The Forgetting

by Sharon Cameron

Series:* The Forgetting

Rating: 4 stars

I really enjoyed this book, and I think it was really well done. It almost got five stars, but it just didn’t quite click with me. I enjoyed it, I might even reread it some day, but it isn’t something I really loved.

This book had me up very late reading… Which really wasn’t the smartest thing I could have done. Seriously though, I had to be up early the next morning, and I got in to a hotel at almost eleven at night. The smart thing to do would have been to go to bed. Not to stay up for more than an hour, finishing my book. But what did I do? Hahaha, thats right, I stayed up until sometime after midnight, because I had to know what happened. And then I had to get up early… I’m not tired at all right now. Nope. Not one bit.

Also, I seem to be reading a lot of books with gorgeous covers lately! This one is also SO pretty!

*Apparently this is part of a series… I only realized this as I was writing this post… I’m a bit annoyed, because I thought it had a perfectly good ending, but I’ll probably read the sequel anyways.

Setting

The setting for this book was super cool! I can’t say all that much about it without some pretty large spoilers… but I will say that it only gets even cooler!

I can however, give some basic information about the world.
Basically they live in this walled city, called Canaan,* and every twelve years they forget everything. Everybody keeps a book (basically a very detailed journal), and after the forgetting, they have to read there book to remember who they are.

I was intrigued by this concept from the moment I read the blurb, and I was not disappointed. It was really well done, and you get just the right amount of detail. I understood their world, I got how it worked, I could believe it, I could even picture it.

*And I can actually remember the name of it! AND how to spell it! Which I can almost never do with fictional places.

Plot

The plot was very fast paced* and exciting, and full of surprising twists. I normally at least sort of predict one or two of the plot twists, but I didn’t predict a single thing. I understood some things before the characters, but I was meant to. This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I needed to know what was going to happen.

Anyways, the plot is basically that the last time the forgetting came around, the main character didn’t forget. Now the forgetting is approaching again, and she’s falling in love… but he’ll forget her, and she’ll be able to remember him… It’s a bit cliche, but at least there’s a real reason why she doesn’t, and the rest of the book is great, and quite original (Even the rest of the plot is great), so it more than makes up for the slightly cliche plot.

*I’m not sure if it was actually all that fast paced, but it felt like it was, because I was so invested in it.

Characters

I really liked all the characters in this, they were all super well developed, and they were the best part of this book.

Nadia – She’s the main character, and although I don’t love her, she’s well developed, and still likeable enough. At first she’s really closed off, and then she slowly starts to open up, and I just think she is developed really well.

Gray – Gray is definitely my favourite character. He’s sort of great! Actually, more than sort of. Incredibly great! I can’t really describe him, but he is amazing. He’s a little bit arrogant and more than a little bit cocky, and he’s hilarious, and! I! Love! Him! So! So! Much!

Genivee – She’s Nadia’s younger sister, and she’s really sweet. She’s sort of energetic and excitable, and she’s just lovely really.

Liliya – She’s Nadia’s older sister, and she’s honestly not very nice for most of the book. However, I think she was well developed, and I get why she was nasty. She was believable. She was stressed, and worried about her mother. I don’t really like her, but I think she was a really good character, and really added to the book.

Everybody else – The fact is, all the characters were really well developed, and I can’t possibly list them all. So I’m just going to say that there’re all great, and how many time have I used the words well developed in this post? I don’t know, but I’m going to say them again. With the possible exception of a couple really small characters, every single character was really well developed. Every. Single. Character.

Over All

I loved The Forgetting! I could not put it down, I was completely swept away by this book. I’m totally going to end up reading the sequel, even though I sort of don’t think it’s necessary for a sequel to exist at all. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes… Sci-fi? I’m not actually sure what genre this counts as. Just read it if you think it sound even vaguely interesting. Because it was really good.

Have you read The Forgetting? Are you going to? (You should!) Can you usually remember the names of fictional places? Or do you forget them like I do?