Book Review: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, by Gabrielle Zevin

Trailer for the Japanese film of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, I only know about six words in Japanese (Ichi, ni, san, shi, konnichiwa, and moshimoshi - one, two, three, four, hello, and hello-on-the-phone) plus some titles, but it looks pretty.

When Naomi Porter wakes up in hospital, having fallen down the front steps of her high school, the last thing she remembers is James Larkin accompanying her in the ambulance, telling the staff that he was her boyfriend. She remembers nothing from the last four years, but she knows she isn't twelve any more, and James quickly tells her that he is not, in fact, her boyfriend. In fact, they aren't even friends. But Naomi doesn't remember any of her real friends. She doesn't remember her parents splitting up, or her half-sister, Chloe. She doesn't remember the meaning behind the songs her best friend, Will, puts on mix CDs for her. She can't remember why she liked her boyfriend Ace, why she chose any of her hobbies, or why she wrote about her weight and the food she ate in her diary.

But life must go on, and Naomi has to learn how to live as the girl she is now, and struggle against all the things that other people expect her to be - the same girl as before, an invalid, a mysterious blank slate. Naomi finds that she doesn't remember why she hates her mum and her dad's new girlfriend, Rosa Rivera - and when she finds out, she doesn't feel it. She doesn't want to work on the yearbook any more, she wants to join the drama group, and she wants to split up with Ace - and date James instead.

When I picked up this book I was intrigued by the memory-loss plotline, but having read and watched several fictional depictions of amnesia that just didn't ring true, I was prepared for the worst!.I am delighted to say that I was absorbed from start to finish - Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is just stunning. It ticks all the boxes: avoiding cliché, making Naomi's amnesia believable, strong characterisation, poignant scenes, humour, moments of confusion and panic brilliantly captured, twists, turns, and an ending which isn't quite expected, but makes perfect sense. This was one of the precious few books that I read last year that I found hard to put down.

After reading it I had to rush out and read Gabrielle Zevin's other YA novel, Elsewhere, which I enjoyed but unfortunately not as much as I did Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. I will give it a proper review of its own, but essentially my problem with Elsewhere was that it seemed to be pitched for younger readers, there wasn't anything wrong with it, the concept is fantastic, I just couldn't engage with it in the same way as I did with Memoirs. I wonder if I'll like Gabrielle Zevin's adult books better. The Japanese film adaptation of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is out now in Japan, entitled Dareka ga Watashi ni Kissu wo Shita, which means "Someone Kissed Me", fingers crossed it comes out here at some point!

You can read an excerpt from this book or listen to a clip from the audio book here.

Book Review: Fabulous Nobodies, by Lee Tulloch

Reality Nirvana Tuttle (daughter of a hippy, which she finds deeply embarrassing), a woman with 'seventy-two different fashion personalities', is the 'doorwhore' of the nightclub Less Is More in New York City. Her job involves deciding which "nobodies" are allowed in, on the basis of how "fabulous" they are. She wields great power in the club scene, her compliments and criticisms acting as law, until one night she fails to recognise Jackie O in a drab outfit and is fired for her mistake.

This is a absolute disaster for Reality (or 'Really', as her friends call her), who is replaced by her unstylish nemesis, Ricci, a woman that lets just anyone into the club. Reality also needs the money to pay for her tiny flat and so that she can collect an even wider range of clothes. She prefers frocks to people, which is not surprising as all her "friends" are as mean as she is. Reality is of course desperate for attention as well, wanting to one day become a somebody, and has met the gossip columnist for Frenzee Magazine, Hugo Falk, so all she needs to do now is something fabulous enough for him to write about. Eventually she hits upon the solution to all her problems - she and her neighbour Freddie will open their own club in their apartments!

This novel was originally published in 1989 and I would describe it as quirky, satirical proto-chick-lit. It has dated slightly - mostly in terms of language like the slang, but I doubt the fashion club scene has changed at all. The characters and their adventures are silly and superficial, but likeable and funny. Reality genuinely loves her frocks, believing that every dress she owns has a name, a personality and a voice. She can't stand the pain she can feel emanating from them when they are abused by other people, she has to buy them so she can look after them properly. The other characters also seem pretty horrible at first, but when they show how much they really love Reality, they seem a lot more sympathetic.

This novel is a fast and easy read that I would recommend this book to fans of fashion, satire, quirky stories, or Sex and the City - I remember one Amazon reviewer describing Reality as being like a young Carrie, before she got the bizarrely high-paid job as a newspaper columnist, would be. I think the only downside is that it is so short - I want to find out what happens to these characters next!

Book Review: All My Friends Are Superheroes, by Andrew Kaufman

All Tom's friends are superheroes. Literally. Some of them have more typical superpowers, others are quite bizarre. Tom's wife is a superhero, The Perfectionist. Her superpower is to make anything perfect. The Perfectionist has a nasty, scheming ex who is still in love with her, Hypno. At Tom and The Perfectionist's wedding reception, Hypno hypnotised The Perfectionist so that she can no longer see, hear, or feel Tom. She thinks he's left her, and gets on a plane to Vancouver to start a new life. Tom takes the seat beside her. He only has the duration of the flight to make her realise that he's there - because when she arrives in Vancouver, The Perfectionist will use her power to make her new life perfect - and forget him.

The book is broken into chapters and each tells us about the different superheroes that Tom knows, his relationship with The Perfectionist and his previous attempts to convince her that he was there, or follows Tom on the plane beside The Perfectionist. The chapters are not in a linear order, but each chapter is well placed and the end is at the end!

I really enjoyed this story. It's the kind of book that you will want to give to everyone you know if you love it yourself. I can't see why anyone would dislike this, even if you don't like love stories, this one is completely free of cheesiness.

Kaufman's superheroes are not the comic book, costume wearing, world-saving characters we are all familiar with. There are 249 of them in Toronto. Many of their powers are comedic, others are useless, and nearly all of them you will recognise as belonging to real people as well. I finished the book convinced that some people I know are superheroes too, I may even be one!

A strange but lovely thing about this book is that the pages are really soft! They're quite thick and kind of glossy. I just couldn't stop myself stroking them.

The thing I would criticise about this book is the price. The RRP is £7.99 and it's £5.99 on Amazon. It's a really slim volume and some people will definitely be put off by the amount of book you get for your money. I'm not, because I enjoyed the story so much and the pages are so strokable!