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Forgotten by Cat Patrick
Little, Brown, 2011

Every morning, London Lane wakes up and cannot remember anything that has happened before. Not only is the previous day forgotten, but her entire life up to that point is unremembered. Reading letters that she writes to herself each night, each morning London gets caught up on what is going on in her life: school, friendships, and a very cute new boyfriend named Justin. The thing is, London can "remember" events that occur in the future - such as upcoming spring breaks with her best friend - but Justin doesn't appear to be there. When she begins dreaming of a funeral she fears that it may be connected to Justin, but how? And whose funeral is it?

Pros:
Fantastic premise.
Awesome mother.
Dreamy love interest.
Mysterious family history.

I loved the idea of amnesia combined with "remembering" the future, which is a helpful plot point in the sense that it allows London to know her mother and best friend. It also creates tension with London's dream of the funeral and working out when it happened and who died, as well as not knowing who Justin is because he's not in her memories of upcoming events. I found the beginning of the book to be confusing though, and didn't know what was going on with London and her memory for the first couple of chapters. I imagine that it would be obvious if I re-read those chapters, but when I wasn't familiar with London's situation I found it confusing.

For the most part, I liked London: she could be a bit dramatic for my taste at times, but if I couldn't remember my past I'd be sensitive to trust issues as well. She must also get up ridiculously early if she manages to read all her notes every morning! Her mother was solid and amazingly patient, and watching London repeatedly adjust to Justin's presence - it must be very odd to be in a relationship with someone you only know from notes you wrote - was entertaining.

Speaking of the notes, I appreciated how Patrick addressed the malleability of the present in London's life. For example, London can see how an acquaintance of hers will get hurt after dating a specific boy, so she works with what she knows to try to save her from that fate. Because she is so reliant on her notes, if London doesn't write down specific things about her day she will never know what happened or didn't happen. Seeing London play with this knowledge, which was a way for her to have power over her situation, was fascinating and produced unexpected results.

Cons:
London sometimes sounded like a 80-year-old.

There were a few passages that jolted me right out of the story, such as "the wind sets flight to my bright auburn locks" (p. 8 of galley) and "the thought of [Justin] serving as older brother to these two precious ladies feels right" (p. 73 of galley). What 16-year-old uses the word locks instead of hair? To say nothing of calling 2-year-old twin girls "precious ladies," which I'm guessing may come from the author being a mother of twin girls. Although I'm sure both the author's daughters and Justin's sisters are indeed precious, I have a lot of trouble believing that a teenage girl would string that particular phrase together.

All told, Forgotten is a compelling debut from Cat Patrick and I look forward to more books from her in years to come.

**Galley provided by publisher.




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