The Gist
Naomi Porter worked for her school yearbook team. She played tennis, had a popular boyfriend, and knew who she was. She had a co-editor and best friend who knew everything about her while she knew everything about him. All that changed when she fell down a flight of stairs and suddenly became a teenage amnesiac. After waking up in a hospital with severe head trauma, Naomi doesn’t know what to think, or who anyone is. Is that boy across from her a friend, or complete stranger? It turns out to be the latter. James, a new boy at school, was lucky to find Naomi right after she fell down the stairs. Naomi is inexplicably drawn to James who, she learns, transferred because of “girl trouble” . And the boy who arrives the next day to visit her? A boyfriend? No, of course not. Her best friend and co-editor of the Phoenix (the yearbook) Will. Though she can’t remember anything about him, or why he keeps calling her Chief, he sticks by her side, helping her with her memory and explaining what needs to be explained. Meanwhile she learns that her parents have been divorced. For two years. And she had completely forgotten. While trying to decide about her conflicted feelings about her mother, and her complicated feelings about her crush, James, and her boyfriend, Ace, Will and her dad constantly fuss over her health. Will makes mixed CD’s with hidden meanings and inside jokes she can’t remember. All she wants to do is hide until her memory comes back. But she just can’t do that. Because, the truth is, she may never remember the last four years of her life again. Though the doctors can’t prove the theory, she may remain an amnesiac forever.
What We Think
What We Think
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Number of Pages: 271
The plot has some potential, right? That’s what I thought too. Well, the idea itself…not so bad. It’s execution? Terrible. Here’s what I absolutely hated about it: the characters, the non-existant character development, the horrible execution of plot, and the way it somehow managed to be boring and infuriating. First thing first. The main character was the most annoying main character I’ve ever read about. Combine every jerk in every book you’ve ever read, then combine every selfish person in every book you’ve ever read and you’ll get this girl. I was so annoyed by her rudeness towards everyone that I couldn’t read this for long periods of time. I found myself yelling at the pages of a book which, I knew, couldn’t possible hear the “constructive” criticism I was giving it. I’m pretty sure that since the girl’s an amnesiac, I should feel bad for her. Well, I don’t. Not at all. She’s whiney, mean, and an extreme liar. And her boyfriend? All he cared about was himself, and tennis. It was really pathetic to read about him. Don’t even get me started on her mother. There are no words to describe my hatred for her. Ugh. So basically, I hated most of the characters in this book. Thankfully, Naomi’s friend Will was tolerable. Still, I think that’s something that the author seriously needs to work on. Making her characters less horrible. Naomi’s attitude was what made the book so hard to read. Now, the plot. Like I said, it had potential. Losing all the memories from four years of your life? That’s got to be a good story. That’s what I thought before. Now I’ve learned that any plot can be butchered by bad writing. The whole story was the last sixty pages. It was like I had to suffer through a 200 page long introduction to the story before anything interesting happened. So I, being a reader impatient for the book to get a move on and start quickly, couldn’t stand this. That wasanother reason why it took me months to read. Now onto the point I always like to point out. Character development. Or, for this book, the lack of. When I’d finally deemed Naomi a jerk I thought about it for a while. Okay, I’d thought, this is fine, as long as in the end she learns something from her horrible behavior and tries to change. Well, this never happened. She’s as much of a jerk in the end as she was in the beginning, which I find simply unacceptable. A published author should know how to develop her own characters! To end on a positive note, because I’m not giving this an F, the writing style itself was good. Certainly not the best I’ve ever read, but not that bad either. So, to recap, this book does not deserve an F because the writing style is good, Zevin had the right idea for the plot, and truthfully, the ending wasn’t that bad. But still, I wouldn’t recommend anyone read it. P. S. this isn’t an actual memoir. The title is inaccurate.
Real Teen Rating~ D-: If you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to read.
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