Review: The Forgetting

The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 13, 2016
Pages: 403
Genre: YA Dystopian
Rating: 3/5

Disclaimer: Review is based off of a copy of an uncorrected proof.

Synopsis: 

What isn't written, isn't remembered. Even your crimes.

Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no consequences and no remorse, when each person's memories— of parents, children, love, life, and self— are lost and forgotten. Unless they have been written. 

In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.

Review:

And there's actually more to the synopsis, but I'm just going to stop there. My first thought after reading that, (and I think most people would agree with me), was that it reminded me of The Giver by Lois Lowry. The whole dystopian concept of one person retaining memories while everyone else forgets has been coined by Mrs. Lowry, and it's just hard to not make that connection. The same would go for anyone who wrote about wizards— people automatically think about Harry Potter. Vampires? Twilight.

I will give credit to the author and say that her tale definitely took a different direction. The first half had me a bit bored with the characters. There's nothing unlikable about Nadia, our protagonist, but at the same time, there's nothing super likable about her either. Same goes for our male lead, Gray. I have read reviews from other readers who adore him, but I didn't feel connected with him. Especially not in the first half. His most memorable trait is his smirk which appears in each chapter for the first 200 pages.

Sometimes the author's language teeters around, and I understand that some things are meant to be more abstract, but there's only so much of that I can take. For example,

"I'm shivering, but I've forgotten to feel cold. It's fear I'm feeling now. This light on my hand is not normal. Not natural. And it's coming from nowhere. Except that everything comes from somewhere."

And I know exactly what Cameron wanted to say, but at times it just feels like fluff. With all that said, I don't think this is a bad book. Nadia and Gray do grow and have their own revelations (again, one that I didn't expect! so kudos) which made the book much easier to read in the second half. I did hear there was a companion book to this. Not sure if I'll pick it up though. Unfortunately for me, The Forgetting was...well, quite forgettable.