June 13, 2016
The Forgetting, a consequence-free night of lawlessness and bloodshed accompanied by a total loss of memory, comes to the walled city of Canaan every 12 years, and its citizens rely on their books to remember who they are afterward, unless they decide to start new lives. Teenage Nadia isn’t like the others: she remembers everything, and has been scaling the city’s walls for some time. When the charming Gray catches her and demands that she take him over the wall, she can’t refuse for fear of being reported to the Council. The setting is kept vague until the second half of the novel, when it truly finds its legs and a world-shattering twist is revealed. The sweet romance between Nadia and Gray is hard-earned and realistic, and Cameron (Rook) mines Nadia’s relationships with her family (including her heartbreak over her father’s abandonment) while steadily building tension as the Forgetting draws closer. Memory—and how it shapes identities and futures—is at the heart of this absorbing adventure, and the satisfying conclusion leaves an opening for further novels. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary.