Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac: Gabrielle Zevin
September 20, 2007
Book: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Pages: 288
Age Range: 13 and up
Today I am pleased to point you to a tri-review that I conducted with Jules and Eisha of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Together, in round-robin fashion, we reviewed Gabrielle Zevin's Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. And I must say, it was a lot of fun discussing Zevin's book with Eisha and Jules. Here's part of the 7-Imp intro to the review:
"In this novel, we meet seventeen-year-old Naomi, who takes a tumble down her high school steps one day after losing a coin toss with her best friend and co-editor of the yearbook, Will, over who should go back into the building to get the yearbook's camera. She wakes to find that the past four years of her memory have been wiped clean and that she's being assisted in the ambulance by a rather handsome fellow student about whom she knows nothing. Thus begins her journey of self-discovery as she tries to put back the puzzle pieces of her life, trying to remember Ace, her boyfriend; the complicated relationship she had with Will; why her parents are divorced; and why it takes her father a good while to tell her he's now engaged. There's also the issue of her mother's new family, including a half-sister Naomi doesn't remember at all."
We continue by comparing the book to Zevin's first YA novel, Elsewhere, and then discussing the premise, characterization, writing style, etc. We also touch on our feelings about the ending, and the themes in the book. Also not be missed is an apt comparison by Eisha of one of the characters to a certain 80's high school movie character. Click through here to read the full review.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: September 2007
Source of Book: Review copy, passed along to me by Jules
Other Blog Reviews: Reading and Breathing, kpl_teens, Oops...Wrong Cookie, the YA YA YAs, Hypothetically Speaking, AmoXcalli, and others
Author Interviews: Estella's Revenge
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