At the end of the book there are some author notes where he explains some of the narrative decisions in the story and some reference frames from the heroes who inspired So Shelly’s characters. Let it be mentioned that TY Roth is a fellow educator.

Forget the world as you know it and try to imagine it if we lose our identity and the ability of deciding. This is what Julia Karr features in her impressive debut novel. XVI narrates Nina’s story, a normal girl about to turn sixteen, where society she lives on means sexual exploration with or without her consent. Lots of girls her age wish to turn sixteen and get marked with such enigmatic tattoo, but Nina is not one of those. Her life is altered when her mom is brutally murdered and asks her to go find her dad, whom she thought dead all her life. I’m really impressed with this book by the way Karr handles the topic on media governing society in all aspects of decisions, it’s interesting and invites you to meditate on it. One of the aspects I liked the most was the character’s platform, most of the main and secondary having self identity and not being each one’s clones. Nina’s aspect on trying to solve her dad’s enigma while assimilates certain information, protecting her sister and falling in love is really captivating. Another aspect which drew my attention was that regardless of the serious topics in the book, the character’s interactions as friends and the presentation of these bonds are beautiful. Romance is pleasant and does not outshine the main plot. The only thing I would have liked was knowing a little bit more about the past story; how this world got to be what it is in the story. Even having information, I would have liked more in order to understand certain things. XVI, the story of a society with no self identity where a youngster, along her friends and the resistance  fight for their identity and won’t stop until they win.

This book could be used as extra curricular material where teenagers can analyze how media defines their behavior or the way they interact actually and how they would do under the circumstances narrated in the story.

Book Type: Softcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Age Range: Young Adult
Publication Date: July 20, 2010

Author Web Page:

Why can’t you chosse what you forget … and what you remember?

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty four  year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra popular football player Brandon.  But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug of all people  suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all important details of her life a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

If I could rate Forget You, it would most definitely be R rated.  Forget you narrates the story of Zoey after a series of events had put her in a “dark” season where she feels she’s losing control of her life.  Her mother’s attempt to commit suicide, her father’s getaway with a young woman and also an accident that opens the door to a secret apparently unknown but that at the same time brings her together with her “frenemy” Doug.  It’s really admirable the way Echois narrates all situations in which the characters face certain events, where censorship is not an option for this author in this presentation.   The story reaches several topics which every youngster or human being has to face sometime in their lives: sexuality, depression, abandonment, love and pain. Something that didn’t allowed me to enjoy the story a bit more was the narrator. Zoey is described as a smart and capable girl, but along the whole story such intelligence appears to be absent when I kept asking: Where’s her common sense?”. During most part of the story, Zoey tries to grade a “one night stand” in a relationship when the person involved never shows any signals of this happening. The quote “Brandon is my boyfriend” fed me up at some point. On the other hand, Doug appears to be a charming boy who despite his story, reaches a point where his consistent begging for Zoey’s attention is enough. At the end, all characters reached a likable point. Forget You is a story without taboos where life’s circumstances unite with a young girl’s sexual discovery.