The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron: I called the plot twist . . . again

The Forgetting 

by 

Sharon Cameron

Canaan is a walled city whose inhabitants forget everything every twelve years. Every twelve years the entire city is thrown into chaos as the people forget even the closest of friends and family. They’re left with their books; which function as journals, they are kept with fervor and are the only things to survive the Forgetting. Unless they’re destroyed accidentally in the chaos... or on purpose*. Which kind of begs the question of why they didn’t just tattoo that crap on their skin? Eh, whatever.

Not from the Editor: *Muhahaha! Mine is an Evil Laugh! C'mon, the situtation is totally sinister.

              Nadia, the protagonist, isn’t as consistent in writing in her book as everyone else in Canaan. Because she can remember everything. At least, she remembers her first and only Forgetting. But as the next Forgetting approaches Nadia realizes that her memories can be used for more than just keeping her family together in the aftermath. She could use them to stop the Forgetting.

Characters

Nadia: She literally never talks. I think in some way it’s in fear that she might let something slip that could reveal that she remembers everything. Which, she’s pretty sure is a bad thing. I don’t know, her reasoning isn’t fully explained. I think there was supposed to be some sort of ‘Gray convinced her to come out of her shell’ kind of thing going down. But, I’m going to ignore that because the trope annoys me to the moon and back. I almost wish that she’d been full mute (she might as well have been since she barely speaks in the first half) At least then she’d have something that set her apart from all the rest of the YA heroines.

Gray: is kind of boring. I mean, as a character who was basically all love interest he wasn’t offensive. But he has literally no other character traits. He’s just dull. And don’t even get me started on how he was smirking in very other expression. You realize that there are other words like smirking, right? You don’t have to use it every time.

Note from the Editor: I don't know, smirking is a pretty cool move. *smirks* ...Have I learned well under your tutelage, Cat Rook?

Wrong Kat, but that works too. 

Likes

The premise was certainly interesting: A little out there, but interesting. With everyone forgetting everything you really couldn’t tell what was going on in the great wide world. Are there other cities that also forget? Are we in the future? The past? Is this book in the genre fantasy? Dystopian? Who knows? There was a lot of mystery surrounding the whole thing, which certainly kept me interested.

The stakes were impressive: if you can’t tell from the character’s section, Cameron's characters weren’t my favorite. Certainly not the worst, or even all that unlikable, just not phenomenal. But the idea of them forgetting everything, yes even Nadia, tugged at even my heartstrings.. I mean, nobody specifically told us that her immunity would last a second round. And, this coming from the girl who can’t get behind 90% of YA romances. I guess there’s something personally frightening about forgetting everything that makes you, you. Maybe it’s one of those universal fears, like the dark, the unknown, things with too many legs.

Dislikes

It was kind of slow: which, if this book had been marketed as a mystery, wouldn’t have been so bad. But look at the cover! Read the description! If I had to guess I’d say the book is Fantasy or Dystopian. Yet, nothing happened for pages and pages. Sure, the unanswered questions kept me reading, but I wasn’t always the most excited about it. Maybe if I’d expected a slow burn suspenseful mystery I wouldn’t have been so bored. But, as it stands, it was pretty dull at times.

I guessed the plot twist: I’m going to start with the non-spoiler-y bits. I would feel better if I knew whether I was supposed to guess the plot twist or not. Because, if I was, then good for me! But if I wasn’t, well... I just ruined something that was supposed to be surprising. Oops. Unfortunately, after a quick perusal through goodreads, I think it was supposed to be the latter; because a lot of people raved about how surprising and unique it was. Well not if you guessed four chapters before the big reveal.

Okay with the non-spoiler part over, I’m going to get into spoiler territory.

So, it turns out that we’re on an alien planet. Cool, I guess. But then again, I don’t know. There wasn’t any flora or fauna or any giant alien beasties that would have made the setting worthwhile. As far as I could tell, except for some different names for things and a few unnamed and undescribed plants and animals nothing was different from earth at all. On one hand, I guess Cameron didn’t want to make it to obvious that we weren’t on earth, which is good and all. But, on the other hand, we get zero description about the world, like at all. There is a bit where the characters wander through some data files and talk about how they don’t have this or that, like giraffes or sharks, but we never get to see what this world has. I don’t know guys, it just feels like the setting was completely underdeveloped.

              Honestly, I think I kind of ruined the book for myself by guessing the plot twist. I feel like, next to the premise, that was supposed to be the book's draw point, you know? Well, I’m not really a setting person, I’m more of a character person. Sure, I can be blown away by a brilliant world, and I certainly appreciate it when the story exists outside of a vague bubble, but as long as the characters are great I can put up with a lot. Ultimately, I don’t think this was The Forgetting’s strong suit. Still, I have no qualms about recommending it to anyone who finds it halfway interesting. Just because it wasn’t my cup of tea doesn’t mean it was bad.