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wordsofclover 's review for:
Forget Me Not
by A.M. Taylor
2.5 stars
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Maddie was 17 years old, her best friend Nora disappeared, never to be seen again. Now ten years later, Maddie is back to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Nora's disappearance but the next day, Noelle - Nora's 17-year-old sister- is found dead in the last spot Nora was seen. Maddie is determined to get to the bottom of both mysteries.
I had some high hopes for this book, the premise of it just sounded really appealing to me and i couldn't wait to see how it was all laid out. However, it ended up being a disappointment and I think some of it may have had to do with this being a first book, and while the idea was good, future books will probably be better, but there was a lot in this book that just needed to be tightened up in my opinion.
I found Maddie to be a very unlikeable character for starters, and I found it really irritating how she'd let Nora's disappearance wreck her life. She wasn't Nora's only friend, and she wasn't family yet she seemed to monopolise the grief over the loss of Nora. I also thought it really inappropriate the way she started investigating Noelle's death, and her social media without talking to the police at all and she didn't seem to care about it possibly impeding the investigation. It was just really dumb.
There were some small things to do with the writing in this book that I also felt were a product of it being a debut - first of was that Maddie also lived in a place called Madison, and referred to it often and I felt like this was just a bit sloppy on both the writer's and editors' parts. Noah, Nate, Noelle and Nora also all obviously had 'N' names, and I found it really cheesy. There was a moment in this book where it seemed like this may have had something to do with the murder/disappearance but it literally ended up meaning nothing.
I guessed who the killer was in the first chapter too so honestly, i was left totally unsurprised by the reveal in the end. It was so obvious for a lot of the book.
One thing that irked me A LOT in this book was the articles that Maddie kept reading, all of which were biased and sensational and not responsible reporting at all. Honestly, this book was the unfortunate victim of being the one that just ended up with me finally losing my patience with irresponsible reporting in fiction, and while sometimes this type of media in books can progress a story, for this it was just a case of bad media, reporting on the edge of defamation and just one more dangerous example of 'distrustful media.' As a journalist, I'm sick and tired of seeing it in fiction.
I did like parts of this story, mainly the overall plot/idea. I think it had good bones, but the meat just didn't fill it out well enough for me. I will read more from AM Taylor, I just hope what let her down in this book is improved upon.
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Maddie was 17 years old, her best friend Nora disappeared, never to be seen again. Now ten years later, Maddie is back to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Nora's disappearance but the next day, Noelle - Nora's 17-year-old sister- is found dead in the last spot Nora was seen. Maddie is determined to get to the bottom of both mysteries.
I had some high hopes for this book, the premise of it just sounded really appealing to me and i couldn't wait to see how it was all laid out. However, it ended up being a disappointment and I think some of it may have had to do with this being a first book, and while the idea was good, future books will probably be better, but there was a lot in this book that just needed to be tightened up in my opinion.
I found Maddie to be a very unlikeable character for starters, and I found it really irritating how she'd let Nora's disappearance wreck her life. She wasn't Nora's only friend, and she wasn't family yet she seemed to monopolise the grief over the loss of Nora. I also thought it really inappropriate the way she started investigating Noelle's death, and her social media without talking to the police at all and she didn't seem to care about it possibly impeding the investigation. It was just really dumb.
There were some small things to do with the writing in this book that I also felt were a product of it being a debut - first of was that Maddie also lived in a place called Madison, and referred to it often and I felt like this was just a bit sloppy on both the writer's and editors' parts. Noah, Nate, Noelle and Nora also all obviously had 'N' names, and I found it really cheesy. There was a moment in this book where it seemed like this may have had something to do with the murder/disappearance but it literally ended up meaning nothing.
I guessed who the killer was in the first chapter too so honestly, i was left totally unsurprised by the reveal in the end. It was so obvious for a lot of the book.
One thing that irked me A LOT in this book was the articles that Maddie kept reading, all of which were biased and sensational and not responsible reporting at all. Honestly, this book was the unfortunate victim of being the one that just ended up with me finally losing my patience with irresponsible reporting in fiction, and while sometimes this type of media in books can progress a story, for this it was just a case of bad media, reporting on the edge of defamation and just one more dangerous example of 'distrustful media.' As a journalist, I'm sick and tired of seeing it in fiction.
I did like parts of this story, mainly the overall plot/idea. I think it had good bones, but the meat just didn't fill it out well enough for me. I will read more from AM Taylor, I just hope what let her down in this book is improved upon.