Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Published in 2007 by Square Fish
271 pages
Warning: This novel contains sensuality, language and drinking involving teens.
Genre: Love, Friends and Society

Naomi has fallen on the steps outside of her school; she does not remember why she fell or the reason she was going back to the school. Upon waking, everything and everyone is new to her. As she returns to school, she does not know who to trust and sees new faces everywhere. As Naomi discovers who she was in the past, she begins to redefine herself. Forgetting her previous boyfriend Ace, Naomi dedicates herself to yearbook and drama activities; she discovers love in a place she did not expect and becomes the person she wants to be.

I enjoyed this novel. It explores the idea of one single event changing the course of a life; Naomi opens the book talking about the various possibilities of how her life may have turned out:

"If things had been different, I'd be called Nataliya or Natasha, and I'd have a Russian accent and chapped lips year round. Maybe I'd even be a street kid who'd trade you just about anything for a pair of blue jeans. But I am not Nataliya or Natasha, because at six months old I was delivered from Kratovo, Moscow Oblast, to Brooklyn, New York. I don't remember the trip or ever having lived in Russia at all. What I know about my orphanhood is limited to what I've been told by my parents and then by what they were told, which was sketch at best: a week-old baby girl was found in an empty typewriter case in the second-to-last pew of an Eastern Orthodox Church" (7).

It is interesting that Naomi does not remember her time in Russia, as she does not remember her life before she fell down the stairs. While Naomi is told be people what she was like before her accident, she questions if she really did like those things. I found this novel to be a breath of fresh air, as Naomi is given the chance to redefine herself and question what her interests and morals were based on, if anything.

For deleted scenes from the novel that did not make the book, click here.

I also included the trailer for a movie that was made. But, the movie is Japanese....and there are three additional characters which were not from the book. Disappointing :(