Review: The Forgetting by Nicole Maggi

Release Date: February 3, 2015

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 352
Source: eARC for Review

ISBN-10: 1492603562

Rating: 3 Hearts

Book Description

"Georgie's new heart saved her life...but now she's losing her mind.

Georgie Kendrick wakes up after a heart transplant, but the organ beating in her chest doesn't seem to be in tune with the rest of her body. Why does she have a sudden urge for strawberries when she's been allergic for years? Why can't she remember last Christmas?

Driven to find her donor, Georgie discovers her heart belonged to a girl her own age who fell out of the foster care system and into a rough life on the streets. Everyone thinks she committed suicide, but Georgie is compelled to find the truth - before she loses herself completely. "

Review

Short and Sweet:

Not quite what I expected. Not necessarily bad, but not great either.

To Elaborate...

The Forgetting was a book that I looked forward to greatly, but it didn't end up being really what I thought it was going to be. For me, the concept of the heart containing memories was hard to reconcile and so the whole story became somewhat unbelievable. But this can be partially attributed to my current state of mind and is likely more of an 'it's me not the book' scenario. 

The story begins with Georgie Kendrick getting a transplant after a bad case of pneumonia. Curious about the donor, her interest is further piqued when she overhears the nurses speaking about the tragic circumstances of the donor. Georgie learns that the donor heart came from an unidentified Jane Doe who is believed to have committed suicide. Her interest is inspired by the fact that her heart beat doesn't feel quite right to her. She calls this feeling 'the Catch.'

Right away, Georgie feels less like herself and begins to have memories that aren't from her own life. The really eerie thing about this is that as she gains memories from Jane Doe she begins to lose memories of her own. Long story short: this heart that she's received has saved her life, but certainly also has a life of its own, and the Catch clearly has some unfinished business. Believing that if she could identify the girl and discover the reason that she committed suicide she'll gain back her own memories, Georgie begins investigating who Jane Doe was and why she ended her life.

From the start of her investigation, she finds herself in over her head. To begin with, she finds the location of Jane D.'s death in a news article and tracks down her apartment in a seedy neighborhood. Once there, she begins to feel an intuition and a pull that she doesn't understand. Georgie has a surreal sense of having been there before and realizes that her heart is leading her to those places. Near a graveyard, she is mistaken for a prostitute and propositioned by a male driver to help him 'celebrate' his birthday. Suddenly another girl comes out of the shadows and tries to negotiate a deal for both her and Georgie to help this guy out sexually for a price. Of course, Georgie is not only uninterested, but horrified. The guy drives off, and after a moment, a boy walks out of the shadows and begins talking to the prostitute asking her if she needs help. She can hardly catch her breath when she realizes the presence inside her knows this boy and that she also recognizes and knows things about him, FEELS things about him that she shouldn't. In fact, it seems as though her heart is in love with this boy. Ultimately, they team up to find out what happened to this girl, before Georgie's memories are replaced entirely by the Catch.


While The Forgetting was not my favorite, there is a definite feeling of suspense and tension throughout the story, and I appreciate that this book deals with the serious issue of sex trafficking that takes place almost silently in our country. I would recommend this book based on the awareness that can be gained in it's pages, but beware it has a few sexually graphic and violent scenes, and the aspect of a heart full of memories ends up ultimately being a bit lackluster in the shadow of such an important issue.

3 Hearts!