Customer Reviews

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The first thing he did was kiss me. On the lips. And he didn't ask my permission either.
"I couldn't recall him ever having kissed me before.
"I actually couldn't recall anyone ever having kissed me before.
"So, in a way, this was my first kiss."

It's summertime, but Naomi Page Porter had been at school, meeting with her best friend. The pair are the incoming co-editors of their high school's award-winning yearbook. Remembering, belatedly, that they'd left the school's $4,000 camera sitting out, Naomi had gone back into the school to grab it. Running out, she had tripped on the steps. Fortunately, Naomi saved the camera. Unfortunately, she had landed on her head.

MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC begins with Naomi regaining consciousness on the way to the hospital. She is released after an extended stay. Fortunately, her cognitive skills are perfectly normal. Unfortunately, she does not remember any personal information from the past four years. Naomi doesn't recall such major changes in her life as the development of her body, the messy divorce of her parents, her moving to a new house with her father, that her mother has since had another daughter, her experiences in high school, her friends or, even, whether she has a boyfriend.

Naomi is, thus, in the unique and bizarre position of examining her own life from the point of view of a complete outsider.

"I went through the drawers of my nightstand. The most interesting thing I found was a plastic compact containing birth control pills, which meant I was either a) having sex with someone (!?!), or b) on the pill for some other reason. The second most interesting thing I found was a leather diary. This might have beat the birth control pills for the official title of Most Interesting Thing in Naomi's Nightstand, had it not been a food diary detailing every single thing I'd eaten for the past six months. Sample entry:

August 4
1 Bagel with Cream Cheese, 350 Calories
18 Mini Pretzels, 150 Calories
2 Diet Cokes, 0 Calories
1 Banana, 90 Calories
7 Reese's Pieces, 28 Calories

GRAND TOTAL 618 Calories [smiley face]

"Every entry after that was the same way. Page after page of it. Sometimes there would be a [frown face] if I thought I had eaten too much, or a [neutral face] if I was neither here nor there about my eating for the day. It went all the way until the day before my injury. I tried to toss the useless artifact in the trash, but I missed. I felt disgusted. I mean, really, what sort of person keeps a food diary?
"I wondered if the former Naomi Porter had been, in all likelihood, a complete and total jerk, someone that I probably wouldn't have ever wanted to know."

Gabrielle Zevin takes this terrific premise and crafts an entertaining and thought-provoking story that avoids the cheap laughs. Instead, we get to really know the characters in her life and see, along with Naomi, the shades of gray in each of them. It is certainly a tale that could inspire readers to try and examine their own lives and choices objectively.

Any reader who has ever looked back at what they've done and has wished for a "do-over" will be intrigued by the situation into which Naomi Porter falls headfirst.

Gabrielle Zevin avoids the sophomore jinx with this follow-up to the oft-read ELSEWHERE that surpasses her first novel in both depth and sophistication. As stated in the book's first words, this is a love story -- in fact, a love triangle with a twist (only I forget what the twist IS... no, wait a minute -- it's amnesia).

Naomi Porter takes a spill on the high school steps, hits her noggin on marble, and forgets everything after sixth grade. That's right, she's forgotten her divorced parents, her half-sister, even her jock boyfriend, Ace Zuckerman. To further cloud the issue, she awakens to a letter from one Will Landsman -- a kid who says he's her best friend and her high school yearbook co-editor. To complete the three-point confusion, there's this dark and handsome kid named James Larkin waiting by her side in the hospital. All a blank.

The three boys will not remain a blank, however, as each plays a big role during her recuperation period. She continues to date her tennis jock boyfriend, Ace, but falls for the artistic and moody one, James. Meanwhile, there is the voice of conscience, the faithful-as-a-golden retriever Will, coaching her every misstep of the way. A veritable Bermuda triangle of boyfriends -- the sort of thing that confuses girls with a memory, never mind those without.

