Unremembered

Unremembered by Jessica Brody
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amnesia is a tricky thing. It plays out oddly because it comes in such a variety of conditions - nobody ever really forgets everything they ever knew. It's often like reformatting a hard drive in that there's some kind of basic structure set up. People usually remember what most objects are and have a cursory knowledge of what's going on and why and how.

It's also a clever plot device. In this case, it works as the basis for a great sci-fi story about Violet, an amnesiac girl who is the lone survivor of a plane crash. She wakes up in the water surrounded by bodies and one of her first thoughts after being found is "what's a plane?" She's only 16 so she's placed with a foster family after a couple of days in the hospital. She finds that numbers comfort her and that she always wants to run away from trouble. She has no feel for societal cues in interaction, which is always entertaining in its honesty no matter the story. And then there's the strange boy who keeps showing up no matter where she is, telling her she needs to remember. It's kind of creepy.

She has violet eyes, so everyone calls her Violet. Then she learns her name is Sera, short for Seraphina.

Jessica Brody did some smart things with this book. Because amnesia is such a spotty thing, she covered a lot of plot holes with it. There were times I wondered why Sera would remember some things and not others. But overall I have to admit that what seemed like an inconsistency could be attributed to overall amnesia. Points to the author for that.

You'd think this book is all about Sera finding out who she is, and it is. But as the story unfolds it becomes much more sci-fi, well done because it's not overly predictable. Although I wasn't surprised by the way the plot went, I was somewhat ever-so-slightly-surprised by the twist at the end. It's a good hook to continue the rest of the series.

The secondary characters here are interesting and likable. Zen is a bit exaggerated, but that's probably because I thought he was a lot more mature when we first meet him. Violet/Sera's foster family is delightful and her foster brother, the geeky Cody, provides some funny moments. He's a thirteen year old boy who's written really well. In fact, all the characters are written well except for maybe the villains, who are rather one-dimensional. There's a showdown near the end with the bad guy that seems slightly cliche. For as clever as the plot is with the whole amnesia thing, solving it edges on cliched, predictable territory. It's not enough to derail things, though. My hunger for the next book is sufficiently whetted.

On audio, this book is narrated by Julia Whelan. I'm not a huge fan of her style because I don't think it works for every book she does. But she was great for Unremembered. I don't care overmuch for the way she voices male characters because it sounds forced. But it wasn't distracting enough to drop the audio and continue in print.

Overall this was a great read. It's light enough to enjoy and complex enough to stay interesting. And it was memorable, which is remarkable for a book about amnesia.


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