Review: Forgotten by Cat Patrick

Each night when 16 year-old London Lane goes to sleep, her whole world disappears. In the morning, all that's left is a note telling her about a day she can't remember. The whole scenario doesn't exactly make high school or dating that hot guy whose name she can't seem to recall any easier. But when London starts experiencing disturbing visions she can't make sense of, she realizes it's time to learn a little more about the past she keeps forgetting-before it destroys her future. 

When I first caught sight of this book, I nearly passed it over, after all from the first sentence it looked just like another fifty first dates type of thing. But then I got to the bit about seeing the future, and I got curious.
And boy am I glad I did. This book was brilliant.

I raced through it in a matter of hours, because it was a really engaging story with a brilliant idea and extremely well-constructed characters.

The writing is really simple, almost conservative with word use, but it’s incredibly effective. London is a brilliantly created character, with a clear cut voice and was instantly likeable. She never whinges about her situation, although at several points she’d have plenty of cause to. She’s a down to earth sensible heroine, who doesn’t have self-esteem issues, nor is she particularly vain. She’s just normal, and takes her problem in her stride, dealing with it in a really constructive fashion.

I was particularly impressed how she handled the knowledge about events that would happen to those around her – she tried to change the bad where she could, but didn’t go off the deep end, just kept a clear head knowing that at some point everything would be ok.
I loved those little titbits though, the pieces of information she gives about each person she meets – why she knows them, and what will happen to them, it was fascinating.

Patrick treads a very fine line between teenage angst and teenage normalcy, and she comes out pitch perfect. The characters are so believable, without falling into stereotypes, and they’re all flawed and human as well as having really brilliant facets. They’re brilliantly constructed.

And swoonworthy – don’t forget swoonworthy. And yes I’m looking at you Luke. He’s a really good construct, because he’s dreamy, but he’s a bit weird, he’s kind, caring and compassionate, but he can also be a bit of a jerk too. He felt real.

I wasn’t so convinced by the adults portrayed, and it would have been good to see more development of them, but otherwise the characterization was near flawless.

The plot was brilliantly paced, intricate, and fresh – this isn’t your average young adult fare. It did become a little bit rushed towards the end, and so I would have liked to have a bit more time spent drawing that out, but it works well as it is. The book works really well as a standalone, but if there’s a sequel I would pick it up without any hesitation.

This was a gem of a find from trawling through random Amazon suggestions, and I’m so glad I gave it a second look - it’s beautiful, compelling, and stays with you after you’ve turned the last page.