Review: Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Title: Forget You

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Pages: 292

Release date: July 20th 2010

Genre: Contemporary YA; romance

Source: Bought

Find out more: Amazon ; Goodreads

Goodreads description:

Why can't you choose 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.

First sentence:

Every strong swimmer has a story about nearly drowning.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I loved Jennifer Echols's Going Too Far, so I had high expectations for Forget You. I really wanted to like Forget You, but lots of things about this book just didn't work for me.

My biggest problem is probably the main character, Zoey. I couldn't really relate to her or understand her choices most of the time. I never felt like I really knew her and couldn't feel for her for the most part. Being able to relate to the main character is really important to me, so not getting Zoey's character made it hard for me to enjoy Forget You.

A few of the storylines didn't work for me, although maybe that's because I couldn't connect with Zoey. First, Zoey's relationship with Brandon didn't make sense to me at all. Yeah, they're friends before they hook up, but that doesn't change that they only hooked up once. Zoey knows he's a player, and for me it was obvious that this had just been a one-night-stand. Zoey, however, assumes they're boyfriend and girlfriend now, even though they don't talk at all during the week following their hook-up. She gets all clingy and jealous when Brandon gets closer to another girl. Even though that's stupid, in my opinion, it's not what I minded most. My real problem is that Zoey feels guilty for doing anything with Doug and keeps telling Doug that they can't be together because Brandon is her boyfriend. It seemed a little like they just needed some kind of conflict in order not to have the relationship between Doug and Zoey immediately work out, so that storyline just didn't make sense to me.

Another storyline I didn't really like is the one about Zoey's mother. I think it's a good idea, but in my opinion, the reader never got to know enough about the mother, her mental illness, how it developed, how it affects Zoey, etc. It could have added a lot to the main plot, if it had been explained more, but like this it didn't do anything for me.

What I really liked about Forget You, though, is the romance. Zoey and Doug have such great chemistry. I always found myself looking forward to scenes with these two. Everything about Doug and the way he treats Zoey is just so adorable. I love how the whole concept of Zoey not remembering what happened made this romance unique.

I did not like Forget You as much as Going Too Far, so if you haven't read either of them, I'd definitely recommend reading Going Too Far first. I didn't connect with Zoey, and that made it hard for me to get into the story. Then again, whether or not you connect with a character is different for every reader, so who knows whether it'll work for you. Either way, the romance aspect of Forget You is great, so if you like romances with unique concepts, Forget You is a worthwhile read.