I have seen several reviews regarding this book. It seems like people either loved it and gave it 5 stars or hated it and gave it one star. I have to say, I am pretty much right in the middle on this one. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. I guess my opinion is that this book was okay, and had an interesting concept, but was a little boring in the execution.

What I liked:

1. The concept was intriguing. Nadia is a young woman living in a society where every twelve years, the citizens forget everything about themselves. No one knows why this happens or how to avoid it. Instead, they all keep extensive journals that help them reclaim their lives after each twelve-year cycle. For some reason, Nadia did not forget during the last Forgetting and has kept it secret for the last twelve years.

2. The cover. 10/10

3. The antagonist. Now, I didn't *like* her, but I felt like she was well-written. She definitely felt like she was justified in everything she was doing. She gave me a Delores Umbridge vibe. Maniacal and evil, but always true to her (warped) principles.

What I didn't like:

1. The pacing for this was off. I listened to this on audio book on 1.5 speed and it felt FOREVER long. There were several repetitve passages and the book did drag for me quite a bit in the middle. Also, the end felt very anti-climactic and repetitive.

After the townspeople were shown all of the heinous things Janice did and Jonathan killed her, the book went on for far too long after that. We visited all of the side characters and learned what happened to each of them, and it felt like it just took too long. Especially when some of them weren't in the story at all before that point.

2. Using sexuality as a plot point.

I didn't like that there was a plot twist of Eshan (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly since I listened to this on audio) being gay and having feelings for Gray. Sexuality should not be used as a shocking reveal. It just shouldn't. I understand that a gay person may not want anyone to know in this society because if you can't/won't reproduce you end up 'lost', but still...using it as a plot device cheapens what could have been an interesting character arc. Not to mention the fact that it's only vaguely mentioned two times right at the end of the story, which shows that it was purely plot-driven.

3. The romance. It was fine, but I wish we'd gotten more time for them after

he was forced to forget her. That idea of him having to remember her and choose her even without the cure was very intriguing to me, and instead they decided to just cure him.

Also, Gray was supposed to be around 19, but he felt much younger to me. Nadia felt a little young as well.

4.

the other world plot. I didn't hate the twist that this takes place on a planet colonized by Earth, but I wish it had been executed a bit better. There was a lot of info-dumping which contributed to the dragging feeling I had.

5. This one is primarily due to the fact that I listened to this on audio, but it was kind of annoying getting so much inner dialogue from Nadia. Someone would ask her a question and then she would think in her mind her answer to them, but the way it's written makes that very confusing if you're listening to it instead of reading it and seeing that there are no quotation marks. And she does this constantly throughout the book. Occasionally afterward she'll say something like, "Instead of saying that, I said (blah, blah, blah) instead." But this isn't always the case.

Other Odds and Ends:

1. I thought the narration on the audiobook was very good. The narrator did a nice job with male voices and her female voices were distinguishable from one another and had different qualities.

2.

When they learn at the end that these forgetting trees are causing the forgettings, why don't they just get rid of them? Are they essential? They aren't the ONLY trees, at least I didn't get that sense.

3.

Having some people choose not to remember wouldn't work. What if you choose to forget, and then someone you were involved with in a previous cycle (in a romance or maybe a familial relationship like Anson and Nadia) chooses to remember? Are they just supposed to keep quiet that they have that relationship with the other person who chose to forget? Like if Jonathan's real parents had been alive and chose to remember, are they just supposed to never mention to Jonathan, "hey, you're my kid!" just because he chose to forget? Ugh, all this happens right at the end of the book and it annoyed the heck out of me because it was never addressed.

I'm slightly interested in the next book in this world, which is apparently a companion novel that takes place hundreds of years later, but I'm not exactly sure if I'll pick it up anytime soon.