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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
What a beautiful, meaningful novel. I honestly can’t remember the last time I gave a young adult contemporary novel four stars—but that just emphasizes the significance of me saying how utterly smitten I am with [b:Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac|317282|Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac|Gabrielle Zevin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317793286l/317282._SX50_.jpg|308098].
I never expected to find a novel so insightful and captivating based on the description, which was more or less “teenage girl loses her memory; the aftermath”. However, [a:Gabrielle Zevin|40593|Gabrielle Zevin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503541462p2/40593.jpg] not only avoided clichés and stereotypes, she created a raw, believable, and compelling story.
The main character Naomi’s narrative voice is wonderfully unique, and it has that special something that just pulls you in; you feel for her, you care for her, and [a:Gabrielle Zevin|40593|Gabrielle Zevin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503541462p2/40593.jpg] did a fantastic job of developing Naomi’s character. I’m a sucker for well-written relationships—whether it be of the romantic or the platonic kind—and I loved how nuanced and distinct each of them were, especially Naomi’s relationship with her father, her friendship with Will, and of course, her relationship with James.
... and then there’s the romance. The love story, if you will—which is very different from the usual young adult romances you are used to reading about, and leads you somewhere unexpected, and poignant.
[b:Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac|317282|Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac|Gabrielle Zevin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317793286l/317282._SX50_.jpg|308098] is without doubt one of the best coming of age novels I’ve ever read, filled with many witty and insightful phrases to pause and reflect on.
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“Love stories are written in millimeters and milliseconds with a fast, dull pencil whose marks you can barely see. They are written in miles and eons with a chisel on the side of a mountaintop.”
I never expected to find a novel so insightful and captivating based on the description, which was more or less “teenage girl loses her memory; the aftermath”. However, [a:Gabrielle Zevin|40593|Gabrielle Zevin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503541462p2/40593.jpg] not only avoided clichés and stereotypes, she created a raw, believable, and compelling story.
The main character Naomi’s narrative voice is wonderfully unique, and it has that special something that just pulls you in; you feel for her, you care for her, and [a:Gabrielle Zevin|40593|Gabrielle Zevin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503541462p2/40593.jpg] did a fantastic job of developing Naomi’s character. I’m a sucker for well-written relationships—whether it be of the romantic or the platonic kind—and I loved how nuanced and distinct each of them were, especially Naomi’s relationship with her father, her friendship with Will, and of course, her relationship with James.
Spoiler
I did feel as though her relationship with her mother and her sister lacked closure, but then again, it fits with the overall theme of this novel.“It was strange, really. A couple months ago, I had thought I couldn’t live without him. Apparently I could.”
... and then there’s the romance. The love story, if you will—which is very different from the usual young adult romances you are used to reading about, and leads you somewhere unexpected, and poignant.
[b:Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac|317282|Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac|Gabrielle Zevin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317793286l/317282._SX50_.jpg|308098] is without doubt one of the best coming of age novels I’ve ever read, filled with many witty and insightful phrases to pause and reflect on.
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She falls and suffers a brain injury that wipes out the last four years of her life. She doesn't remember her parents' divorce, her best friend, or her boyfriend. She starts trying to figure out who she was and if that is who she really wants to be. I enjoyed this book. It wasn't terribly heavy but was a nice book on self-discovery.
Full Review:
https://clavieco.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/new-year-new-start-new-developments/
I just wanna say even though I gave this four stars, I absolutely loved this novel. So much, for many reasons.
This author’s got talent! It is such a rare treat to read such remarkable and undeniably realistic characters. Zevin weaves the tale of Naomi’s self discovery with extraordinary skill and creates characters that are so alive, I feel like I know them and experienced the events of this story right along with them as opposed to merely reading about them.
In one misstep, Naomi lost years' worth of memories. After hitting her head on the steps after school, she wakes up in an ambulance, more aware of the pain than what actually happened. The only thing she knows is that she is grateful to the boy sitting beside her, though she has no idea who he is. She soon realizes that she doesn’t remember who she is or rather, who she has become.
Further examination shows that she can't remember select memories from the past four years of her life. She knows who she is, or rather who she was, but as she has no recollection of more recent events, and she must rely on her family members and friends to fill in the blanks. She is shocked to learn what has happened to her family and uncomfortable around her boyfriend Ace and her best friend Will. She is strangely drawn to James, the boy who found her and rode with her to the hospital, who up until the moment he found her, had never met her.
