When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.
Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.
Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.
Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?
Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.
Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.
Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?
When I first ordered this book from our local library, I was extremely excited. Unremembered sounded like the lovechild of Science Fiction and Mystery.
Not quite.
Sera is the only survivor of a horrific plane crash. She's brought to a hospital with no marks on her body - and no memories. She's all over the news: the sixteen-year-old survivor with no past and no family. One night, a strange boy appears in her hospital room (gorgeous, obviously), but then she decides she imagined him. Soon she is ushered off to a foster family; a couple named Heather and Scott who really play no important role, and their thirteen-year-old son, Cody.
But this strange boy follows her. She feels a stereotypical draw to said beautiful boy who insists they were in love. The mystery is overwhelming, right?
Allow me to tell you this: every decision, every solitary decision that Sera makes, revolves around her beautiful love Zen. She literally has no thoughts of her own besides "Must. Save. Zen. Must. Follow. Zen. Must. Do. What. Zen. Says." She has a very small amount of character work, and exactly three possible reactions to every situation she was faced with:
(1) Cry.
(2) Run.
(3) Cry while running.
Speaking of bad character work, the villains were, for lack of a better term, infuriatingly lame. Typically, the "bad guys" are meant to install fear and terror in the mind of the reader. The only reaction these fiends merited from me was a laugh. I will explain with the following passage:
"But clearly something in our calculations was amiss, because here we are." He spreads his arms out wide and chuckles sinisterly.
Chuckles sinisterly.
Chuckles sinisterly.
Chuckles sinisterly.
Tip for would-be authors: don't ever, ever, include a phrase like that when writing for a young adult audience. I don't know about you, but I stopped having nightmares about sinisterly chuckling villains around age five.
Another thing about me: I despise the word "giggle" nearly as much as wimpy female leads (I'm looking at you, Jessica Brody.) Whenever I read it, my subconscious immediately thinks of airhead blondes who've had a little bit too much to drink. Not a pretty picture - and that word was used an overly large amount, along with "chuckle" and "laugh." Your characters don't always have to be amused, Ms. Brody.
Overall, Unremembered was a disappointing read, with an excess of giggling and predictable plot twists and a lack of character development and enthralling word choice. One of the few good things about it was the adorable, geeky foster brother Cody, who we definitely did not see enough of.
my rating:
two out of five stars
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