I was a bit disappointed that this novel didn't explore issues of memory that have to do with judging people, because Zevin touches on this topic when she has her protagonist ask another girl, "Do we like each other? Do we get along?" The girl, who had been kind to the amnesiac hero, responds, "Not since fourth grade." I thought it would be an interesting path to explore -- how cliques and prejudices are learned behaviors often unfounded on actual personalities, but Zevin took it another way.

Ultimately, despite sagging a bit toward the end, MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC proves a satisfying parable on relationships. Zevin's sentence structure, vocabulary, and allusions are all coming along. If memory serves, her writing was much simpler in ELSEWHERE. Overall, I'd recommend it to readers who love to read about love (with all its concomitant trials and tribulations). Four stars (that'd be Naomi and her three suitors).

It's a great thing to get to know a character as you read about them in a book. It's a phenomenal thing to get to know a character as they get to know themselves.

Such is the case in this book, "Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac", written by Gabrielle Zevin, a writer who has a rare talent. The protagonist, a teenager named Naomi, becomes a victim of (as the title says) amnesia, following an unlucky even involving a camera, coffee, and steps. Naomi, even without her memories, is a fully fleshed out character, making it a joy to see her explore the newness of a life that was once so commonplace to her, to see everything she does different, to see how her amnesia changes every single relationship in her teenage life.

The story is well-crafted in that its structure mirrors life more than the rising action model of a story. Some plot lines climax, and some just fade away like a forgotten memory; which, by the way, is a large theme in this story. What we have here is not the definitive life story of Naomi Porter, but simply a year in the life of a likable, complex, and flawed character who is going through a rough--yet she's not at all angsty/brooding about it--time. Nothing in this book is forced, though the touching and relatable moments are as plenty as usage of magic in a Harry Potter book.

Much like Zevin's previous novel, "Elsewhere", this book has a permanent place on my small shelf of favorites. However, unlike "Elsewhere", I was so swept up in the story that this book has become the first novel in God-knows-how-long that I finished in a single day. This is a book that a reader can truly, truly love.

10/10 Classic.

When sixteen-year-old Naomi Porter takes a header down the front steps of Thomas Purdue Country Day School, she loses a lot more than her pride. Although she remembers the ride in the ambulance to the hospital with James Larkin, and recalls that her blood ended up on his shirt, and even remembers that he assured the ambulance driver that he was her boyfriend, she's having a really hard time remembering anything prior to that. Anything, say, that happened in the last four years.

Awake and alert in the hospital with her dad by her side, Naomi knows that something's wrong. She knows her name, and she knows where she is. What she doesn't quite understand is that the last tangible memory she has happened when she was twelve. She can tell by the way her body feels that she's not twelve any longer. And then comes the first of many shockers: her parents are divorced. Oh, and her mother is remarried to her high school sweetheart, and they have a toddler named Chloe, who happens to be her half-sister. And she has a boyfriend named Ace, who conveniently enough is away at tennis camp. And her best friend, William "Coach" Landsman, is also the co-editor of the school paper, The Phoenix, a position she shares. And on and on the list goes, until all Naomi wants to do is scream.

In the course of a few minutes and one bump on the head, Naomi has lost four years worth of memories. She still knows she's adopted, she recalls her life up until the age of twelve, but everything between seventh grade and her current position as a junior in high school is a blank slate. For some, she's a girl to be pitied. For others, she's just another teen looking for attention. For herself, and her father, and her best friend, and her boyfriend, and the boy she begins to fall in love with, she's something else entirely -- an enigma, a girl without a past who must forge ahead to make her own future.

