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Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac: A Novel Hardcover – August 21, 2007
| Gabrielle Zevin (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about her dad's fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.
But Naomi picked heads.
After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
- Publication dateAugust 21, 2007
- Grade level9 and up
- Reading age14 years and up
- Dimensions5.51 x 1.04 x 8.76 inches
- ISBN-100374349460
- ISBN-13978-0374349462
- Lexile measure720L
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
Zevin is just a great writer. . . . [She] gets all the details right. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Sensitive, joyful . . . Pulled by the heart-bruising love story, readers will stop to contemplate irresistible questions. (Starred, Booklist)
A quiet exploration of identity and self-realization that is simultaneously thought provoking and entertaining. (VOYA)
Unique . . . Will be well received by teens. (Kirkus Reviews)
Honest and complex characterization grounds a thoughtful, suspenseful examination of memory and identity. (The Horn Book)
Zevin cooks up an entertaining love story . . . teens will identify with her vulnerability and her heightened feelings of alienation. And fans of psychological dramas won't want to put this book down. (Publishers Weekly)
A compelling read with intelligent dialogue that's also touching and funny. (School Library Journal)
I would definitely recommend this book to my high school students, especially teen girls. (The ALAN Review)
Zevin blends romance, changing friendships, and familial dysfunction with themes of chance, loss, and choice, and the result is a quiet exploration of identity and self-realization. (VOYA)
A good read. (Kathy Taber, Kids Ink Children's Bookstore, Indianapolis, IN)
This book seems to be really accurate about how teens think . . . very refreshing and a great read! (A YALSA YA Galley Teen Reader)
Zevin, already a great author, has outdone herself. (A YALSA YA Galley Teen Reader)
Zevin is a smooth and subtle stylist, creating particularly interesting characters here. (Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books)
This was a memorable book. Naomi was a likable, realistic character. (A YALSA YA Galley Teen Reader)
This book was hard to put down. (A YALSA YA Galley Teen Reader)
It conveys a sense of normal teenage pressures, but also presents a unique story. (A YALSA YA Galley Teen Reader)
About the Author
Gabrielle Zevin's first young adult novel, Elsewhere, was an ALA Notable Book and a Quill Book Award nominee. She is also the author of books for adults including The Hole We're In and Margarettown, and of the screenplay for Conversations with Other Women, which received an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Of her writing, The New York Times Book Review said, "Zevin's touch is marvelously light even as she considers profundities." A dog lover and Harvard graduate, she lives in New York City.
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Product details
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); First Edition (August 21, 2007)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374349460
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374349462
- Reading age : 14 years and up
- Lexile measure : 720L
- Grade level : 9 and up
- Item Weight : 14.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.51 x 1.04 x 8.76 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #360,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

GABRIELLE ZEVIN is the New York Times best-selling and critically acclaimed author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Young Jane Young. She has also written books for young readers, including the award winning, Elsewhere. Her books have been translated into thirty-nine languages. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow will be published in July 2022.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Personally, I enjoy realistic fiction novels and coming-of-age novels because I can relate to the struggles that the main character might face. However, the only issue with many of these types of novels is that there are less physical conflicts that occur during the climax of the story. I felt that while reading this particular book, there was more side conflicts that happen between the protagonist and herself or with herself and another character. That being said, I did feel a bit bored while reading this story. The plot was a bunch of smaller problems that Naomi had to face while dealing with her amnesia.
Although I did not enjoy this story as much as I might have thought, does not mean that no one else will. Gabrielle Zevin is an author that I enjoy reading books by and would recommend this book and her other novels to other teenagers who like young adults books. I also felt that the targeted audience for this book may have been middle schoolers and young high school students. I give this book a 3.5 stars out of five because I liked the concept of the plot and the characters but also because I had felt that the plot was lacking.
In this book, the amnesiac high school senior wakes up to learn she has had a boyfriend and they have been intimate with each other. In the absence of memories to remind her, she spends time with him and wonders: what did I see in him? He is the character who represents a relationship based on their shared interest in tennis and pure physical attraction. In my experience, athletes are drawn to other athletes, and "popular" kids seek each other out for relationships. Maybe after a person loses his or her memory, those connections seem arbitrary. That's the premise of this book. The amnesiac has a chance to step back and evaluate her choices, and is handed a do-over because her mind is a blank slate. Two other male characters the amnesiac meets represent a creative love of the mind and spirit, and a love based on shared activities, open communication, honesty and mutual respect.
