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eherold's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
pam2375's review
3.0
This was a good story that had a lot of potential but just did not deliver completely for me. It is the story of a girl that was born to replace a sister. It is a bit of mystery and a bit of sci-fi and a bit of coming of age.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine for this advanced readers copy. This book released in March 2021.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine for this advanced readers copy. This book released in March 2021.
caraeferro's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked this a lot! It wasn’t quite as unique as the last one which is one of my favorite books but still definitely unique and very interesting. I predicted the biggest twist almost immediately which was a bummer, I was hoping it would double twist back to something unpredictable but overall I enjoyed the read, it was quick and fast paced as heck and I really like this author.
ljimenez89's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ameserole's review against another edition
3.0
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Color me intrigued.
Forget Me Not definitely confused me for most of this book. Mostly because I just had endless questions and not enough data to produce the answer. Luckily for me, I stuck with it and sort of got the answers that I was looking for. All in all, some of these people are complete psycho's and I felt bad for only one person.
In this, you will meet Linda. At first, she was strange and did all kinds of weird things. The beginning had a way to suck me in because I just wanted to know her story. Once secrets come out, well, I wasn't expecting all the twists and turns to come my way. So in other words, I wasn't fully prepared by all the craziness within these pages.
In the end, my mind was blown a little bit by what actually went down.
Color me intrigued.
Forget Me Not definitely confused me for most of this book. Mostly because I just had endless questions and not enough data to produce the answer. Luckily for me, I stuck with it and sort of got the answers that I was looking for. All in all, some of these people are complete psycho's and I felt bad for only one person.
In this, you will meet Linda. At first, she was strange and did all kinds of weird things. The beginning had a way to suck me in because I just wanted to know her story. Once secrets come out, well, I wasn't expecting all the twists and turns to come my way. So in other words, I wasn't fully prepared by all the craziness within these pages.
In the end, my mind was blown a little bit by what actually went down.
marilynw's review against another edition
4.0
Forget Me Not by Alexandra Oliva
In the not too distant future, 24 year old Linda Russell is barely navigating life, holed up in her tiny apartment, avoiding contact with anyone, while being constantly monitored by her distant father. Linda's unstable mother found a way to birth her in order to replace Linda's sister, who had died years before Linda was born. Then Linda's mother mostly ignored her and Linda basically raised herself, with little input from her mother, except to let her know that she was a failure at being her dead sister. Things changed when Linda was twelve years old and she was thrust into the limelight, to much curiosity and scorn.
And now Linda meets her new neighbor, Anvi, and dares to hope that she might finally have her very first friend. Anvi introduces Linda to virtual reality and it's a world where Linda is happy to get lost in, away from all of real life and it's overwhelming intrusion. At the same time, someone is making anonymous posts about all of life being indistinguishable from virtual reality. Linda has a hard enough time knowing what is real, knowing if her strange memories of her past life are real, and these anonymous posts and her venture into virtual reality just muddy the waters of reality for Linda.
Linda knows she's an unreliable narrator of her own life. I felt her distrust of anyone, of her past, of her present, of all people. She couldn't trust the only person she knew for her first twelve years, her mother, and that sets the stage for trusting no one. But wait, there was someone else, her twin sister. What happened to her twin sister, her one time companion, who vanished one day?
I enjoyed this story, a mix of mystery, a tiny taste of the future, and the perils of social media and virtual reality.
Publication: March 2, 2021
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.
In the not too distant future, 24 year old Linda Russell is barely navigating life, holed up in her tiny apartment, avoiding contact with anyone, while being constantly monitored by her distant father. Linda's unstable mother found a way to birth her in order to replace Linda's sister, who had died years before Linda was born. Then Linda's mother mostly ignored her and Linda basically raised herself, with little input from her mother, except to let her know that she was a failure at being her dead sister. Things changed when Linda was twelve years old and she was thrust into the limelight, to much curiosity and scorn.
And now Linda meets her new neighbor, Anvi, and dares to hope that she might finally have her very first friend. Anvi introduces Linda to virtual reality and it's a world where Linda is happy to get lost in, away from all of real life and it's overwhelming intrusion. At the same time, someone is making anonymous posts about all of life being indistinguishable from virtual reality. Linda has a hard enough time knowing what is real, knowing if her strange memories of her past life are real, and these anonymous posts and her venture into virtual reality just muddy the waters of reality for Linda.
