Book Review: The Secret History of Us

The Secret History of Us by Jessi Kirby

Released: August 1, 2017

Read: July 2017

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: ARC, 288 pages

Series: Stand-alone

Description on Goodreads:

    Olivia wakes up to realize she doesn’t remember. Not just the accident—but anything from the last four years. Not high school. Not Matt, the guy who is apparently her boyfriend. Not the reason she and Jules are no longer friends. Nothing.

    That’s when it hits her—the accident may not have taken her life, but it took something just as vital: her memory. The harder she tires to remember things, the foggier everything gets, and figuring out who she is feels impossible when everyone keeps telling her who she was.

    But then there’s Walker. The guy who saved her. The one who broke her ribs pumping life back into her lungs. The hardened boy who keeps his distance despite Olivia’s attempts to thank him.

    With her feelings growing for Walker, tensions rising with Matt, and secrets she can’t help but feel are being kept from her, Olivia must find her place in a life she doesn’t even remember living.

Review:

    The Secret History of Us is your generic I-lost-part-of-my-memory-and-now-things-have-changed type of novel. It was a good read, but just that. It wasn't very exciting; it lacked the drive that makes you want to finish the book. I stayed until the end though, thinking that maybe, just MAYBE the plot might pick up a bit or something might pique my interest. No such luck. The ending was satisfying and decent enough, I just wish there was something more. Maybe a bigger, more extravagant plot twist, or a more in-depth examination of the accident.

Favourite Quotes:

• "Look down into the water below. It's calm. Slick and dark on the surface, giving nothing away. No indication of what happened here. It's been forgotten already. The memory of it washed away with the ebb and flow of the tides, and carried out to the open ocean to be let go."
• "Pay attention to your attention."

Rating: 4/10

Recommended if you like: memory-loss novels, contemporaries

Keep flipping pages,

Lauren

Book Review: The Forgetting

The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron

Released: September 13, 2016

Read: July 2016

Publisher: Scholastic

Format: ARC, 416 pages

Series: Stand-alone

Description on Goodreads:

    What isn't written, isn't remembered. Even your crimes.
    Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person's memories – of parents, children, love, life, and self – are lost. Unless they have been written.
    In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.
    But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence – before the people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.



Review:
    "I am made of my memories". Nadia, the Dyer's daughter lives in the city of Canaan, where life is simple and everything is not as it seems. Every twelve years, the citizens of Canaan forget who they are, who they love, and everything that once mattered to them. But not Nadia. She remembers everything that the people around her don't. It's quite fascinating to read about how having memories isn't always a good thing, and that sometimes it's better to forget.
   The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron is filled with bright, enthusiastic characters, who leave who throbbing to meet them by the end of the novel. As for the city, it's as if you're actually there, walking the streets along side Nadia and Gray. Each house and each occupation is described beautifully, so is beyond the wall. I'd recommend this novel to anyone that likes Divergent by Veronica Roth or the Giver by Lois Lowry, for it is a combination of both and leaves you wanting more.

Favourite Quotes:

• “It's my choice today that is the memory of tomorrow. It's my choice that determines what I will become. Not the memories of the past.” 
• “The past is never really gone. It only lies in wait for you, remembered or forgotten.” 
• “Truth can look so flimsy and feeble sometimes. It's one of the things I hold against it.” 
• "I am made of my memories."
• "Knowing the truth makes me alone. I wrote that once, but I think I was wrong. Fear of pain is what has made me alone. But today I realized that pain and love have a balance. I can feel so much of one only because I feel so much of the other." 
• "No one could take as many risks as I do and never be caught. I know this. But when my day comes, I will never say I'm sorry. Because I have been taught to say the truth in Canaan."

Rating: 9/10

Recommended if you like: the Giver, Divergent, dystopian, revenge, novels about memory loss

Keep flipping pages,
Lauren