Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Recommended Age: Young Adult
Publisher: Square Fish
ISBN-13: 978-0312561284
ISBN-10:  0312561288
Year Published: 2009
No. Pages: 304
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Main Character Gender: Female
Read & Reviewed by: Kali



Naomi Porter, a fifteen year old falls down the stairs in the middle of her junior year of high school. She suffers a traumatic head injury and loses her memory. Now, Naomi needs to piece her life together and figure out if she wants to be the old Naomi everyone talks about or the Naomi she has become post-amnesia.

Zevin has created a witty main character she learns she doesn’t like the person she was before. Naomi begins to make new friends and do things she previously wouldn’t have done. She has mixed feelings throughout the whole book. She’s confused about how to act which gives her character more depth. She doesn’t know how she will react if she gets her memory back. Will she see life in the same way?

Naomi struggles with her social life like normal people. Zevin expresses Naomi’s thoughts and feeling in a way that in part they ring true for me as the reader. Her problems, apart from amnesia, are everyday teenage problems so young adult readers can relate to her.

Zevin doesn’t sugar coat the frustrations and difficulties of losing one’s memory. Zevin shows what might happen to an amnesiac in terms of developing a new personality and the need for someone to just live their life by piecing new truths together. Naomi does this and gains a fresh perspective on her life. This book really shows the reader how to re-evaluate his or her life.

This book took me three days to read. I rated it a 9/10. I recommend this to people who like books that have a little bit of mystery behind the story.