Latest Read: Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Here are the basics ...
Forget You by Jennifer Echols
Publication date: July 20, 2010
Publisher: MTV Books
Category: Young Adult - Contemporary
Source: Purchased

Summary: There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, student, and girlfriend to popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day she can’t remember the entire night before. Why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? Why is Doug acting as if something significant happened between them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck and it terrifies her to admit how much is a blank. Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life--a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug. (Adapted goodreads.com)

My thoughts…

The good: Forget You is my second Jennifer Echols novel (the first being Such A Rush) and she certainly has a knack for writing complicated, intense relationships. Right off the bat, we are thrown into the craziness that is currently Zoey's life. Her horrible, horrible (did I mention HORRIBLE?) father knocked up his twenty-four year old employee. Her mom is spiraling into depression (due to aforementioned pregnancy and declining marriage). And good girl, captain of the swim team Zoey is not handling any of it well. Even though she pretends everything is okay. Instead, she convinces herself that being in a "relationship" (note the quotation marks) with popular football player Brandon is the key to staying sane amidst this mess. Then she gets into a car accident driving home from a party and the next day, she can't remember the previous night. All she remembers is the accident and her teammate Doug pulling her out of the wreckage and acting very affectionate with her. Like something happened between them. The book is about her putting all the pieces of that night and really, of her life, back together.

Zoey spends a good portion of her time trying to convince herself and everyone else around her that she's okay. That she's not crazy. And the more she tried, the more I thought - yeah, this girl is crazy. But as much as some of her actions infuriated me, I couldn't help but laugh sometimes at her too. She's just trying so hard and as more of her home life gets revealed, the more I sympathized with her need for control and to a certain extent, even her fixation on Brandon when it was obvious how bad he was for her. Like neon sign over his head screaming "player" in flashing lights obvious. I didn't necessarily get all her decisions (particularly when it came to him) but I felt for her. My favorite part of the book though was Doug. He's got the whole mysterious and misunderstood persona down. But he wasn't a cliche. People really had no idea what his life was like and he's a genuinely hard-working and caring person. Also very swoonworthy. (Zoey, your resistance to Doug alone makes you kind of insane.) I enjoyed the progression of their relationship a lot.

(Some minor) reservations: The pacing felt a bit abrupt at times and there were certain plots I wish we could've had more time with (like Zoey's relationship with her parents; more moments with Doug).

Do I recommend?: I liked it! Such A Rush is still my favorite but between that and Forget You, I'm interested in reading more of Jennifer Echols' books.

Happy reading!