Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Reader reviewed by Caroline Meyer

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
I didn't think much of what I was picking out when I took this book off the shelf, but I'm really glad that I did. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin takes you on a ride through confusion and heartbreak with Naomi, a teenage girl who, at the beginning of senior year, fell down concrete stairs and suffered severe amnesia. She wakes up in a world completely foreign to her, with a boy she doesn't even recognize standing over her. The author really makes you feel for Naomi as she tries to figure out what kind of girl she really was, and whether she really wants to be the same or not. I felt it was a very relatable book that shows the drama of high school with cliques and rumors and all of that. Seeing the world for what felt like the first time through her eyes really made me as the reader feel like I was going through this experience with her. She had no prior judgements of the people she saw so neither did the reader. This book has drama, emotion, and even a little bit of suspense although I wouldn't really consider is suspense more as anticipation. All of those put together made for a great book.

Recommendation by Caroline Meyer

Reader reviewed by Amy Ward

Have you ever wanted to just forget the past, start clean?  Or reinvent yourself?  This is what happens to Naomi when she falls down the steps at her high school.  She doesn't remember her friends, her boyfriend, basically the last four years of her life.  Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin is a truly entertaining and moving story.  It's shocking the things that Naomi forgets and then has to learn all over again.  Secrets about her family, secrets about her friends.  It all becomes a little easier after she meets James, a lost soul like herself.  But James has some big secrets in his past too.  Secrets big enough to keep them apart.  And what about Will, Naomi's best friend?  What is he hiding?  Read to find out!

I really enjoyed this book.  I had been wanting to read it forever and it was worth the wait.  Naomi is a sympathetic character but not perfect.  I like characters that are flawed.  It is true to real life.  Naomi doesn't make the best decisions but that is also true to real life.  I also love Will, her best friend.  The supporting characters, including James, add a lot of depth and emotion to the story.  It wouldn't be the same book without them.

Reader reviewed by SDaugherty

I really enjoyed this one..You often wonder what you would do if you
lost your memory, would you be a different person than you were before?
Naomi doesn't loose her whole memory, just about 4 years. But when you
wake up and find that you are 17 and can't remember anything after the
age of 12, that is a lot of ground to cover. Her views have become
different than they were before and she gets a figurative second chance
at who she has become over the last couple years. Grudges that she
doesn't understand seem to be unimportant, friends are seen for their
falseness and those who are close are nothing but strangers to her. Yet
one actual stranger catches her eye and his name is James.

This book was not filled with the happy endings but it was real. Not
everything works out for the best, yet it's what we do with the hand
that we are dealt is sometimes the most important part of the journey.
Naomi's journey is one that you definitely want to go along for the
ride.

Reader reviewed by blob

If she had picked tails everything would have been different-but she didn't! Naomi bumped her head falling down the school steps...when she next woke up she had forgotten the last four years of her life! Naomi then has to make decisions about things she cant even remember.
This book is about discovering yourself and the others around you. It is about being positive and making the best out of a bad situation. I definitely recommend it.

Reader reviewed by Mary

Naomi cracked her head open after falling on the stairs. The good news is she's still alive. The bad news is she's lost her memory.


Luckily for her, she has good friends to fill it in. But she's pretty confused about some things in her life. For one thing she found birth control pills in her drawer. For another her old self seems obsessed with yearbook...


Now, Naomi really has to wonder if she even wants to be her old self...


This book is well-written and incredibly addicting. Once I started it I had to finish it. And I have to say both the characters and the story are memorable.