Review of Sharon Cameron's The Forgetting

The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron

Review

Title: The Forgetting
Author: Sharon Cameron
Book Length: 421 pages
Content note: YA 12 and up very little violence 



“Our books are our sole identity after the Forgetting, the string that connects us to who we were before…..Don’t forget.”

This book is an adventure. It makes the reader think about memory, truth, and how memories and truths (even perceived truths) make up a life. The setting is so intriguing that I was hooked right from the start. The characters live in a small walled-in-city that has three moons and their seasons are wildly different from ours. Also, the characters "forget" their lives every 12 years. Each person keeps a book detailing the “truth” about their life to keep from being "lost" after a "forgetting time." If you are lost, you have no book of memories, no family to connect with, and your life is really bleak. The forgetting time makes everyone forget themselves, their families, and other relationships, but they do not forget their skills of survival, reading, and writing. Right before a forgetting time, some people take advantage to commit crimes that will never be remembered.

Then, we have Nadia who somehow remembers...everything: the chaos, the brutality, the lawlessness, and then the vacant people desperately trying to rebuild their lives. At first she is living a lonely life with a very fragile mother and two sisters. One of her sisters suspects that Nadia just snuck into their family after the last forgetting time and is not really a family member. Nadia relieves her loneliness and frustration by climbing over the wall, which is against the "rules," to explore the frightening and dangerous outside world. Then her wall-climbing activities are found out by Gray, a boy who wants her to take him outside the wall. Nadia and Gray start a wild, and of course romantic, adventure as they discover some dark truths about their society and how the forgetting times create some powerful opportunities for a malevolent individual. The next forgetting time is about to happen and Nadia knows that everyone will forget her again, even Gray.


This book is a wonderful mixture of YA drama/action, an interesting dystopian setting, science fiction, and engaging characters. If you read this book, you might discover some interesting truths about yourself.