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A review by writervid
The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron
3.0
2.75/5
I have so many feelings about this book? Many negative, many positive. Let's start with the positive.
First of all, the voice. While the execution here strays in so many ways, I loved the flow of Nadia's inner mind, and that was one of the things that kept me reading. The simple descriptions worked well and kept me hooked.
The second thing I really loved was the premise, and how it attempted to go into a theme. I love the concept of remembering something set in a society where everyone forgets. I like the way that this book skimmed over the ideas of what makes truth, and how do we know things (it definitely reminds me of my Theory of Knowledge class, though).
However: emphasis on skimmed.
I don't think this book went deep enough into the concepts it tried to cover. I think there could have been fascinating questions about the state of the human psyche, what makes humans human, how much of what we do is memory based: all of that. The world wasn't explored enough, making the *big reveal* at the end feel sloppy and not built up to. The plot felt like there were too few stakes for me to care. Similarly, the romance was skimmed over, told to us rather than shown, and because of that, I didn't feel anything for it (which made me so sad; I loved the romance in Rook and was hoping I'd find something that even halfway measured up here).
Am I happy I read this book? Yes, because it got me thinking. Do I think this book could have done with a few more rounds of edits and rewrites? 100%.
I have so many feelings about this book? Many negative, many positive. Let's start with the positive.
First of all, the voice. While the execution here strays in so many ways, I loved the flow of Nadia's inner mind, and that was one of the things that kept me reading. The simple descriptions worked well and kept me hooked.
The second thing I really loved was the premise, and how it attempted to go into a theme. I love the concept of remembering something set in a society where everyone forgets. I like the way that this book skimmed over the ideas of what makes truth, and how do we know things (it definitely reminds me of my Theory of Knowledge class, though).
However: emphasis on skimmed.
I don't think this book went deep enough into the concepts it tried to cover. I think there could have been fascinating questions about the state of the human psyche, what makes humans human, how much of what we do is memory based: all of that. The world wasn't explored enough, making the *big reveal* at the end feel sloppy and not built up to. The plot felt like there were too few stakes for me to care. Similarly, the romance was skimmed over, told to us rather than shown, and because of that, I didn't feel anything for it (which made me so sad; I loved the romance in Rook and was hoping I'd find something that even halfway measured up here).
Am I happy I read this book? Yes, because it got me thinking. Do I think this book could have done with a few more rounds of edits and rewrites? 100%.