Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
FINAL RATING: 1.5 STARSWhere to begin?First off, I suppose I should say that I wanted to read this book the moment I laid eyes on it in the bookstore. I bought it that same day and squealed as I took it home. Yes, I was that eager to read it.Before I could do that, I had to get through City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, Clockwork Angel, Paranormalcy, and Supernaturally. Each of these books was exquisite and original, so maybe that's why this book sucked so much.Oh, yes, and this review will contain major spoilers. Consider yourself warned.WTF. This was not a love story.Onto to my actual review… I'll come back to that later. THE HEROINENaomi was whiny, annoying, and selfish. No matter how hard I tried to like her, I just couldn't. all she does the entire book is whine about her freaking amnesia. WE GET IT. YOU LOST YOUR MEMORY. Now get over it and move on with your life. Sure, it can be difficult to accept that you've forgotten things, but you don't have to be so whiny about it; it only makes it worse. Naomi was also so, so stupid. Like, ridiculously stupid. She couldn't seem to decide what to do about ANYTHING. Because of her amnesia. Riiiight. And her voice is irritating, but I'll come to that later. THE LOVE INTERESTSACEAce was actually not so bad. Sure, he tries annoying hard to get Naomi back into bed, which I find somewhat disturbing, but at least he's pretty nice. Naomi can't remember why she fell in love with him until she gets her memory back, but even then it feels like she's fuzzy on the subject. He's polite and actually pretty sweet. If not for him being so lusty, I might've actually wanted him to stay with Naomi. Except, I wouldn't wish that on him. Although, he has no real depth. He's a very shallow character, like most of them are.JAMESJames is my favorite character and the only person even remotely interesting in this entire book. Sure, he has problems, some which are never really made clear, but there are people like that in the world. One of my ex-boyfriends, for example, went to jail once. For what? I don't know, and now I never will. But I don't doubt for a second that he has a good heart. A person doesn't have to be flawless in order to be safe and loving. James actually has feelings, and conflict, and an actual freaking plot line. I love that he isn't perfect, and I love that Zevin was at least not afraid to make his character just the slightest bit dangerous.WILLWill annoyed the freaking hell out of me. He's so uncomprehending of the difficulties of amnesia. This might seem to conflict with what I said earlier about how Naomi needs to get over her amnesia, but that's not what I mean. If Naomi should've been less whiny, Will should've realized that amnesia means you can't remember things. so if she doesn't remember what her nickname for your was, give the girl a freaking break! Will was so annoying selfish and indecisive. He'd welcome Naomi back, then give her the cold shoulder, and then suddenly feel like talking to her again. I say: What. The. Hell. THE ROMANCELike I said before, this isn't a love story. It's true that Naomi and James fall in love, and then Naomi and Will, but there's no real substance, at least to the second romance. Naomi and James fall in love over her lost memory, but once it returns there's nothing to hold them together. What kind of love is that? One based off of lies and forgotten things? Naomi believes she loves him, but she isn't exactly going to win the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics anytime soon, or ever. I don't believe there was even a real love there at all, just kisses and lust and shallow, shallow physicality. You can't have a love story without love.And if the loves story Naomi refers to is the one with her and Will rather than her and James? Um, can you say cliché? Really? Ending up with the best friend? Isn't that so original? It might've been sweet, except Will was so cruel to Naomi at times that I couldn't fathom how he claims he loves her, or why she would ever love him. THE WRITINGThe novel is written from Naomi's point of view, and is annoying as hell. Her voice isn't anything better than her personality. She either describes too much or too little, and it's so frustrating. Her voice is one of the main reasons I disliked her so much. If this novel had been told from third-person point-of-view and I hadn't had to hear Naomi whine every thirty seconds, I might've actually enjoyed this book more. Maybe it would've gotten an extra half-star. I really can't say much more here without launching into a speech to rival William Henry Harrison's inauguration address.(Look it up. The guy wrote like people breathe.) THE ENDINGWTF?!?!?!?!?!?!? There is no freaking closure! Maybe Zevin thought she had enough conclusion, but I tell you she did not. Half of the plot lines are left open-ended, and there were so many loose ends. Everything is not okay just because you say it is!!! You need answers, and solutions. I don't care if Naomi's amnesia is gone; that does not automatically make everything freaking better. In order for a stand-alone book (or the last book in a series) to end well, you have to have freaking resolution! This entire book felt pointless and I honestly have no clue what story Zevin was trying to tell or even what point exactly she wanted to make. All I got out of this book was fluff, a headache, and a ton of wasted time. But she and Will are together! So that's, like, soooooooo good!Not.FINE.Find this review and more on Sparkles and Lightning!
