Book Review: Memento Nora

 

Title: Memento Nora 
Author: Angie Smibert
Series: (not sure of series name but a sequel will be coming in 2012)
Genre: YA Dystopian Novel
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children's Books
Publication date: 01 April 2011
Next in series: Forgetting Curve
Author’s website: http://www.angiesmibert.com/blog/
Source:  ARC from Publisher in exchange for a review

Nora, the popular girl and happy consumer, witnesses a horrific bombing on a shopping trip with her mother. In Nora’s near-future world, terrorism is so commonplace that she can pop one little white pill to forget and go on like nothing ever happened. However, when Nora makes her first trip to a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic, she learns what her mother, a frequent forgetter, has been frequently forgetting. Nora secretly spits out the pill and holds on to her memories. The memory of the bombing as well as her mother’s secret and her budding awareness of the world outside her little clique make it increasingly difficult for Nora to cope. She turns to two new friends, each with their own reasons to remember, and together they share their experiences with their classmates through an underground comic. They soon learn, though, they can’t get away with remembering.

- from Goodreads

I really enjoyed this little book that is told from the point of view of the three main characters. 

Nora has a perfect life – she is the spoiled princess of her mother and father.  Her life is “glossy”.  While on a shopping trip, Nora and her mother witness a terrorist attach and a dead body shatters Nora’s happy existence.  There is no question – Nora needs to visit the TFC immediately.

Micah has a hard life.  He lives with his mother in a little community set up in the back of a scrap yard.  When Micah gets run over by a black van, his mom takes him to the TFC.  Here he meets his schoolmate, Nora and messes with her by showing her that he did not shallow the little white pill.

Winter is the third character in this little trio.  She is an artist and best friend of Micah. 

Together these three characters take it upon themselves to publish a little comic book that questions the world they live in.  Is it really right to wipe your memory of all unpleasantness or does those specific memories shape your life? 

I loved the author’s easy writing style and they way the narrative switches between the three main characters.  A few issues were left out in the open but I assume that will be dealt with in the second book in the series.  At least there were no cliff hangers (which I always hate).   The characters were as well developed as the 192 pages allowed and I felt that their actions were very real.  It was a quick read and would be a great book to get young people reading. 

I would recommend this book to all lovers of dystopian novels.