Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesic

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

By Gabrielle Zevin

Naomi is about to begin her junior year in high school as the editor-in-chief of the yearbook when she takes a tumble down the exterior stairs to the school, hitting her head but saving the yearbook camera.  She is rescued by a new boy, James, who takes her to the hospital.  When Naomi wakes up she has amnesia.  She doesn’t remember much of anything since 6^th grade, which was the year her parents got divorced.  She doesn’t remember that her mother is remarried and that she has a half-sister.  She doesn’t remember her best friend and co-editor-in-chief of the yearbook, Will.  She doesn’t remember her boyfriend, Ace.  And now there is a new boy in her life, James.  She does remember that she is mad at her mother, but she is unclear about the details.  Naomi reinvents herself during this year, until the memories come flooding back.  Then she must move on with her life.  She must decide whether she wants to have a relationship with her mother and which boy she wants to keep in her life.  As in all of Gabrielle Zevin’s books, the narrator, Naomi, is entertaining and likeable.  Readers will be pulled into her journey of rediscovery. 

Genre:  Realistic fiction, Romance

Reviewed by:  Lauren Sprouse, librarian

All These Things I've Done

All These Things I've Done

by Gabrielle Zevin

Thanks to the snow gods and Roanoke County Schools for assigning a snow day yesterday so that I could finish this very fine read by Gabrielle Zevin.  This is perhaps my favorite teen read of 2013, so far at least.   All These Things I’ve Done is set in Manhattan in the year 2082.  The world as we know it has changed quite a bit.  Many things we take for granted are now illegal:  phones with cameras, paper without a permit, even chocolate and caffeine.  No new clothing is manufactured.  Food is rationed and water is very expensive.    The main character and narrator of this novel is sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine, the orphaned daughter of organized crime boss Leonyd Balanchine, leader of the famed Balanchine Chocolate.    Anya lost her mother to a mob hit that was meant for her father when she was six years old.  That same hit also left her brother Leo brain damaged.  Three years later the mob finally succeeded in killing her father as well.  Now Anya lives with her grandmother, Galina, her younger sister, Natty, and her brother Leo.  Anya’s grandmother is supposedly their guardian, but in reality she is dying, so Anya is really the caregiver of the family.  It is Anya who makes decisions for the family.  It is Anya who contacts the family lawyer when her mob relatives are stirring up trouble.  It is Anya who takes care of her older brother.  Still, Anya manages to attend a prestigious private Catholic school.   She has a new boyfriend, Winn Delacroix, who is the son of New York City’s top cop, which is ironic since she is the daughter of the city’s most famous criminal.  In some ways she lives a privileged life, until her creepy ex-boyfriend is poisoned by a chocolate bar that Anya gave him and the police believe she is responsible.   This novel is full of action and twists as Anya must negotiate to protect her herself, her immediate family, and her boyfriend, whose father would prefer that he not date the daughter of a famous crime boss, from the law and from her own mafia connections.  Will she ultimately have to accept her birthright and become the next Balanchine Chocolate crime boss?  Only time and the sequel, Because it is In My Blood, will tell. 

Lauren Sprouse, Librarian