Review: Forgotten by Cat Patrick

  Title: Forgotten                                                       Pages: 304
  Author: Cat Patrick                                                 Source: Publisher
  Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers     Published: June 7, 2011
  Series: Standalone                                                 Purchase: Amazon
  Rating: 5 out of 5

Every night at exactly 4:33 AM, 16 year-old London Lane's memory gets wiped clean as she sleeps. And each morning, she wakes up to find a note to herself from herself telling her what happened the previous day. The day she can't remember at all.

Instead of remembering the past, London remembers the future. She remembers backwards.

None of this helps when she has to worry about school. It also doesn't help when London has to worry about a boyfriend, whose name she can't remember, who doesn't seem to be in her memories of what's to come. Nevermind the fact that her mother has been keeping secrets about a father that hasn't been in her life since she was six.

And when London starts having visions from what appears to be her future, she realizes she just may have to remember the past, before she can no longer remember her future.

Forgotten is described as psychological drama, romance, and mystery all in one. Just from that line, I was hooked.

Forgotten is incredibly confusing at first in the way that untangling a giant mess of ropes is. But after you finally untangle that last stubborn knot, you feel absolutely exhilarated.

The fact that London remembers backwards - meaning she 'remembers' her future and can't remember her past - was really confusing for me at first. I didn't mind the confusion at all, though, as it was this giant mystery that I couldn't wait to solve. Every loose end got tied up into, instead of a knot, a pretty bow.

Another part that confused me was how she remembered her classmates, where her classes were, where her locker was, etc. if she couldn't remember her past, but then I understood. She remembers the small stuff like that because she can see her future with her classmates, she can see in a few days when she walks to math class, and the time in a month where she opens her locker. That being said, she can also forget these small things when she no longer has a future with that person or object.

The characters were phenomenal and mainly consisted of London, her boyfriend Luke, her best friend Jamie, and her mother.

London was a strong character for the situation she was in. I expected her to be much more insecure and scared. She was actually very strong already, but also grew as the novel went on. I fell in love with her character and was hoping for a pleasant outcome for her.

Luke was a wonderful male lead. He was all the things almost any woman would look for in a man and more. He's sexy, sweet, loving, supportive. I could go on and on. Who wouldn't want to curl up next to a guy like that?

All the rest of the characters, major or minor, added to the story in some way. Some characters might be borderline filler, but I honestly didn't notice any character that was blatantly a filler character, other than teachers. I believe Cat Patrick did an absolutely brilliant job writing the characters so realistically and well.

The plot was fantastic. It was perfectly paced, with so many unseen twists and turns. I can't think of many twists I saw coming and I can't think of one part of Forgotten where the writing started to slow. Each and every page had me in its grasp and didn't let go until the very end.

The plot of Forgotten was unique and I applaud Patrick for finding a topic to write about that wasn't just another clichéd, over-written plot. Many have compared this novel to the Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler movie, 50 First Dates, and while the premise might sound a bit like it, I can assure you that it isn't once you dive in.

Now obviously the writing was awesome, too. I love Patrick's ability to be so descriptive, yet not so much in the way I don't care for, where every little detail is laid out for you. This usually might take years of practice to hone this ability, yet Patrick has the natural talent for it.

Overall, I absolutely loved Forgotten, if you couldn't tell. I whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone and especially people that love psychological dramas, mysteries, and romance novels.

I give Forgotten a 5 out of 5.