Linda knows she's an unreliable narrator of her own life. I felt her distrust of anyone, of her past, of her present, of all people. She couldn't trust the only person she knew for her first twelve years, her mother, and that sets the stage for trusting no one. But wait, there was someone else, her twin sister. What happened to her twin sister, her one time companion, who vanished one day?
I enjoyed this story, a mix of mystery, a tiny taste of the future, and the perils of social media and virtual reality.
Publication: March 2, 2021
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.
jen286's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this story. I loved the author's first book so I was cautiously optimistic that this would be a great read as well, and it was. I love the way the author writes her stories. How you slowly figure out what is going on and get to know the characters. After reading the synopsis I was just so so on read the book, but it was amazing. A lady who had grown up inside a walled house in the woods in WA and who now is "free" but doesn't fit in with society. Oh, I felt for her so much as her life was not her own for the longest time (and people still think of her as who she was supposed to be...which makes your heart break for her). This is set in the not too distant future with more tech and more social media and everything which makes trying to slip under the radar a billion times worse. This was a fun, entertaining read that I didn't want to put down once I started.
thebookstrologist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
melissadelongcox's review against another edition
2.0
*Thanks to Ballantine Books (Random House) + NetGalley for the ARC!*
Hiding the entirety of my review for spoilers, so read at your own risk!
As other readers mentioned, what's eventually revealed to be the Glitch Hunter game framework creation (???) scenes aren't necessary. At the beginning of the book, it seems as though we may find out that Linda wasn't supposed to be part of this world (ie: that she was a glitch) or that the game creation was going to somehow greatly impact her story, and that was intriguing. But we later discover that actually, they were just including her in their game for the ~culture~ of it all, because #CloneGirl. Which, okay... but not necessary for the story given that it ultimately had very little to do with the rest of the story.
Then, the virtual reality gaming. Again - at the beginning of the story, you think there's something going on with a virtual reality world, so it seems as though all the gaming content is setting us up for a reveal later, but that's not the case at all, and it ultimately felt unnecessary. I think we could've gotten the same revelations about Linda's character with waaaayyyy less time spent in her VR game world.
The most interesting part of the story came at the last quarter or so of the book when we started to get the big reveals about Emmer (aka MR, there was never a twin sister, she was intended to be a copy of her deceased sister but failed, her memories weren't her own) - this content could've easily been expanded on and would've been way more interesting than the other stuff we actually got.
Like I said, the framework exists. The beginning and end of the story were good, and seeing a near-future world of technology was also really interesting, but ultimately, this one was a miss for me.
Hiding the entirety of my review for spoilers, so read at your own risk!
Spoiler
So, here's the thing: this book has the potential to be great. The framework is definitely there. I think where it's lacking is in the content itself.As other readers mentioned, what's eventually revealed to be the Glitch Hunter game framework creation (???) scenes aren't necessary. At the beginning of the book, it seems as though we may find out that Linda wasn't supposed to be part of this world (ie: that she was a glitch) or that the game creation was going to somehow greatly impact her story, and that was intriguing. But we later discover that actually, they were just including her in their game for the ~culture~ of it all, because #CloneGirl. Which, okay... but not necessary for the story given that it ultimately had very little to do with the rest of the story.
Then, the virtual reality gaming. Again - at the beginning of the story, you think there's something going on with a virtual reality world, so it seems as though all the gaming content is setting us up for a reveal later, but that's not the case at all, and it ultimately felt unnecessary. I think we could've gotten the same revelations about Linda's character with waaaayyyy less time spent in her VR game world.
The most interesting part of the story came at the last quarter or so of the book when we started to get the big reveals about Emmer (aka MR, there was never a twin sister, she was intended to be a copy of her deceased sister but failed, her memories weren't her own) - this content could've easily been expanded on and would've been way more interesting than the other stuff we actually got.
Like I said, the framework exists. The beginning and end of the story were good, and seeing a near-future world of technology was also really interesting, but ultimately, this one was a miss for me.