There was nothing terribly original happening here. The story was told in a touching way and handled as a teen spotless mind kind of thing. The characters are are easy to identify with and to care about. Young readers may find this to be an original story that is easy to access.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC of Remember Me in exchange for an honest review.

The underlying question throughout this book: if you could choose to undergo a procedure to completely erase certain bad memories (and all associated memories, including relationships), would you? As the story begins, Blue Owens wakes up with a sense of various inexplicable gaps—missing assignments at school, people who seem familiar, a feeling that her friends are hiding something. This nagging sense goes on for a while…long enough to give me the sense that I’d read a similar book a year ago. (Adam Silvera’s “More Happy Than Not” has a similar premise.) There are hints that memory erasure exists, and sure enough, we learn that she did pay to have memories removed—but not why.

And that is where the story really gets interesting! I was a bit boggled--up to this point, the chapters were very short. I’m the type of reader who prefers many short chapters to a few long chapters. Suddenly a long chapter loomed…and for me, that chapter made the whole book worth reading.

So—having chosen to remove memories, what was the outcome for Blue? And what would you choose? A lot to think about here, but I can’t think of more to say without spoilers!

One content warning: there is a bit of teen sex. But there’s a lot more about family, and trauma (a secondary question: what type of situation would cause you to want to erase your own memory?), and mental health and relationships in general.

This book asks an important question: If you could erase your memory of the painful parts of your life, would you? This book is set in a near future in which the technology to do this exists.

That’s what Blue wrestles with. In fact, at some point, she thought it would be worth it, because that’s what she did. But now, she’s finding out that she’d like to have those memories back. It’s not an easy process, and she brings pain to those around her as she deals with her loss—again.

Blue lives alone with her grandmother. She’s got two good friends who are about to graduate and leave her behind. She has vague memories of her mother’s death. Or does she?

This book is part mystery, part coming-of-age, and part love story. Blue re-discovers the boy who had been the love of her life. She also rediscovers her parents’ messy divorce, and something else, something so traumatic that she voluntarily had it excised from her memories.

But the aftermath of that process turns out to be worse than the memories—or she hopes so, as she illicitly tries to get the memories back. The revelation of what actually happened is a shocker, and it makes sense that it was something she wanted to forget.

The supporting cast is well-written. Blue’s friends, her boyfriend, her sassy grandma, and the brave doctor who helps her get her memory back are fully realized. Even her boyfriend’s understandably wary mother, and Blue’s art teacher, have depth to them.

Yes, I am categorizing this book with romances, because the relationship between Blue and Adam is definitely a factor here.

Possible Objectionable Material:
Suicidal thoughts, depression, death. References to sex—Blue and her boyfriend are sexually active—including a somewhat descriptive scene. Swearing, including the F word. One character is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone under 15.

Who Might Like This Book:
People who like coming-of-age and watching characters overcome trauma. Those who like books with supportive friends.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my opinion.

This book also reviewed at https://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2022/03/love-in-its-many-forms.html

I really loved the premise of this one. Unfortunately it fell flat for me with how it handled the grief and mental health of the characters. I also found the story hard to follow and struggled to get through it

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book.

I read the first chapter and wanted to dnf this book. However, because it is a Netgalley book I decided to push through it. I am mildly surprised. I loved the description of this book. I knew it was going to be a hard hitting YA contemporary but I had hoped for a little more.

This book starts out with a strong friendship between three individuals. One is non binary. So there is LGBTQ+ represented in this book. I always struggle reading from a person with they/them pronouns as it takes me out of the story every time so it is not my favorite to read in a book. However, it was a great friendship and relationship in the story.

All I can really say is that this book is heavy with grief. There is no right or wrong way to handle grief and loss and so while I didn't always like the main character, Blue. I also understand that she is hurting.... a lot. I ended up really getting attached to the story and liking the way it was written and explained. When going through pain we just want it to be taken away. I am glad to see that by the end Blue realizes that you can't take away the pain without losing part of yourself.

Trigger warnings for grief, death, suicide, medical experiements, sexual content,

The premise of this book sounded interesting: What if there was a procedure that allowed you to completely forget painful experiences and people? What if it didn't fully work? Unfortunately, it just wasn't well executed. The writing style was chaotic and hard to follow at times, but the main reason for my rating is that I don't think the mental health issues were handled well at all. Someone struggling with grief and trauma response is not being selfish, and I fear that putting that message in a young adult book could cause serious harm.

This was a different and interesting read. It’s starts off with Blue heading to school. Yet something feels off. She finds a note and has no clue who could have written it. From there the story progresses as Blue sets out to find out what happened to her. My heart did hurt for her. There’s a lot of heavy moments. If only it were that simple to simply forget. While there’s a lot of deep scenes, there’s some lighter ones which gives you a sense of hope. Like the sun coming out after a cloudy day.

After finishing, I took some time to sort out my feelings. On one hand, I enjoyed it. There’s a really good twist and of course that ending. On the other hand, I had mixed feelings on how certain things played out for Blue. I won’t spoil anything. All I have to say is read it for yourself. I give this 3 stars.

This was such an amazing book that deals with grief, pain and loss. This book is about a girl who wakes up to notice that something isn't right and receives a note to meet someone at the bus. This book kind of gave me The Program vibe but with this having more pain and healing to the story. I really enjoyed the author's writing in this book as she did such an amazing job with talking about grief and pain. The storyline was greatly done but honestly the story was spoiled for me from the synopsis. There were some surprising elements that made up for it (for me). The pacing was great and this was also a very short read (around 300) pages!

