Friday 13 January 2012

Contemp YA Month: Forget You - Jennifer Echols




Forget You – Jennifer Echols

Pages: 292
Publisher: MTV Books (S&S US)
Release Date: 20th July 2010

Other Titles by this Author: Endless Summer, Major Crush, The Ex Games, Going Too Far, Love Story, The One That I Want

Why can’t you choose what you forget...and what you remember?

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all – the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug – of all people – suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life – a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

Forget You is the second book I’ve read by Jennifer Echols and I loved it just as much as I did Going Too Far.

I have to admit that it took me a couple of chapters to connect with the characters in this novel. Zoey is so controlled and perfect in the beginning that it takes time for her to unravel and me to warm up to her; Doug went from being an ass to a sweetheart over the course of a couple of pages, the twins seemed shallow and annoying and her dad is just plain horrible. But at the same time, I think that’s what I liked about Forget You – the characters were people who I could have gone to school with; they’re realistic. Jennifer Echols isn’t afraid to broach subject that real people have to deal with and she doesn’t shy away from harsh or embarrassing realities.

When it came to the wreck and Zoey’s not remembering it, she drove me mad. The way she refused to admit that she had no memory of the events during and just before it even though there would have been people who she could easily have asked was infuriating. I did fit perfectly with her character, however, and made the revelation of the events even more shocking. I also found her blindness to the right thing to do about choosing between Doug and Brandon highly annoying because the right choice was so glaringly obvious! The strange thing is that these things are also what made me really like her. The way that she began to let herself go and become her real self as a result of these dilemmas really endeared me to her.

I really enjoyed Forget You and I’m definitely going to get myself a copy of Love Story the next time I order from the US.

Sophie

5 comments:

  1. Arghk, books in which the character refuses to do what I'm shouting at them to do tend to really bug me!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really loved this...and agree with Emma re: Doug, (name was a bit unfortunate though!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. great review, Ive had this one sat on my shelf for a while, I think I better get round to it. Ive heard others say how amazingly realistic the characters are too, always a good thing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I see lots of love for this book, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else. Still, I enjoyed it and my love for Going Too Far knows no bounds. I shall still eagerly look out for more by Jennifer Echols!

    ReplyDelete

Leave a message, I'd love to hear from you!