there may be spoilers*, but mild and gentle ones, not "it was earth all along" spoilers. this is a book i was reading for school, not because i am a big fan of realistic teen fiction. if you are a teen girl wondering if you should read this book, this is probably not going to be the review for you. in fact, you should stay away from most of my reviews because i am careless and i don't want to be responsible for shattering any beautiful innocence about life or anything. stay gold and all that.the brain is a complicated organ. duh. well, it is. and i can only assume that gabrielle zevin did her brain-research to get all the facts about amnesia and memory loss and its potential for recovery into fighting shape.but amnesia in general seems like such a contrivance - a staple of soap operas and romantic comedies, it never seems real, even though it happens every day.how does the brain selectively lose chunks of information but retain others? please don't tell me - this is just a rhetorical musing- my brain does not even want to begin to think about it. instead, i am choosing to interpret amnesia here as more of a metaphor for the formlessness of adolescence, where a girl can fall for the tennis jock one day and see no conflict in then developing feelings for the moody and tortured artist and then deciding her goofy best friend is the next logical move. where hobbies are acquired and dropped with regularity and friends change with the season. i mean, obviously the character in this book has actual amnesia (mind those stairs, kids!) but i'm am talking big-picture, the value of this book to readers. i mean - who is the most logical audience for this book?? amnesiacs?? they won't even remember having read it, so too bad for them.the audience is just everyday teens, either exercising their schadenfreude muscles, or who can relate to the feelings of confusion and freedom that this amnesiac experiences. adolescence is already filled with infinite possibilities - where so many things are still new and untried, but imagine starting over within this already emotional and hormonal time and being given a free pass to do anything and be able to blame it on amnesia? score!! she writes this part exceptionally well.and i love teen fiction with flawed protagonists. most teens i come into contact with are selfish assholes - it's just that stage in development. i'm pretty sure i was a selfish asshole at fifteen as well. so i appreciate it when the characters aren't all noble virgin peacemakers. i think that the discovery of the unreliable narrator is one of the joys of development as a reader, and there are not many in teen fiction - it marks a transition into adult literature, like "look at the possibilities". this narrator isn't unreliable per se, not intentionally so, but she is awfully unlikable, presumably contracting a heavy dose of jerkiness with her head trauma. so at the end of the day, i think she wrote a fantastic book about being emotionally unmoored. whether she wrote a great book about amnesia is debatable, but i think the emotional ups and downs of youth are captured well, and it is a book teen girls will probably eat up with a spoon. (because i know you guys are still reading this, just because i told you not to)* a note on spoilers from my textbook (literature for today's young adults - nilsen and donelson 8th edition) that i think puts it well: the more you read, the more your pleasure will come not so much from being surprised at how a book ends but from your recognition of all the things the author did to bring you as the reader to the end of the story. As discussed in the following section, “Stages of Literary Appreciation,” reading is similar to a journey where what you experience along the way is often as importantas what you experience at your final destination.
What do You think about Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac (2007)?
It all started with a coin toss. Naomi picked heads and now she can’t remember the past four years of her life. Well there was a little bit more to the accident than the coin toss, there is the part about falling down the stairs head first, but the coin toss was the ultimate downfall.She doesn’t remember her best friend Will, she doesn’t remember her boyfriend Ace, she doesn’t remember her parents divorce, but she does remember James the boy who found her after the accident.Everyone tries to tell Naomi the kind of person that she is, but she isn’t sure that she wants to go back to being that person. Did she really like working on the yearbook staff with Will? Was she even in love with Ace? Now that Naomi has a second chance, will she be able to find the courage to take it?This is my first time reading Zevin and I really enjoyed her writing. I’m looking forward to reading Elsewhere another one of her books. As for Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, I loved Naomi’s search into her identity and her self realization. This book was not only thought provoking but also entertaining. The characters were well rounded and helped balance the story. The themes were mostly serious but again it was balanced with humor. I loved this story and I recommend it as a great read!
—Kristi
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?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. Great Book!
—Heather
I read that one fast. I really liked this book, especially the beginning. I bought this yesterday and I was only going to read the first few pages to find out what it was about, but I didn't put it down until about page 70. I only did that because I had to eat. There were times when I did get angry with Naomi's choices. A lot of the time it just seemed like she was being unnecessarily rude to people that were only trying to help her. I really didn't understand why (view spoiler)[ she stayed with Ace so long. She was about to have sex with him because she "had done it before". I also found it a bit annoying that she decided not to tell anyone that she had gotten her memory back. I just kept waiting for her to tell someone. Can we talk about how awful she treated Will after she got involved with James? That made me a bit angry too. I really liked Will. I'm also kind of curious who's coffee was on the stairs. (hide spoiler)]
—Brittany Taylor
