Me on (Don't You) Forget About Me

Title: (Don't You) Forget About Me
Author: Kate Karyus Quinn
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins imprint)

Welcome to Gardnerville. A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies. Except there's a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they'd kill them. Four years ago, Skylar's sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar, whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville's murderous cycle once and for all.

(Don't You) Forget About Me is bizarre and complicated, a trip to a town hidden away, a town where anything can happen. A town where you're extra cautious every four years because you don't want to be the one who goes off. Intriguing but strange, more depressing than entertaining.

Skylar is lost, still floundering after her older sister was taken away four years before. All she has are her memories of Piper, of their time together, and all she wants is to get her back. But nothing is as it seems in Gardnerville. Even Skylar, with her taste for secrets and her drug habit. All she has are her memories, and all she wants to do is forget.

A lot of this book has to do with memories, with what has happened in the past coming back to impact the present, and with burying those memories in order to continue living. Even if it means living a lie. Sometimes it's easier to forget, sometimes it's not as painful, but it never lasts. The memories must always be faced, must always be confronted.

I knew going in that this was going to be strange book, that things would be weird, but it quickly turned into the kind of weird that I'm not necessarily a fan of. It reminds me of a number of books. It reminds me of Bleeding Violet without the humour or unique personality of Hanna. It reminds me of Teeth and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer in that I was never sure of the absolute truth, even when the story ended. The vagueness keeps this book mysterious and haunting, but still weird, and I don't think it's the kind of weird I like.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from HarperCollins Canada.)