A reading worth a day...

Forgotten by Cat Patrick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I can't believe I finished this in ONE day..is not like I haven't done that before but I didn't expect this to grab me and nail me to my phone until there were no more words left. And man, was it a roller coaster. This is the first time that that expressions REALLY means that very same thing..UPS and DOWNS and LOOPS and just MINDBLOWNED-NESS.... F word is in order. Hands down one of the best plots I have read in a while.



Let me explain all those funny looking words for you. You see, we meet London Lane, a high school girl, very normal looking, with a mom and and absent dad, not that that may call to a Surprise expression. BUT, she does not have a memory. Not like mine or yours or like anybody else's. She remembers forward, she knows the future but not the past. Once she lives one of her memories BANG! she forgets it, it doesn't exist for her anymore. So, in order to have a normal life or an attempt for one she relies on her daily notes and reminders, so she doesn't depend that much on her mom or her best friend, aka, her only friend. Lets just say she is not very popular in her higschool, in fact you may call her the Freak of the class, even though she tries to make notes about every single detail she thinks she'll need, she is bound to make mistakes just like everyone else. So she sometimes seem very forgetful or just plain distracted to not recall very simple things. That is just how it is, she can't do anything about it except form theories to why she has that condition. And her best one so far has being the fact that her dad left her after her parent's divorce without so much as a glance back. I know, ok, is that the great plot you were talking about up there? Well, that is just the start.

So before I continue, please stop, and go read the book and come back afterwards because herE it is : SPOILERS ALERT*



It started the day he started at school. Without knowing, London just met her true love, a handsome boy named Luke, that as cute as he is, hides the key for all the twists and turns this book has in store for you. First, London starts having this dream, a nightmare really, a funeral, Luke's maybe, or a child, hers? Who knows but the images there,the people she finds surrounding her are her long lost father and, surely, that old lady is her grandma. But what to do? Now, she finds some pictures of her dad along with some birthday cards for her form her dad. Secrets. Secrets she wants to take out to the light but her relationship with her mom, once a very open one, is starting to shutdown. She is lying to her anyway. (Very immature of her, didn't quite understand that part myself) And to top it all, once she has managed to start dating Luke, no matter how the first date went (she no remebering any of it and me wishing that a real guy was just like Luke), her best friend Jaimie starts to date Mr. Rice (yep, a teacher. A married teacher.) and does not want to know how that will end up, because you know, London knows, but she does not want to hear any of it, and after fighting her notes, London tells her anyway and that is the end of their firendship,at least for a while, because, again, London knows. That is a terrible thing, knowing how stuff will be but not being able to remember afterwards. Kind of sucky sometimes. But as the story keeps going, it helps when you find out that your boyfriend for 4 months has been lying to you, knowing everything about you. Quite handy, all you do is erase it form you notes, and Voila! it's done. No more Luke. But he is a fighter, people! He will not take no for an answer so he makes her see that the brake up is a mistake and over something so trivial as a "You lie to me. I lie to you." fight. Again, i didn't quite get it myself, but I try to put myself in London's shoes. She can't trust in just anybody. But well, who would've guess, that fight will teach Luke a lesson and he is just as happy to know that because, it is London! And that's the part were the first unexpected twist came, LUKE KNOWS! He knew all along, since they were 11 years old. That story is just so cute. I just love it when the male character hides a secret crush on the female character. But, unlike other novels,you didn't expect it at all! I surely did not see that one coming!

The second twist happens when London realizes that her nightmare, her memory (keep in mind she only remembers the future) is that, a memory, of the past. The funerl was something that happened, before. She lived that and somehow is able to remember it. And the loop in that twist is that is her little brother's funeral. Jonas' funeral. And from this everything goes rather smoothly. London reconciles with Jaimie. Her mom and London herself start to have hope about the possibility that Jonas might be alive. Her relationship with Luke morfs, because now she can remember him, from her future, something that had bever happened before.

And the final twist is that she remembers the day everything went downhill for her family. The day Jonas was kidnapped. She letting the strange lady come in the car, taking Jonas away. Her dad rushing behind them, ending up in a crash. She dying and brought back to life, leaving her with a major fault. Her unique memory. Followed buy the divorce and him, disappearing.

And, well, once you think of it, everything is plot convenient (in a way) but man that I'm glad that you find that one out just after you finish it. You have expectations but they might be fulfilled in a way you never expected. I know mine were. And I cannot escape the feeling that this is just so 50 first Dates but backwards. From the girl's point of view but the guy just the same. He not taking advantage of her memory problem and all that. Just loved it. It was a reading worth the day it took me to read it. Try it. I give it a mighty big Thumbs-Up for a week-end read. If you feel like it. ;)



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