Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Review: Forget About Me

(Don't You) Forget About Me 
by Kate Karyus Quinn 
Hardcover, 336 pages 
Expected publication: June 10th 2014 
by HarperTeen
ARC from Edelweiss
Goodreads AmazonB & N TBD


Welcome to Gardnerville. 
A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies. 
Except... 
There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them. 

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all. 



I am a big fan of the The Twilight Zone and was drawn to this creepy book instantly when I stumbled upon the blurb. And it is indeed unlike any other book that I've ever read before. 

This is one of those rare YA books that is complex enough that I don't think that it is justified to be categorized as YA. It has elements that even Dean Koontz or Stephen King fans can find enticing. Apart from having a teen as the main character, the book is not the usual YA trope that you find in the market. The eerie and sometimes perplexing setting required some patience to get into. And the dual setting alternating from the present and flashbacks can be a bit intimidating for some.

We get the hazy main character who is desperately trying to make sense as to what is real and what is not while trying to figure out  what is behind the gates  of The Reformatory where her older sister was imprisoned after leading her friends to jump to their death. Since this is the fourth year where bad things happened to teens, everyone in Gardnerville is apparently jumpy and anxiously waiting for doom to struck.

If you're patient enough to read this till the end despite the layers of back stories that can sometimes be confusing then finding out the reason behind the existence of this creepy fictional town will definitely blow your mind. 

If you're a fan of weird and scary stories that make no sense at all then this is certainly for you. Since long after finishing this book, that lingering sense of wonder and curiosity still haunts me to this day. Chilling, mysterious and totally unique, this precious stand alone is one of the best book I've ever had the chance to read this year. 


No comments:

Post a Comment