Sourcebooks Fire
February 3, 2015
352 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or Amazon
Georgie's new heart saved her life...but now she's losing her mind.
Georgie Kendrick wakes up after a heart transplant, but the organ beating in her chest doesn't seem to be in tune with the rest of her body. Why does she have a sudden urge for strawberries when she's been allergic for years? Why can't she remember last Christmas?
Driven to find her donor, Georgie discovers her heart belonged to a girl her own age who fell out of the foster care system and into a rough life on the streets. Everyone thinks she committed suicide, but Georgie is compelled to find the truth - before she loses herself completely.
If you were to reduce Nicole Maggi's The Forgetting to a bulleted list of plot points, it would be nearly unimaginable that they could all come together to form a cohesive or plausible story. In prose form, though, The Forgetting is much more than simply cohesive and plausible.
After a sudden illness, Georgie wakes up in the hospital after her necessary heart transplant. Everyone around her - from her parents to the doctors and nurses - seem thrilled with how the surgery went, hopeful about her prognosis. While Georgie knows she, too, should be thrilled, but something feels not right.
The new heart feels not right. Like it's not really Georgie's.
As she tries to begin her recover, to get back to her life, Georgie can't convince herself that it's the normal post-transplant feelings she's having. Treasured memories seem to be disappearing while others, someone else's, seem to be appearing. It seems that the girl whose heart it was first, the girl who died, may not be entirely gone.
And Georgie's determined to find out about her.
Starting The Forgetting, I was expecting more of a contemporary fiction novel. I like that I got something other than I was expecting. It is a contemporary fiction novel, but with just enough 'unexplained' elements to make it really special.
The feelings, the memories Georgie seems to be getting from her heart donor and her forays into the city's underbelly are a great contrast to the idea we get of who Georgie was, of her life. She's a nice girl, with a definite plan, from a nice, wealthy area. Forced to confront things about herself, about her surroundings, about society, Georgie and readers, really get to see who she is.
As Georgie looks into the girl, into her past, she discovers some of the hidden parts of her city, those rarely known and even more rarely acknowledged. Despite, or perhaps because of, their contrast to Georgie's everyday life, it all really works. She isn't the crusader, she isn't the advocate, she's us. So, as she uncovers the secrets, finds out more and more, it feels very real.
I loved meeting Georgie, reading her story, seeing her growth. In Georgie uncovering Jane Doe, her heart donor's, life, some very important happenings, facts and knowledge becomes a part of the novel and a part of readers' consciousness.
I wanted to read The Forgetting because I enjoyed the movie Return to Me and things I've read along the same general premise, but it was so much more than I was hoping for. The Forgetting, its characters and story are ones I won't forget.
Check out The Forgetting Spotlight Blitz post for an excerpt
review copy received, via NetGalley, from publisher for honest review
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