A review by scorpstar77
Unforgettable by Loretta Ellsworth
4.0
So in this book, 15-year-old Baxter Green is the kid who never forgets. Ever. Nothing ever. He had a head injury when he was 3, and he's remembered everything he ever saw, heard, or experienced since then. Naturally, when his mom's crappy ex-boyfriend Dink found out, he took advantage by forcing Baxter to memorize credit card numbers so he could steal. And naturally, when Dink got caught and Baxter testified against him...and stole the stolen cash from his office...that pissed Dink off. So when Dink is paroled, Baxter and his mom move to a randomly (not really) town in Minnesota. There, Baxter tries to start over as a normal kid at school, hiding his ability, and also tries to win the affection of his ecologically passionate crush...who he just happened to fall in love with in kindergarten. Only she doesn't remember him at all.
The book was well-written and interesting. I was rooting for Baxter, and honestly was happy to see a YA novel written from a boy's perspective to begin with, as they're kind of rare. Having never been a teenage boy, I can't speak to how realistic his thoughts and actions in the book are, but they struck me as reasonably accurate for a smart, sensitive teen boy. And the cover art is kick-ass - I would find myself picking up the book to read it and just staring at the cover for a while before actually cracking open the book. The only thing criticism I have is that it felt like the book was trying to do too much, like there were too many elements to the story. If there had been more focus on the memory thing, or the running from the bad guy thing, or the environmental message thing...just one of those would have been an adequate companion to the complex teenage love feelings story, but all of them kind of diluted the purpose until I wasn't really sure what the main thrust of the book was. Even so, I found the Baxter compelling and the writing excellent, so I still liked the book!
The book was well-written and interesting. I was rooting for Baxter, and honestly was happy to see a YA novel written from a boy's perspective to begin with, as they're kind of rare. Having never been a teenage boy, I can't speak to how realistic his thoughts and actions in the book are, but they struck me as reasonably accurate for a smart, sensitive teen boy. And the cover art is kick-ass - I would find myself picking up the book to read it and just staring at the cover for a while before actually cracking open the book. The only thing criticism I have is that it felt like the book was trying to do too much, like there were too many elements to the story. If there had been more focus on the memory thing, or the running from the bad guy thing, or the environmental message thing...just one of those would have been an adequate companion to the complex teenage love feelings story, but all of them kind of diluted the purpose until I wasn't really sure what the main thrust of the book was. Even so, I found the Baxter compelling and the writing excellent, so I still liked the book!