I truly enjoyed MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC. The tone of the story is a perfectly balanced mix of humor, seriousness, and the search for identity. There are moments that are sad, and even downright heartbreaking, mixed with scenes of hilarity. Ms. Zevin, the author of one of my favorite books ever, Elsewhere, has penned another story that will leave you wondering and thinking long after you turn the final page.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

I absolutely loved "Elsewhere" so it was a no brainer deciding to read Memoirs after I finished it. Unfortunately I was wrong.
I do my best to give a book a minimum of 50 pages before I completely give up on it. It's not that I expect every book to capture my undivided attention immediately but as an avid reader I must maintain a standard. I easily passed page 50 and continued and labored on hoping that somewhere along the way Naomi would dazzle me! I finally gave up on page 118.

There just wasn't that fluid way of words that I felt Ms. Zevin displayed in "Elsewhere". Please take a chance on this book because aside from my review she is a great author I just feel like this book wasn't for me. Hope this helps in aiding your decision to purchase :o)

I was a little sad writing a review that was bad knowing that so many people really enjoyed this book, but to me it was painful to read. I thought the original premise was good and interesting, but not unique. The thing that annoyed me most about this book, however, was the narrator. I thought she was completely unlikable with no redeeming qualities. It would be understandable for a person who suffered head trauma and forgot her whole life to be confused and not interested in the same things, but she was incredibly rude to all the people that cared about her. The thoughts that ran through her mind were completely offensive toward her father and her friends and I thought it was horrible that she refused to look at her trauma as a chance to make amends with the people in her life. Additionally, I thought that the romance in the book was terribly set up. It was confusing, and I as the reader did not get attached to any of her potential love interests, mostly because of the insulting things she said about them in her head. Overall, I found the romance, if you can call it that, unhealthy and extremely depressing and something that I was not invested in at all. Lastly, the end of the book seemed rushed and without closure.

I can see why people would like this book, I really can, but I honestly couldn't stand it. I bought it with the hope of having a good read, maybe a sad one with an uplifting ending, but I was disappointed. I literally forced myself through the book. It had no climax, didn't interest me much, and I honestly wanted to slap the character into facing reality half the time. My honest opinion is that I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Sixteen year old Naomi is given the chance that hardly any of us have. With her recent bout of amnesia, she is now able to re-evaluate her life from an objective point of view. But this oppurtunity does not come without it's burdens. She can't remember her friends, her parents' divorce and their respective new partners, her boyfriend, French class, why she likes yearbook so much, why she has birth control pills, or even how to drive a car. Naomi must decide whether or not to try to relive her old life, or to reinvent a new one.

This memory loss occurs right in the middle of high school, where people try so hard to fit in, not that Naomi remembers anything beyond sixth grade. Naomi seems to be popular- or at least her tennis-playing boyfriend is. She seems to be well-involved with the school- she is co-editor-in-chief at the school yearbook committee along with her best friend, Will. She seems to hate her mother for starting a new life with her new family and her father's new fiance. But everything is looking pretty much okay. Then why does it feel so wrong?

Personally, I did not like the narrator one bit. I just didn't "connect" with her, if you will. I had no sympathy. I couldn't care less if she never got her memory back. I thought she was kind of harsh, to be honest. Every now and then she would catch herself being bitchy, but not enough to make up for it. I didn't like James at all. I just wanted him to go crawl back in his emo corner. Usually I'm all for the bad boy type, but James was a whiner who strands his girlfriend at the beach alone, without a cellphone, on the opposite side of the country from home. Not cool dude. Ace wasn't too likable, but I don't think Zevin wanted him to be. Actually, I wanted him to be even meaner. Maybe that would give him some life. Will was probably my favorite. I thought he was cool, yet quirky. A good best friend, if not a boyfriend. The dad was cool too. As for the rest of the characters, Zevin never gave them much personality or page time.

But I never saw why Naomi hated her mom so much. Yes, she is allowed to be angry (her mom did cheat on her dad afterall), but not speaking to her mother or little sister who is completely innocent in the situation (and completely adorable)? I thought that was harsh. I also didn't understand many of Naomi's decisions, but hey, I'm not a amnesiac now, am I?

They way it was written was okay, I guess. I had a hard time pinning down the tone. In the beginning, it was humorous. In the middle, it was all angsty. By the end, it tried to get all philosophical on me.

