Amnesia

What are the chances that I would read TWO books on amnesia within a week?

Last night I enjoyed Gabrielle Zevin's Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. Naomi falls at school, bangs her head, and loses the memory of the last four years, including some traumatic family events and her boyfriend. Told in a believable way, it's an interesting portrait of how someone who doesn't quite know who she is yet can forget what she does know and start over. The amneisa isn't debilitating-- it just leads to many philosophical introspections. There is something riveting about Zevin's prose, and she tells stories from odd viewpoints. My enitre family was riveted by her Elsewhere.

In Lee Weatherly's Kat Got Your Tongue, the amnesia is total. Kathy doesn't remember who she is, doesn't remember her mother, or any of her friends. She doesn't understand anything she liked before-- she looks strange even to herself. Teens are always wondering about what things would be like-- this is a great story if they wondered about what it would be like to forget everything. I like Weatherly's books a great deal-- Child X, Missing Abby, and Breakfast at Sadie's were all phenomenal. Love the new covers, too.