Four stars for this book for good life lessons well-told. If only the finale relationship had held some magnetism, some attraction, I would go all in with the stars.
Truly ridiculous I stayed up this late to finish this book. I have finals and yet I stayed up I just needed to finish.
This book was very good. A++++++ for the best portrayal of adoption I have ever read in a book ever. I loved how the amnesia was portrayed. We got just enough info from the past balanced with complete oblivion that it really embodied the amnesia experience well without being excessively confusing.
I really did like this book, I think it was really well done and so intriguing. GREAT READ!!!
Didn't get 5 stars because I don't think this book is particularly life changing or is going to stick with me particularly long or in a very very strong way. But it was so good, such a great read.
And now I sleeps.
Zevin tells an emotional tale that is sure to steal your heart. Characters are well developed and fully fleshed out. Naomi is easily a real person as you take this deep heartfelt, sometimes humorous, sometimes tragically sad, but completely authentic journey with her...
"Above all, mine is a love story.
And like most love stories, this one involves chance, gravity, a dash of head trauma.
It began with a coin toss.
The coin came up tails; I was heads.
Had it gone my way, there might not be a story at all. Just a chapter or a sentence in a book whose greater theme had yet to be determined. Maybe this chapter would have had the faintest whisper of love about it, but maybe not.
Sometimes, a girl needs to lose."
This is one of those books you (ironically) will never forget.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I enjoyed this book a lot. I'm a sucker for books where people have memory problems, so this was right up my alley. The ending was nice and sweet. I love all of the extras in the back - mix tape songs, author questions, discussion questions; it really makes you think more about the book once you've finished reading it.
CHARACTERS: I feel like all of the characters were really well done. They are all personalities that I can see as being real people in everyday life.
COVER: It's okay. It didn't really make me want to read the story anymore, but I do like the different textures.
Top reviews from other countries
by Gabrielle Zevin. This book is ultimately a love story, but one that involves a girl who, after taking
a header down a set of stairs, wakes up in hospital having lost the last few years of her memory.
At first this love story involves James Larkin, a new student who comes to the rescue of Naomi after
discovering her unconscious. He calls an ambulance and after pretending to be her boyfriend he goes eith her
to the hospital. Naomi is attracted to him and at first because of the amnesia thinks he is infact her
boyfriend. Then we meet her best friend Will who is one of the only people who is honest with her when she
asks questions about her missing years. The plot all becomes alot more complicated but it really is a very
enjoyable read. Sort of a love triangle in a way that also helps lead Naomi to the rediscovery of her memory
and the reasons why she blocked out alot of those years from her mind. It doesn't just lead her to the person
she is really meant to be with, it also leads her back to someone else important in her life who she has
distanced herself from. It was quite emotional and some of the themes struck a cord with me (not the amnesia)
so it was a book I and a charatcer who I could connect with making it all the more enjoyable.
This book was fun and creative, like I expected. I just wanted to keep reading it. If you like Young Adult books you should read this one. The simple writing and the original plot made it a light and pleasant reading.
Naomi, the main character, is a seventeen-year-old teenager with a past that you’ll get to know while you read it and sometimes you find about her past at the same time as her.
She is sympathetic and I felt myself feeling sorry for her, or happy for her, or angry for her. It’s good to read a book with characters that you can relate in some way. In this case, I don’t identify myself with her; I just think she is really well built, like this could be the story of a real person living next door, and I loved to read about her adventures in the discovery of helsef.
Like in our lives, people come and go; some can come back again, others won’t. Things have a time. We have to understand when to grow ourselves out of a relationship, a job, a situation that is not comfortable or healthy for us anymore. Naomi struggles with this.
While you read about a teenager that could be any teenager, you read about a very particular person that has to deal with things that most people won’t recognize in their lives. It’s not a sad book. Like a good book, it has some sad parts, but you can also have a good laugh and overall it’s a positive book.
Zevin as a way of taking the writer to another world: the world that she describes on the book and where the characters get alive. She doesn’t need to be detailed in describing what’s around so that you can picture it in your mind. It’s just the way she writes and the plots she creates that allow you to make that trip.









