Description
I look at my hands. One of them says 'Flora be brave'. I am Flora. Flora has anterograde amnesia. She can't remember anything day-to-day, the joke her friend made, the instructions her parents gave her, how old she is. Then she kisses a boy - her first kiss - and the next day she remembers it.
The first time she's remembered anything since she was ten. But the boy is gone. Desperate to hold onto the memory and feelings of love, she sets off to the Arctic to find him. Why can she remember Drake? Could he be the key to everything else she's forgotten?
Review
I suppose normal life could be boring to read about - probably one of the reasons sick-lit genre in YA fiction just keeps growing!
This time our protagonist is Flora and her condition is anterograde amnesia, where she has no ability to retain memories of anything that happens now.
Everything she remembers is from before Flora was ten, when a tumour was removed from her brain. This obviously creates major problems, like not being able to move house or make new friends.
Then her life changes when she kisses a boy and she remembers the kiss the next day. Unfortunately, he was her friend Paige’s boyfriend and it was on the night before he was moving to the Arctic.
Then follows an amazing journey for someone with Flora’s condition, in the hope that she might regain her memory.
This is a remarkable story of resilience and determination in the face of incredible odds. You can’t help but love Flora - often illogical, but completely hopeful - with her many foibles and her approach to adversity.
Will be best enjoyed by girl readers 14+.
Reviewed by Rob