The main character in this book is Blue who was such a great character but kind of needed a better character development. I enjoyed the fact that we got to learn more about her and how she learned who she is but it wasn't something new for her if you know what I mean. There is also a main side character who is Adam and he helps Blue get her memories back. I enjoyed his character and his building relationship with Blue. There are also great side characters including a non-binary one. The romance is super sweet with I guess you can say second chance romance.

The ending was really great but expected with how the story was going. I honestly didn't expect this book to be sci-fi in the sense of The Program but it felt close to that book. I wish the synopsis didn't spoil the story so we got more of the surprise element in the book. I totally recommend reading this book as it talks about pain and loss which would break your heart a thousand times.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this!

I really liked the premise of this, but I may have read too many YA memory wiping books lately, because this one just didn’t do it for me. The first half is given away by the synopsis, and I think the second half way where it really shines. We see flashbacks of Blue and what led to her wanting her memories removed and I enjoyed that part, even though I didn’t really click with it. I think part of my issue was that I didn’t like the attempts at explaining the science behind the memory wipes. You either need to go really technical and researched and maybe based on some current technologies or just be magic and woop we can do this. I really enjoyed the diverse cast of characters and the friendships.

Read I as a buddy read and all I can say is though out the entire book I felt like I was in one of those old black and white TV show from the Twilight zone. But over all still a good read .

Would you ever willingly give up all of your memories attached to one that you can't accept or forgive knowing that your decision is irreversible? Would it be possible to function with huge gaps in the memories of your past? Who would you be without these memories? Would you make the same choices and decisions you made before? What makes you YOU?

These are the questions the author presents to her readers through her teen character Blue Owens. As the book opens, Blue, a junior in high school feels that things don't make sense. People look at her strangely and act oddly when she's nearby. It's as if they know something about her that she doesn't, but how could that be true? Maybe they do, because she feels as if huge chunks of her life have disappeared, and she doesn't understand why? When someone tells her that she actually paid to have her memories erased, she tries to understand what would cause her to make that decision. Is life better for her like this, or was it better before? Can she find a way to restore her memories?

I rate this YA novel 3 stars. It is an interesting premise; I just was hoping for something more in the execution.

My thanks to Wednesday Books for permitting me to access an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley. The scheduled publication date is 3/22/22. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Holy moly I loved this! It gave off Before I Fall mixed with sci-fi elements and I just fell in love with this story! Highly recommend.

Life is comprised of love and happiness, sadness and grief. What if you had the opportunity to erase all the negative memories and only have a life filled with joy? Embarrassing moment? Gone. Broken heart? Gone. But to truly experience love, isn't it necessary to know pain? Take a literary journey with Blue as she delves into what is important in her life. To consider the old saying, it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Great book!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read Remember Me by Estelle Laure in exchange for an honest review.

Let me just start by saying the concept of this book is incredible. A way to have your memories removed, to save you from reliving, or feeling, traumatic events. What could go wrong. This book explores what could go wrong when one young woman discovered that her body felt the old memories, but her brain wasn’t making the connections. She wanted it reversed, but is that even possible.

So I love the concept, however, the execution just wasn’t there. The story felt shallow, like it was missing something. It felt as if I was reading the very first draft, the one where you get the plot details down and plan to add the depth later. This book had the opportunity to be amazing, I still think it could be with some tweaking. But alas, it is what it is. I believe that this book will be amazing for some people, but for me it didn’t work out. I just couldn’t shake the feeling of wanting more.

“Sometimes we want to get away from ourselves so bad we’d do anything to get out of our own skin.”

This book takes place in a future world where we now have the ability to release people from our memories. Blue is having trouble remembering and feels like something is missing from her life so she goes to investigate what was removed from her memory.
This book explores mental health, suicide, loss and grief. Please read with care.

This book had me bawling. I read this in one sitting which I rarely do. The writing was great, I just wish there was a little more. I wish I could have gotten to know Blue outside of her grief.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read this via e-arc.

Not the worst book I have read but not the best either. I struggled with the storyline & connecting with Blue. Might have been just me but felt like this could have been tighter. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't do it. for me. Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a hard one for me to review. I liked the idea of the premise to see where the story could go, but I felt Blue needed more depth. I wanted to feel what she did, and that connection was lacking. I wanted more from this story than I got.

Sadly I have tried this book a bunch of times (it has been on my Kindle since before it's original pub date in 20210 and I just have not been able to get into it. I don't know if it reminded me too much of ESOTSM or what, but in the end this was not a book for me. It makes me sad because I saw some people compare it to a Suzanne Young books, which if you know you me you know how much I love Suzanne, but I just couldn't connect. Another case of...it's me, not you.

I really enjoyed this one! But I wish it had done more to play with my emotions and to really share the pain Blue had experienced, and to build a more secure world. The blurb makes it sound a little predictable, but it doesn't go exactly where you think it will, which I really appreciated. However,
I think Laure has a clever concept here, but we needed to be handfed a little bit more of how the entire world works with these parameters.

I was quite taken with the premise. What would we be without our pain? That was a very thought provoking idea for me, and I enjoyed exploring it via Blue’s experience. These questions have been asked before in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the idea has fascinated me since the movie came out, so if you have seen that movie this story may seem a bit familiar.

This book is all about feelings, whether it be about pain, love, sadness or friendships. Whilst the book is sad and even a bit messy at times, it definitely ends positively and compassionately, as ultimately at the core of this book, it’s all about love I think there are many directions the reader is given the opportunity to take this story with but bringing it back to it's essence,, Remember me is full of emotion and thought provoking questions

not a must read, not bad either. I think this will be a love it or hate it hot topic book and its worth exploring

thank you to netgalley for providing an e-copy for me to leave my honest feedback