Like memory itself, the book has many layers. Naomi knows she is lucky to be alive, but she is unsure how to live that life. She feels like a stranger in her own home, in her own body, and with her family and friends. As others, especially her father and Will share their memories of her with her, Naomi wonders if her own memories will compare to these stories. She wants to get back to herself, but who is she now compared to who she was then and does she even like the person she was before?
However, the downside for me was when Naomi towards the end of the novel has her own downfall; she does something a bit drastic that I do not agree with and it seemed like a downward spiral for her but then things go back to normal.
What follows is more than just a tale about an amnesiac recovering her memories. It’s a story about remembering who you were, being who you are, and shaping who you will become. I loved everything about this book even the parts I don't agree with. That is how much I love this book. It's a Great Book! And definitely a must read.
https://clavieco.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/new-year-new-start-new-developments/
I just wanna say even though I gave this four stars, I absolutely loved this novel. So much, for many reasons.
This author’s got talent! It is such a rare treat to read such remarkable and undeniably realistic characters. Zevin weaves the tale of Naomi’s self discovery with extraordinary skill and creates characters that are so alive, I feel like I know them and experienced the events of this story right along with them as opposed to merely reading about them.
In one misstep, Naomi lost years' worth of memories. After hitting her head on the steps after school, she wakes up in an ambulance, more aware of the pain than what actually happened. The only thing she knows is that she is grateful to the boy sitting beside her, though she has no idea who he is. She soon realizes that she doesn’t remember who she is or rather, who she has become.
Further examination shows that she can't remember select memories from the past four years of her life. She knows who she is, or rather who she was, but as she has no recollection of more recent events, and she must rely on her family members and friends to fill in the blanks. She is shocked to learn what has happened to her family and uncomfortable around her boyfriend Ace and her best friend Will. She is strangely drawn to James, the boy who found her and rode with her to the hospital, who up until the moment he found her, had never met her.
Like memory itself, the book has many layers. Naomi knows she is lucky to be alive, but she is unsure how to live that life. She feels like a stranger in her own home, in her own body, and with her family and friends. As others, especially her father and Will share their memories of her with her, Naomi wonders if her own memories will compare to these stories. She wants to get back to herself, but who is she now compared to who she was then and does she even like the person she was before?
However, the downside for me was when Naomi towards the end of the novel has her own downfall; she does something a bit drastic that I do not agree with and it seemed like a downward spiral for her but then things go back to normal.
What follows is more than just a tale about an amnesiac recovering her memories. It’s a story about remembering who you were, being who you are, and shaping who you will become. I loved everything about this book even the parts I don't agree with. That is how much I love this book. It's a Great Book! And definitely a must read.
strong beginning! the author uses the clever convention of amnesia to explore how we all feel a little lost when trying to define ourselves, and i really enjoyed the thinking. the second half of the book turned into a dumb teenage romance though, so... eh. i still liked it, it just stopped being thought-provoking.
I like it mostly ok and it started better but then just sort of threw too much side stuff in.
In Gabrielle Zevin’s Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, co-editor of the yearbook and high school student Naomi might as well have been born yesterday. After falling down the stairs of her school, Naomi has lost all of her memories. Dealing not only with the stress of typical high school drama, Naomi has to rebuild her life from nothing. Whether or not she’ll get her memories back is up in the air. She focuses, instead, on creating new memories. With a few shocks along the way, Naomi discovers her boyfriend Ace, her best friend Will, and the guy whose past is as murky as Naomi’s feelings for him, James.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac simply wasn’t all that memorable. Granted, I did read it a while ago, but I had to look up quite a bit about what this book actually was about. Details came floating back the more I read, but overall, this book didn’t really stand out. It’s strange, perhaps, because the book was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and, generally, I find books that receive awards or other professional recognition (New York Times Bestsellers and iterations thereof aside) tend to be pretty good. I trudged through Memoirs because, even now, I’m reluctant to truly give up on a book. But despite the intrigue of the title and the publisher-approved summary, Memoirs just didn’t wow me.
