! 😀

So I didn’t think that I was going to immediately buy this less than 100 pages book, because SURELY I could wait a few days.  I was wrong.  I snagged that baby on my Nook Halloween morning and had it finished the next morning.  So I’m going to be a little spoilery, so this is your warning!

This book was MUCH easier to read through than The Secret History.  Also, it’s only 94 pages!  Each of the chapters are laid out as case files, which are either about a specific person or about a place and the people connected to it.  It’s compiled by Tammy Preston, so there are a few details that she doesn’t know about, but we do as viewers.  I won’t give away all of the book, but I will touch on the few files that really touched me.

There was a preview of the audio book released a few days before which gave a peak into the file about Leo Johnson.  It basically revealed that he died in the trap that Windom Earle set for him from gunshot wounds.  (dirt bag!)

So a few of the questions that I really wanted answered were with these files.  There was basically no mention of Donna Hayward during The Return, and her file disclosed that shortly after graduation she moved to New York and pursued a modeling career.  After a few years she married, but then spiraled into a drug problem after her estranged mother’s death, and an appearance with Miss Twin Peaks (Lana Milford), including going missing for a few days before being found in a crack house.  She eventually cleaned up her act and moved in with her father…although, not her biological father.  We know from the original show that her father is Ben Horne, but Tammy only says that “after a meeting at the Hayward home a fissure broke up both the Horne and Hayward marriages.”

We also find out about Audrey.  It turns out, SHE DID MARRY CHARLIE.  She woke out of her coma after three weeks, and soon discovered she was pregnant.  She moved out on her own and raised her son, which no one ever questioned who the father was, but she kept a photo of Agent Cooper, and pined for him.  She owned her own beauty salon, but eventually closed.  Audrey married Charlie, her accountant, out of a financial agreement, but she became an alcoholic and was abusive and cheated on him constantly.  Audrey eventually disappeared from public life all together, and rumors swirled to whether it was to a mental facility or if she just became a shut in.  The Horne Family refused to speak on the matter.

The most shocking revelations to me were about Norma’s family.  We all remember meeting Norma’s mother Vivian Smythe, a secret food critic that came into town and posted a lackluster review of the Double R.  It turns out that WASN’T HER BIRTH MOTHER!  It is Annie’s mother (more on Annie later) but it’s actually Norma’s step mother.  Norma’s father Marty lead a secret life out of town, resulting in Annie’s birth, and after Norma’s mother (who refused to give him a divorce) died, Vivian and Marty married, making Vivian Norma’s step mother.  Eventually Marty dies, and then Vivian marries Rowland Blackburn, who then adopts Annie.  I’ll go more into this later, but he kills himself, and Vivian meets Ernie Niles that we saw she was newly married to in season 2 of Twin Peaks.  We learned in the Secret History of Twin Peaks that Norma’s husband Hank Jennings was killed while in prison, and we also know that at the end of The Return, she and Ed Hurley end up together. (gets me every time!)  Much more of Norma’s story is tied into Annie’s story, which is one of the saddest files in this dossier.

Annie’s backstory that we knew from her appearance in season 2 was that she’d attempted suicide at one point and that she left a convent before taking her final vows to become a nun.  Sadly, Annie’s first suicide attempt was after her adopted father Roland drunkenly sexually assaulted her and then killed himself, driving his car into a river.  After being diagnosed with a mental breakdown, she was committed to a psychiatric facility, where Norma visited her often.  She returned to her Catholic school when she was able, and after returning home to find her mother Vivian was remarried, again, to Ernie.  After graduating, she decided to take vows and enter a convent.  Norma didn’t want her to take the vows, so she offered Annie an open invitation to stay with her in Twin Peaks, which Annie took advantage of when she also had doubts.  At the end of season 2 of Twin Peaks, we were left with Cooper asking “How’s Annie?” This is what is known:  Annie spent a day in the hospital after she was found in the woods where Cooper reappeared.  She seemed, fine, but by the next morning she was unresponsive and catatonic.  Annie became able to walk and eat with assistance and never seemed in pain or agony.  Vivian wanted nothing to do with Annie, so Norma took on her care at home.  One year after Annie was found, Norma found her at home, slumped over, having slit her wrists again.  She spoke once at 8:38am to say “I’m fine” and didn’t speak another word for another year, and each year on the same date and time, she repeats “I’m fine” and nothing else.  She was put into a full time care unit near Spokane and is still there.  Tammy wrote that she visited her, and that she doesn’t look as though she’s aged at all.  Something about hearing Annie replying “I’m fine” to Cooper’s “How’s Annie?” hit me so hard!

The final and probably the biggest spoiler of all, is what happened to Laura Palmer.  Because of the events in The Return, Laura never died.  It was incredibly satisfying to know that she didn’t die, which was my assumption on hour 17.  However, she did disappear, and the case is still open.  Cooper did still come to town to investigate her disappearance and Ronnette Pulaski(still) being found wandering, so the entire story didn’t change because Laura still wasn’t there.  Instead of Leland Palmer dying at the police station, he killed himself a year after Laura disappeared.  Sarah went on to suffer from alcoholism and addiction to drugs, and was questioned over the mysterious death of that trucker in the bar.

There is still so much more in this book, so I HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy.  There are files on many more characters, and even a very touching file about Margaret Coulson, the Log Lady, and what became of her log.