What I'm Reading: Forgotten

FORGOTTEN

CAT PATRICK

“He’s not in my memory, which means he’s not in my future.”

London Lane remembers her future in the way that we remember our past – she could tell you what you will wear next week, but not what she was wearing last night. Every morning her mind wipes out the memories of the day she has just lived, forcing her to write notes to remind her future self of her own past. But when London meets the Luke Henry from Boston, she is confused as to why he isn’t appearing in her notes, and even as time goes on and their relationship grows, she still cannot remember him in her future. In the meantime, she is being plagued with 'memories' of a funeral – is it her father, who she hasn’t seen or heard from in years?

Or could it be Luke’s? Is that why he isn’t in her memory?

I think that Forgotten has a compelling and clever storyline, and it’s very well written, but I think that the plot would have been more believable if it leaned a little more towards the fantasy-science fiction genre than simple teen fiction. I simply couldn’t take the backwards memory ‘thing’ seriously when it was treated as a medical condition, maybe I was just too – I don’t know –closed minded while reading this book. I definitely think I would have taken the whole thing a little more seriously if London’s brain was strange because of a supernatural cause.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of teen romance books, it all becomes too much about the couple having a perfect, rosy relationship and there isn’t enough emphasis on the actual storyline, or writers will put all their efforts into describing how in love their characters are instead of letting their actions speak for themselves. I felt that I had this problem while reading this book. However, I did put that behind me, and just ignored my general dislike of novels dripping with romance and not enough story-telling.

London is a very likable character, and any teenager who has had to stand up to a friend will relate to London’s relationship with her best friend Jamie, the only person except London’s mother who knows of her condition. Another intriguing plot of the storyline is London’s relationship with Luke, as every day for London is as though she has just met him. Every morning, she wakes up to read about her boyfriend, and every day, she falls in love with him – but is Luke keeping something from her

What sold the book to me was the way that London doesn’t let her backwards memory get in her way. When she sees how her best friend’s relationship will end in sorrow, she doesn’t allow her future to be decided for her, but instead sets out on a mission to put it to a stop. And when she learns about a hidden mystery from her past that tore her family apart, she takes it upon herself to use her ability to see to future to put right her wrongs.