Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick: Book Review
This is a spoiler-free review.
Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick
Published April 4th, 2023
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
A romantic ode to the strength of love and the power of choosing each other, against odds and obstacles, again and again.
What would you do if you forgot the love of your life ever even existed?
Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a plan: to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love.
But then Stevie has a terrible fall. And when she comes to, she can remember nothing of the last two years—not California, not coming to terms with her sexuality, not even Nora. Suddenly, Stevie finds herself in a life she doesn’t quite understand, one where she’s estranged from her parents, drifting away from her friends, lying about the hours she works, dating a boy she can’t remember crushing on, and headed towards a future that isn’t at all what her fifteen-year-old self would have envisioned.
And Nora finds herself…forgotten. Can the two beat the odds a second time and find their way back together when “together” itself is just a lost memory?
Thank you to the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, for sending me an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and a physical copy via an Instagram contest. All thoughts are my own.
Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick cracked my heart open and then healed it like it was no big deal. With a premise like this one, I anticipated many tear-filled moments while reading, and boy, was I not wrong. Believe me when I say I sobbed my way through this novel.
Before starting this book, I had mixed opinions on the amnesia trope, but I feel like Derrick used it very thoughtfully in Forget Me Not. It was so difficult to read from Stevie’s perspective knowing there were two years of memories she was missing. But this book wasn’t all about loss; having that ‘blank slate’ helped Stevie to see things she had grown accustomed to in a new light, which led to some very powerful reveals. I really appreciated seeing her go through the growing pains of discovering herself – falling in love with Nora – all over again.
I’m a romantic at heart, so the thought of choosing your partner over and over again, even if you don’t remember them, really tugged at my heartstrings.
What made Forget Me Not stand out so distinctly for me was that it managed the perfect balance of wholesomeness and realistic conflict (even despite the soap opera-level premise). Stevie and Nora live in a small town with many “small-town values”. Derrick didn’t shy away from addressing this. But she also doesn’t leave her readers without hope. This balanced nuisance helped ground this story and made it all the more moving.
Have you read Forget Me Not?
What did you think of it?
Let me know!
Liza
Liza is a twenty-something book blogger who spends way too much time with her nose in books and feels way too much. She loves cooking, baking, reality tv show watching and, of course, reading. She can be found most often with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. Her blog, Literary Liza, features bookish content like reviews, recommendations, and author interviews.
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