Format: Hardcover, 403 pages
Release Date: September 13, 2016
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Library
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
What isn't written, isn't remembered. Even your crimes.
Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person's memories – of parents, children, love, life, and self – are lost. Unless they have been written.
In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.
But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence – before the people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.
The Forgetting, by
author Sharon Cameron, is a standalone story that features Nadia, a girl of undetermined age, who lives in a
walled city called Canaan with her mother and two sisters. It is place where books are more important than anything else because they carry your memories. You are supposed to carry your book with you at all times, and you are supposed to write the truth in your book because they are your sole identity after what the author is calling The Forgetting. Every 12 years, the citizens of Canaan go through The Forgetting.
Sometimes, people who lose their books, lose who they once were and end up among those that are considered Lost. This is not the case for Nadia who remembers her life before The Forgetting. She remembers what her own father did with her book. She remembers things that nobody else does and that makes her unique. To say that Nadia is a loner, is pretty accurate. She has no real friends. Her mother is forgetful and apparently doesn't remember who Nadia is. That gives Nadia plenty of time to explore outside the walls of Canaan that was supposedly built to keep trouble out.
What changes things for Nadia, is when she meets Gray, the glassblower's son who goes along on the journey with Nadia to discover why people lose their memories, and if there is anything that can be done to change things before The Forgetting once again overtakes Canaan. Once Nadia and Gray discover a shocking truth, things will never be the same in Canaan again. Nadia is far from a verbose lead character. She's clever, quiet, and smart as a whip.
She keeps her secrets close to her chest because to allow anyone else to know that she remembers, could lead to even more problems. She gets caught in Gray's web surprisingly easy without seeing it coming. But, there are things about Gray that leave Nadia chaffing a bit wondering if there is more to him than meets the eyes. There is such a clever ending to this book, that I give full credit to the author for keeping the secret without letting it out too early.
Sharon Cameron is also the author of such books as Rook, The Dark Unwinding, & A Spark Unseen, all of which I have read and reviewed. Cameron is a clever writer who I love reading her books because nothing is as it seems. There is always some sort of twist just waiting to jump out and surprise you. In the case of this story, Cameron's world really is a secretive one. You know about the City of Canaan, but not how the citizens arrived there in the first place.
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