Series: Memento Nora #1
Author: Angie Smibert
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books (April 1, 2011)
Genre: YA Dystopian
Format Read: Ebook
Length: Short Novel
Source: Purchased from Amazon
On an otherwise glossy day, a blast goes off and a body thuds to the ground at Nora's feet. There are terrorist attacks in the city all the time, but Nora can't forget.
In Nora's world you don't have to put up with nightmares. Nora goes with her mother to TFC--a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic. There, she can describe her horrible memory and take a pill to erase it so she can go on like nothing ever happened. But at TFC a chance encounter with a mysterious guy changes Nora's life. She doesn't take the pill. And when Nora learns the memory her mother has chosen to forget, she realizes that someone needs to remember.
With newfound friends Micah and Winter, Nora makes a comic book of their memories called Memento. Memento is an instant hit, but it sets off a dangerous chain of events. Will Nora, Micah, and Winter be forced to take the Big Pill that will erase their memories forever?
Teaser: I watched him leave. He wasn’t glossy. He wasn’t dreary, either. He was something else.
He was all there. [5% Ebook. Loved these lines and the impact they have on Nora.]
Review: Memories are worth saving in Angie Smibert’s Memento Nora.
Nora is your typical glossy popular girl until she witnesses several events that turn her world upside down. I love how Nora changes throughout the book from popular to almost outcast, and yet it’s for the best. Micah is a great match for Nora as they work together to create their comic book Memento. Winter is unusual, unique, and quite the genius. Although some characters are more forgettable than others, Nora and her friends are all very glossy.
I loved the dystopian worldbuilding within this novel. The quest for shopping is taken to a whole other level. The idea you can go to a clinic and forget your worries and bad memories is both interesting and terrifying. Although this world is dark, it’s not without hope.
I enjoyed Memento Nora by Angie Smibert. It’s definitely a glossy novel.
Five Bookworms = I loved it!
Series: Momento Nora #2
Author: Angie Smibert
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish (April 1, 2012)
Genre YA Dystopian
Format Read: Ebook
Length: Short Novel
Source: Purchased from Amazon
Aiden Nomura likes to open doors especially using his skills as a hacker to see what's hidden inside. He just keeps pulling until one cracks open, exposing the flaws. It's like a game until it isn't. When a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic opens in Bern, Switzerland, near Aiden's boarding school, he knows things are changing. Shortly after, bombs go off within quiet, safe Bern. Then Aiden learns that his cousin Winter has had a mental breakdown. He returns to the US immediately. But back home in Hamilton, Winter's mental state isn't the only thing that's different. The city is becoming even stricter, and an underground movement is growing. Aiden slowly cracks open doors in this new world. But behind those doors are things Aiden doesn't want to see, things about his society, his city, even his own family. Aiden may be the only one who can fix things before someone else gets hurt.
Teaser: Do not volunteer for something until you’re sure it doesn’t include manual labor. Book of Velvet. [84% Ebook. So, so true!]
Review: Forgetting isn’t an option in Angie Smibert’s The Forgetting Curve.
I loved the introduction of new characters, such as Aiden Nomura. Velvet’s Book of Velvet sayings were very glossy and had a way of breaking up the tension in this fast-paced novel. Winter, Nora, and Micah are back, although they’re not quite the same after Memento Nora.
The stakes keep getting higher in this novel. Their world is changing, but is it for the better—or worse? As the government tries to keep everyone in their place, a movement is rising to take back their memories—and their lives.
The Forgetting Curve by Angie Smibert won’t let this reader forget how it’s a fantastic book two in the Memento Nora series.
Five Bookworms = I loved it!
Series: Memento Nora #3
Author: Angie Smibert
Publisher: Amazon Children’s Publishing (August 13, 2013)
Format Read: Ebook
Length: Short Novel
Source: Purchased from Amazon
In this third and final installment in the Memento Nora series, Micah and Nora piece their memories together as Aiden, Velvet, and Winter continue the work of the MemeCast. The teens all band together to get the word out about the new ID chips - and how the government and TFC are using the chips to manipulate the public remotely.
Teaser: A real piece of the past, she’d called it. I’d always thought the past should stay dead and buried. Or, at a bare minimum, have bigger closets and a pool. [19% Ebook. Bigger closets and a pool is definitely called for.]
Review: TFC can take your cares away, but you’ll find it difficult to come back to who you are in Angie Smibert’s The Meme Plague.
Nora and Micah have a bigger role in this novel than book two. The characters face very difficult decisions as they go against TFC and the government. The upcoming elections don’t ease their problems either. As the group struggles to hold onto who they are, they are facing a world that they might not be able to change.
Although I enjoyed Memento Nora and The Forgetting Curve, I felt this novel had something missing. There was a lack of urgency and underlying pace. Yet the ending was perfect for the series.
Though not my favorite of the series, I recommend The Meme Plague by Angie Smibert as well as the entire Memento Nora series.
Four Bookworms = I really liked it!
