Remember Me Always

September 15, 2017
A white high school senior, unsure of whom to trust, navigates romance and secrets in Collins' (Until We Meet Again, 2015, etc.) third novel.After her involvement in a devastating car accident during junior year, Shelby's anxiety and panic attacks became so severe that she entered a clinical program for "neural restructuring"--a combination of "brain stimulation" and hypnosis--to wipe her most painful memories. Both she and her mom are ready for her life to settle back to normal, complete with auditions for the lead role of Juliet in the school play. Yet although she has no memory of the accident, Shelby can't shake the feeling that something isn't right. Little, unpredictable triggers still spike her anxiety, and there's a boy--a boy named Auden who claims not only that she knows him, but that they are in love and that the doctors wiped her memories of him too at her mother's request. Drawn to him, Shelby must decide whether she will trust him and secretly explore this old-but-new relationship or whether something feels wrong there, too. Shelby's best friend's escape from an emotionally abusive relationship leads both characters and readers to question the health of Shelby's relationship with Auden, whose power in their relationship frequently wavers over the line of abusive. Shelby's first-person narration sets up readers to discover the truth as Shelby does, but her present-tense voice is so bland it undercuts the tension, and readers will find the plot easy to predict.Forgettable. (Thriller. 14-17)

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November 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-Aspiring actress Shelby hasn't had a typical summer vacation. In the months before her senior year of high school, she undergoes a secret procedure to have part of her memory erased after a traumatizing car accident that left her with unbearable panic attacks and anxiety. But when flickers of a memory featuring a mysterious and handsome boy at a moonlit lake appear during one of her treatment sessions, she knows something's not right. Her uneasiness only grows when that boy shows up at her school play audition and seems to know everything about her. Auden causes her to question everything-her sanity, the trust she puts in her mother, her future in her small Colorado town, and even Auden himself. This first-person narrative will satisfy readers craving indulgent, star-crossed romance with a side of coming-of-age angst. Auden and Shelby's electric chemistry is heightened by the mystery of Shelby's true past that will keep teens guessing until the satisfying end. Recommend this book to fans of Adam Silvera's More Happy than Not and the film La La Land. VERDICT A fine purchase for YA collections with a recreational readership.-Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

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