There is this website online, one I’m sure very few of you know about (or at least that’s my hope) called Experienceproject.com. To be blunt, it’s a public avenue for those who have suffered from (or are currently in the throes of) amnesia to share their stories with like-minded individuals.
Now, I’m going to lay all of my cards on the table here and say that, until I read roughly 70 of these stories I thought amnesia was a big ol steaming pile of elephant poop. I mean..really? You can’t remember who you brother is? Hell…I’ve been trying to forget mine for years, it can’t possible be as simple as getting konked in the head by a foul ball or I would have been rushing the field eons ago. But apparently amnesia (also known as disambiguation) isn’t just for daytime TV and fiction. It’s the real deal (According to WebMD – who also says I have leprosy.) and incredibly stimulating. (Pun intended.)
Stimulating? How so?
Well, because it poses a metric ton of questions to those of us (knock on wood) who have never had the displeasure of experiencing it.
For example:
If you woke up on a beach, surrounded by plane wreckage, but hadn’t the faintest recollection of how you got there. What would you do?
If someone asked you who you were, but you didn’t know the answer. What would you say?
If the same person kept showing up insisting that they knew who you were, but couldn’t tell you. Would you willingly go with them?
Jessica Brody asks these questions (and about a zillion more) in her novel “Unremembered.” But the best one…
“What makes us human? Is it our hearts? Our brain? Our senses? Our limbs? Ask a hundred people and you will get a hundred different answers.”
Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.
Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.
Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?
From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.
I don’t know about there rest of you, but there are times I desperately wish I could just post a pro & cons list and be done with it. This is one of those times.
See…”Unremembered” is both good and bad. It’s just a matter of figuring out which one takes the TKO.
On one hand it explodes with potential. Amnesia. Hot girl (who is apparently strong enough to remove a car door with a single thrust.) Evil secret government agency cover-ups, and time travel.
On the other hand…I can easily name at least 10 other books with the exact same elements with significantly better execution.
This book was not “bad” in the traditional sense. More…unrememberable. (Yes, I went with the easy kill, don’t judge me.)
The two main characters (Sera and Zen) remained solidly on the surface (despite their “tortured” love affair) of the page never getting much deeper than a few bland flashbacks and some awkward forehead touching. While everyone around them relied on rhetoric to keep their dialogue moving towards the finish line.
Does that make it “bad?” Surface dwellers and undue use of exaggeration?
For me…yes.
But that may not be the case for everyone else. (Which is why I wanted to post a list.)
I am incredibly critical. But… I am also open-minded. (For those of you chuckling…CAN IT!) While this book is not for everyone, there IS a place where it can be happy.
Where?
I’m so glad you asked.
Due to its lack of emotional connectivity and quick plot this can (in most cases) be accurately described as a “beach read.” For 13-15 year old girls.
Why?
Because it DOES have the romance they crave (in a very G-rated way.) It has an appropriate amount of intrigue (despite its lack of originality) and ends with a pretty interesting bout of action. ALL things a younger reader needs to stay engaged, but not enough to keep older audiences enthralled.
In the end…I’ll give it a 2. Like I said, it’s fairly unrememberable. Especially in this blossoming Sci-Fi genre.
Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: If you can forget it an hour later…it’s probably not worth it.
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| Overall: | 2 |
