Review by Alicia L’Archevêque
Simon and Schuster, April 4th, 2023
320 pages, Hardcover, $26.99 CAN, 9781665902373
Young Adult, Ages 14 and up
LGBTQIA+, Fiction
If you don’t remember me, it almost feels like I don’t really exist.
For all of the hurt and frustration in Alyson Derrick’s solo debut, there is at least twice as much love. A suspenseful teeter between tragedy and romance, Forget Me Not weaves the two into a captivating ode to memory, teenage love, and queerness.
Stevie and Nora are recent high school graduates living in Wyatt, a rural small town full of even smaller-minded habitants. Despite Wyatt’s open distaste for all that deviates from its status quo – including the LGBTQ+ community – the two girls have fallen in love. Their relationship is now two years in the making, characterized by Polaroid pictures, hushed phone calls, farmside hideouts, and an all-encompassing sense that they belong together. Just as Stevie and Nora’s plan to escape to a freer city lifestyle is nearing realization, Stevie survives a traumatic blow to the head. Although she awakes from her coma in one piece, Stevie has no recollection of the past two years of her life; including ever meeting her lover, Nora. Stevie desperately tries to uncover the life she has lived, all the while those around her jog her memory with fantasies of who they wish she had become. As Stevie pieces together the person she had apparently grown into, her findings range from bittersweet to outright world-shattering.
While the amnesia trope runs the risk of being overdone, Derrick puts a fresh spin on the story. As Stevie chases after explanations of her past two years, I was kept on the edge of my seat, itching to point her in the right direction. Furthermore, the novel’s incorporation of sexuality into a story centered around amnesia is unique and raw. As Stevie navigates her identity, I could imagine how intimidating it might feel to be confronted with tangible proof of your own queerness before you could come to terms with it – or rather remember coming to terms with it.
While Stevie and Nora’s relationship is often painted against the backdrop of medical tragedy and their town’s hate, their story’s grief is appeased by its intimacy. The pair’s love for one another is palpable, brought to life by Derrick’s imaginative and descriptive writing. I found Stevie and Nora to be both highly likable and full characters, and I was invested in their search for an environment in which their relationship could flourish. Only a year after publishing her debut novel She Gets the Girl, Alyson Derrick has once again embellished the landscape of young adult literature with her newest contribution. Forget Me Not tackles recovery and romance with the same hand, and a wonderfully complex story emerges. Amidst their laments and their lust, Stevie and Nora’s story is touching and hopeful. To choose authenticity and love is beautiful, especially if you’d do it all over again – literally.
Alicia L’Archevêque loves to write, talk about movies, dance with friends, and climb trees in good company. She is an art student at UBC and a swimmer on the school’s varsity team.
YOUNG ADULTING 