Review: Forgotten by Cat Patrick

I've been wanting to read Forgotten for awhile. The idea of a girl whose memory reset every night so that she had no recollection of the past, yet could see the future, sounded kinda like 50 First Dates awesome. If I had've read it a year ago I might have really liked it. A year ago, I was much less jaded and much more forgiving of things like, say, love triangles and insta-love. But now? Now these things are enough to make me not read a book at best, and throw it across the room at worst.

The good news is this book features no love triangles. The bad news is it features a helluva lot of insta-love. You see, London (our protagonist) meets a guy she has no future memory of, and falls in love with him on the spot. But because she can't see him in her future, she figures there's no point in wasting time, so she leaves him out of the notes she writes for herself every night so that she can "remember" the past. The next time she sees him it's like the first time for her - and bang! Insta-love again. Eventually she starts to write him into her notes, but that just makes things worse - it makes her all excited to see this guy she doesn't actually know (having zero memories of him), and then when she does KABOOM! Insta-love AGAIN. And again and again and again. And it's not just your run-of-the-mill "he's the one" insta-love, either. It's the lip-biting, breath-taking, swoon-worthy kind of insta-love, where she has to notice how gorgeous his eyes/jawline/hair/abs/toenails are every freaking time he appears on the page. It's all so tedious.

What I did like about Forgotten was the mystery. London "remembers" a funeral, and as she tries to figure out whose is it, her past begins to unravel and the real reason behind her memory issue comes to light. Too bad this mystery takes a back seat whenever her boyfriend is around. I'm parapharsing, but legit something along these lines happens in the book: "OMG someone I love is going to DIE! Oh hey Luke, you've got nice pecs, let's make out".

London's relationship with her friend Jamie also frustrated the hell out of me. London can see some terrible stuff in her bestie's future, but she does very little to try and stop it. I understand the idea that she doesn't want to interefere too much in others' lives, but for the most part it seemed like actually, she was just more interested in her own love life than anyone else.

Cat Patrick has a smooth writing style, but unfortunately Forgotten is full of plot holes and unbelievable twists. I know with any story - but especially one like this - you have to be able to suspend your disbelief, and I can do that to a certain extent, but it still has to be logical within the world that's built. There were a few things that I just couldn't swallow. I was really disappointed with Forgotten on the whole. I do still really love the cover, though (hey, I wanted to end on a positive note!).

Rating: 2.5/5

Spoilery Talking Points

• How does nobody know about London's condition except her mum and her best friend? How does she even go to school - wouldn't she be better off home schooled? And as if her mum would've - or should have - let her go to summer camp when she was younger with a condition like hers! Little, illogical details like this drove me nuts.
• One big illogical detail really made me mad, though - the whole "whoops, we buried the wrong body" thing with her little brother. No, just no. What kind of authorities would be like, "we found some bones, your son is missing, so it MUST be him, we don't have to run tests or anything, oh no." Right.

Eye Candy
I pictured Lily Collins as London and Sean Faris (circa Life As We Know It) as Luke. Coz they're pretty like the characters.

Source

Source

Fine Print
Published: 2011, Hardie Grant
Get It: Bookworld