Review: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Title: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: FSG
Date published: 2007
Type of book: Teen fiction (amnesia, love, suicide, divorce, mixed families)
Pages: 271
I received this book from/at: Amazon Marketplace
My interest in this book is: plot

Ideas expressed/message/plot: From inside cover: “If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss.
She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps.
She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place.
She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d get all his inside jokes, and maybe he wouldn’t be so frustrated with her for forgetting things she can’t possibly remember.
She’d know about her mom’s new family.
She’d know about her dad’s fiancée.
She wouldn’t have to spend her junior year relearning all the French she supposedly already knew.
She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her.
She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back.
But Naomi picked heads.”

Favorite characters, quotes/lines: Naomi: Don’t get me wrong, she was frustrating at times and I even envied her in ways. It may seem like something horrible to lose your memory, but in ways, it was the best thing that could have happened to Naomi; Will: he was really funny and I totally wanted a mix cd from him! It always seems like the person who is right in front of you is the easiest to ignore (poor Will); James: he was really… interesting. I think he showed Naomi how lucky she was to have the life she did and why her amnesia wasn’t necessarily a bad thing

When I finished this book I felt: It wasn’t what I was expecting – it was better. It was surprisingly deep, which wasn’t really the impression I got from the book jacket. I also really liked the references to music in the book…. Some of my favorites were mentioned.

Other books to read by this author: Elsewhere

I would recommend this book to: It is a book that I would recommend to just about anyone, but not really as light reading, even though it is a short book. So I guess it is light, but the content isn’t. ;)