Zevin packs a lot into Memoirs. There’s Naomi’s amnesia, of course, Will’s “Nice Guy” persona (some of you know exactly what I’m talking about), the oddly-fitting jock stereotype that is Ace, James’s uncomfortable history and mental health, Naomi’s family situation, and certainly a few other things I’m forgetting about. All of this in just three-hundred-four pages. With so many tragedies occurring, each on a different level than the others, the book, from a conflict-load perspective, should have been two books with two different stories, preferably with different sets of characters. It’s possible Zevin was attempting to convey the same sense of overwhelm Naomi felt at the loss of her memory; but the number of conflicts in the narrative didn’t overwhelm so much as just make the book feel weighed down with material, despite how relatively short it actually was.
Naomi, as a character, did little to help. As she’s figuring out who, exactly, Naomi is, the reader gets little sense of who Naomi is. She spends so much of her time asking, “Who am I?” that the reader can’t invest in her much and come to care about the outcome of her problems. Zevin kicks it up with supporting characters, who are sometimes too colorful, such as Naomi’s step-mom-to-be, who just seems unreal, and Will, who, even as the “Nice Guy,” walks around like, not some sort of exaggeration, but more like a cartoon. James is the most interesting character of the bunch. Frankly, I’m surprised Zevin hasn’t (to my knowledge) written a spin-off novel about him. While James has some cliché features as far as YA novels go, he does seem the most real of all the characters and that sense of reality gives him an edge that similar characters in other novels don’t have as much as. This is especially evident toward the end of the novel.
It’s hard to pin down Memoirs. One moment, it’s light-and-fluffy; the next, for a briefer moment, it’s heavy and intriguing. Sometimes the “heavy” is done well and other times, it’s obvious that this is a book written with words about people who don’t exist. Personally, I like to forget that I’m reading when I’m reading. If that’s what you’re looking for, too, you won’t find it here in Memoirs.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac simply wasn’t all that memorable. Granted, I did read it a while ago, but I had to look up quite a bit about what this book actually was about. Details came floating back the more I read, but overall, this book didn’t really stand out. It’s strange, perhaps, because the book was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and, generally, I find books that receive awards or other professional recognition (New York Times Bestsellers and iterations thereof aside) tend to be pretty good. I trudged through Memoirs because, even now, I’m reluctant to truly give up on a book. But despite the intrigue of the title and the publisher-approved summary, Memoirs just didn’t wow me.
Zevin packs a lot into Memoirs. There’s Naomi’s amnesia, of course, Will’s “Nice Guy” persona (some of you know exactly what I’m talking about), the oddly-fitting jock stereotype that is Ace, James’s uncomfortable history and mental health, Naomi’s family situation, and certainly a few other things I’m forgetting about. All of this in just three-hundred-four pages. With so many tragedies occurring, each on a different level than the others, the book, from a conflict-load perspective, should have been two books with two different stories, preferably with different sets of characters. It’s possible Zevin was attempting to convey the same sense of overwhelm Naomi felt at the loss of her memory; but the number of conflicts in the narrative didn’t overwhelm so much as just make the book feel weighed down with material, despite how relatively short it actually was.
Naomi, as a character, did little to help. As she’s figuring out who, exactly, Naomi is, the reader gets little sense of who Naomi is. She spends so much of her time asking, “Who am I?” that the reader can’t invest in her much and come to care about the outcome of her problems. Zevin kicks it up with supporting characters, who are sometimes too colorful, such as Naomi’s step-mom-to-be, who just seems unreal, and Will, who, even as the “Nice Guy,” walks around like, not some sort of exaggeration, but more like a cartoon. James is the most interesting character of the bunch. Frankly, I’m surprised Zevin hasn’t (to my knowledge) written a spin-off novel about him. While James has some cliché features as far as YA novels go, he does seem the most real of all the characters and that sense of reality gives him an edge that similar characters in other novels don’t have as much as. This is especially evident toward the end of the novel.
It’s hard to pin down Memoirs. One moment, it’s light-and-fluffy; the next, for a briefer moment, it’s heavy and intriguing. Sometimes the “heavy” is done well and other times, it’s obvious that this is a book written with words about people who don’t exist. Personally, I like to forget that I’m reading when I’m reading. If that’s what you’re looking for, too, you won’t find it here in Memoirs.
It was so good(:
I felt like I was slowly getting to know Naomi throughout the whole, which is perfect!
I felt like I was slowly getting to know Naomi throughout the whole, which is perfect!