Forget About The Rest (Olvídate del resto)

A teenager caught between his father’s abandonment and his mother’s multiple personalities finds refuge in Cleo, the most charismatic and daring personality inhabiting his mother’s body, unaware that behind her charm lies a terrifying plan.

Daniel “Dani” Monje is 16 when his life is split in two: his father’s inexplicable abandonment forces him to move with his mother, Laura, to a village called San Nelumbo. Laura suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and three personalities coexist within her: the fragile Laura, the eccentric Uncle Marc, and the elderly Nana Charlenne, full of impossible stories. However, when Cleo appears—a fourth, rebellious and daring 19-year-old personality—everything spirals out of control. Cleo emerges at the worst moments, such as when they discover that Dani’s father has left them ruined by freezing his financial support. And worse is yet to come.

At school, Dani encounters two enemies who will change his fate: Román, a drunken and abusive teacher, and Texas, a misogynistic YouTuber who secretly films him to mock him. But Cleo does not stand idly by. Together, they break into Román’s house and discover something monstrous: videos of abuse of underage students. Dani sends them anonymously to JustosxPecadores, but Román reports him for breaking and entering, and Cleo—impersonating his mother Laura—defends him with a coldness that frightens even the police.

What begins as personal revenge against Román turns into a crusade against everyday injustices. Cleo forms The Four Horsemen, a group of masked vigilantes in which Dani, who does not know the others’ identities, adopts the alias White. Together, they target those they believe deserve it: abusive customers in the supermarket, harassers on the tram… But the line between justice and revenge begins to blur. As Dani gets caught up in the adrenaline of his double life, Cleo reveals a devastating secret: his father did not leave for no reason. He left with a woman named Vilma.

Everything explodes when Texas uploads a video revealing that Saray, the girl Dani is in love with, was one of Román’s victims. Texas also has the videos. Furious, Dani attacks Texas on Halloween, only to discover that it was Cleo who deliberately leaked the videos. Betrayed, Dani returns home, throws away his Horseman mask, and decides to leave the group. But Cleo, upon finding out, reacts violently and makes it clear that one final major operation remains. Dani runs away and goes to Saray to tell her everything: his mother’s illness, the existence of Cleo, and the truth about the abusive teacher’s videos. In the end, Saray offers him her support.

When they return home, they receive a call: Paris, a friend of theirs and the son of a corrupt politician, has been kidnapped. Dani realizes this is Cleo’s final plan. He is about to go after him, but the police arrive to reveal something that changes his life forever: his father, whom he believed to be missing, was murdered months earlier, and the DNA points to Laura, his mother. Dani becomes even more determined to confront Cleo, knowing his mother is not guilty.

In the Horsemen’s hideout, where Cleo is holding Paris, she reveals her true identity: she is Vilma, his mother’s original personality, who killed his father in retaliation for leaving her for Laura. In a devastating confrontation, Laura briefly emerges to help Dani, but Vilma refuses to give up. Only the intervention of Saray and the police prevents the worst from happening.

Six months later, Dani visits Laura in a psychiatric hospital. Although his mother’s original personality is Vilma, Dani knows that the one who truly acted as his mother was Laura, and he is grateful that she is alive and recovering. She is stable, but in the final moment, Vilma’s eyes seem to flicker once again.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: Manu Carbajo is a Madrid-based filmmaker and writer specializing in young adult fiction. His books have been reprinted several times and have received excellent reviews from industry professionals. He also runs a YouTube channel with more than 26,000 subscribers.

Forget the Rest is a novel within contemporary young adult fiction that incorporates elements of psychological thriller, coming-of-age, and dark realism. Its strength lies in the construction of a teenage protagonist facing an extreme emotional and social reality: abandonment, his mother’s mental illness, institutional injustice, and a thirst for justice. The plot unfolds through dark and psychologically intense twists while maintaining a strong emotional core.

The story has enormous potential as a young adult psychological thriller series with touches of mystery and even horror, in the vein of Split. The protagonist’s arc and his relationship with his mother and her personalities provide strong dramatic weight and powerful emotional development. Its open ending, with the lingering threat of Vilma, allows for continuity and expansion of the narrative universe.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Film.

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.