Mini Review - Forget You / Jennifer Echols

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . . AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER? There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

 But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

Review - I am a huge fan of Echols work there is a zap to her dialogue and a heat to her story lines that really capture a reader's attention.  Forget You revolves around the memory loss of the protagonist and as such the reader feels untethered in the novel.  So much of the plot is dependant on Zoey not remembering that the emotional connection is lessened.    Zoey holds fast to what she thinks she knows for sure while understandable, also alienates her from the reader.  However, there is a lot to enjoy about this novel from the charged interchanges between the two leads, portrayal of depression and Echol's trademark banter.

Recommendation - A fun read with some bumps in the road.

Published: July 20, 2010
Format: ARC, 293 pages
Publisher: MTV
Source: publisher
Origin: USA