The ending wasn't too good. Nothing really happened to conclude the book. Zevin just kinda decided to make a touchy-feely scene, plot be damned. To me, it made the rest of the book pretty pointless. I didn't see much of a difference between recent-amnesia Naomi and post-amnesia Naomi. Truth be told, I never felt compltely convinced of Naomi's amnesia to begin with. Yes, I understood she couldn't remember her friends and stuff, but besides that, she never felt that scared or helpless, like I imagine an amnesiac would feel.

Overall, it was kind of a miss for me, which is a shame because I really liked Elsewhere by the same author. I would rate it 2.5 stars.

If only Naomi hadn't picked heads. Her life would have been so different. She wouldn't have fallen down the steps and woken up with amnesia, she wouldn't have met James, and most importantly she wouldn't be questioning herself. When Naomi wakes up from her fall she finds herself in a hospital bed not remembering anything past 12 years old. This means she doesn't remember her parents divorce, her tennis star boyfriend, and why her best friend Will calls her "Chief." With the help of her dad and Will Naomi slowly starts to piece her life back together. The only thing is she's still not sure who she used to be and really isn't sure if she still wants to be that person. Naomi even begins to question what she ever saw in Ace and wonders why she can't get James out of her mind. As the weeks go by Naomi finds it difficult at times, especially dealing with rude kids in school, but over time she starts to build her life back up, even if it's not the same as it used to be. But she always wonders if she will ever remember again.

This was a breathtaking and emotional book. It was stupendous to say the least. I loved the story line and thought it was completely original. I loved how Naomi got to reinvent herself. I mean who wouldn't want to make themselves the real person that they were meant to be? Not only was the story good, but Gabrielle Zevin's writing style was phenomenal. She created three dimensional characters who you wished were your best friends. They dealt with real issues and felt real love. Also there was a deep level of emotion written into the pages. The last chapter of the book made me so sad, but not sad sad, almost like a happy sad. This was the first time a book had made me feel this way and I really liked how the author was able to provoke feeling with just her words. This was an all around great book that I think is a must read for any teenager. It provides realism with a bit of humor and just really couldn't get much better!

I really like Zevin's writing, and this is no exception. Her protagonist is very real - she does well, but makes mistakes and is entirely a teenager. I was surprised at how well she functioned in school and among friends after having lost four years of memories, but that could be an accurate portrayal of these kind of amnesias - I admit that I don't know enough about them. Overall, a great book and an interesting topic - who are you when you can't remember the person you've become? Will you like yourself and your decisions? Will you want to be with the same person and have the same friends? It's an interesting book, and despite the protagonist making some foolish, very human decisions, I was rooting for her the whole time.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin is truly a one of a kind book. After Naomi Porter loses her memory, she struggles constantly to figure out who she was, who she is now, and who she wants to become. My inspiration to read this book was that I have previously read and enjoyed the author's other two books, Elsewhere and Margarettown.

The story line of Naomi and her battle to remember the previous four years as a teenager demonstrated the pain and hardships that she faced due to a head trauma. It is as if the author had been in a teenager's body and faced the challenges of relationships with friends, boyfriends, and parents.

The vocabulary was appropriate and easy for me to read at a high school sophomore level. I suffered a head trauma and can relate to Naomi because I also woke up in a hospital bed not knowing how or why I was there. The only part of the story I felt the author did not have to include was a sex scene, because the relationships with her boyfriends made the point.

I would recommend this book to any teenager because reading this story is as entertaining as watching a television show about relationships. I would not recommend this book to anyone younger than a teenager because some of the content is not suitable or easy for a child to understand. Adult readers might also enjoy this book because they could compare their teenage years to today's fast-paced environment.

I am a non-reader, but I am looking forward to Gabrielle Zevin's next book. Her unique approach to my age group has caught my attention and her story lines keep me reading.