Did I like it? YESSSS!!!
You'll love it if you liked: Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols, Sarah Dessen novels, When It Happens by Susane Colasanti and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin.
Aura: Striking and powerful but not overly intense
Read If: You want a contemporary romance that doesn’t preach, overdramatize or undermine.
Main Character: Zoey Commander, high school senior, female
Themes: Hate turned to love, Redemption, Self-discovery, Memory Loss, Family Trouble, Relationships, Romance
Plot: 8.75/10. Beautiful fleshing of a previously used concept.
Narration: 8.75/10. Grasping.
Characterization: 9.5/10. The “wow” factor of the novel.
Overall: 9.25/10
Did I get bored anywhere? Nope.
Did any part confuse me? Not at all. It was a smooth read.
Line/ Page Skippability: 1.5/5. Just at times.
Writing Style: Average sentences, Informal, Communicative
Uniqueness: 8/10
Predictability: 2/10. I loved how the predictability was not there despite the fact it is a simple storyline.
Imagery: 4.5/5. The scenes seem to be playing right before me.
Cover: 9/10. Sensual yet innocent in it’s wonderfully ironic way.
Ending: If the book is thought of as a very, very good looking person, he/she sure has exceptionally sexy feet! (Seriously, how’d you get feet like that?!)
Reading priority: Must Read
Reading duration: Slow readers: 6 days. Fast readers: 4 hours.
Synopsis:

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. With her life 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.

WordVore Prod’s Review:

I felt like I was reading something life-changing. The book has the power to move planets off their orbits. It is truly difficult to come across such powerful prose.

Zoey was such a multidimensional character. She grew so much yet so realistically throughout the book! The way she learns to let go, cope with troubling issues and feel like a blossoming human…it’s simply marvelous. Her narrative was sharp, edgy and strong and I thought it did an amazing job of getting the story across. Her relationship with her parents and its development has been shown in perfectly symmetrical steps and it’s hard to feel out of step when I was following her life story.

Doug was beautiful. His character was not clichéd and offered a fresh new silhouette of the quintessential “bad boy” stereotype. I love the relationship between Zoey and Doug—they learn from each other, mess up but get up again and gradually meld into each other like jagged, but nearly perfect, puzzle pieces. Doug seemed a tad bit controlling though, however, not in the control-freak way, thankfully.

The plot was truly inspiring. It portrayed the downfalls and lessons of growing up without being preachy or unbelievable in any way. Dialogues were well written and fit perfectly with the respective scenario. I LOVED the way Jennifer Echols works with emotions and sentiments in this book. Every single transition in emotion feels like a slight change in temperature—subtle but it’s there and it creates a stirring inside of you.

What bothered me a little is how Brandon, Zoey’s boyfriend, seemed to be missing. It wasn’t as if I missed the guy terribly, but his inclusion would have made the story a little more structured.

Forget You does NOT stay true to its name—because I couldn’t forget a word I read after I was done! I had been waiting for this book for a long time and I’m glad to say it didn’t let me down. The novel is a well-sewn blanket, with the fabric being a vividly visual background, the designs being the little anecdotes and happenings that make up life and the threads being the rush of emotions that accompanies each story.

Labels: Family, Forget You, Hate-to-Love, Healing, Jennifer Echols, Memory Loss, Romance

Sunday, August 23, 2009

WorDissection: Epitaph Road by David Patneaude