Publication date: August 21st, 2007
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5
If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about her dad's fiance. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.But Naomi picked heads.After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.
I enjoyed reading Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac.Zevin's writing was brilliant and the story unique and beautiful.
After a simple coin toss between friends, Naomi finds herself in the hospital, having lost the memory of the last three and a half years of her life.This book describes her efforts and emotional struggle not only to regain her memories but also to cope with the life she has now and come to terms with her old and new self,as she comes to the realisation that the two don't go together.
As much as I loved the idea, I can't say the same for the characters, especially Naomi.I get that what happened to her was serious and very unfortunate but she behaved kinda like a brat throughout the whole book.Who has a sister and doesn't want to meet her?Who doesn't want their parents happiness?Who has a boyfriend for the sole purpose of being socially accepted in school?(a lot of girls, actually, but that doesn't make it all right!)Who likes someone because he is as "damaged" as you and then when you are fine again, you don't care about him? I guess when Naomi lost her memories she was an OK girl, but when she started remembering, the girl she became, and evidently was before the accident, was not OK at all!
Anyway, I don't know what else to say about this book.I liked it, I loved the writing, I recommend it, but I don't know what I feel about the female lead.Should I dislike her for her selfishness and immaturity or should I just forgive her for all that and blame them all on what she went through? I really don't know.I think that was Zevin's goal from the start, to create an ethical dilemma to the reader about the heroine.Or maybe I am reading too much into it.You read it and you tell me :)
I didn't know about this book, but I think I might try it. Thanks for the review!
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