Forget This Ever Happened (Sci-Fi)
Name: Zoe M.
Book Title: Forget This Ever Happened
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Genre: Science Fiction
Number of Pages: 327
Rating: 4.5/5
This isn't your typical summer vacation.
Character List:
- Claire Whitmore - Normal, typical, average, that’s how Claire Whitmore would describe herself--and what's wrong with that? She likes listening to music--even the playlists of “different” bands and artists her crush made for her, playing video games, watching movies, and obviously hanging out with her friends. But when she’s stuck in her grandmother's tiny town for the summer, she’s met with the choice of hanging out with someone her grandmother handpicked for her to befriend or the town’s main exterminator who’s into practically everything she likes. Claire doesn’t know, but her choice could be fatal.
- Julie Alverez - The Alverez family is deeply connected to Indianola’s history leaving this rebellious and adventurous teen trapped cleaning up after the town’s peculiar creatures. But now her summer’s looking better since she and Claire stumbled onto a new mystery involving both their families and the creatures that have inhabited her town for as long as she can remember.
- “Grammy” Myrtle Sudek - Grammy is Claire’s ailing grandmother who planned for her granddaughter to come to Indianola to take care of her for the summer. She’s harsh and secretive and that's only worsened as Claire accidentally unearths hidden family secrets with Julie instead of talking to her neighbor, Audrey Duchesne.
- Audrey Duchesne - Practically the most perfect teenager you’ll ever meet, Audrey is the head cheerleader of Indianola’s high school, a part of a million school clubs and for some reason is the only person Claire’s grandmother wants her to talk to for the summer. Something is definitely off with her and only time will tell what it is!
Review:
Summer break just started and seventeen-year-old Claire Whitmore knows exactly how she’s going to spend it! Hanging out on the warm sandy beach with her best friends, listening to a playlist her crush made specifically for her; y’know, typical teen stuff. But before she could even put her headphones in, she’s leaving Houston to go to the small town of Indianola so she can take care of her sick grandmother. Between their rocky relationship, freakish creatures looking for her, and a limited social pool consisting of the town’s resident teen monster hunter and a girl that's inhumanly perfect, Claire is going to have a vacation she’ll never forget.
Forget This Ever Happened combines sci-fi and mystery in a way that it's not too much of either genre for readers to enjoy and Clarke’s choice of having a “normal” teenager enter an unordinary town allows the audience to see through the protagonist's eyes and unravel the story together with the characters. However, as the story progresses some of this foreshadowing can become too obvious if you are familiar with science fiction but even so, the eventual reveals more than make up for it and serve as a great pay off. Furthermore, this lighthearted take on the usually technical and serious science fiction genre is very easy to keep your interests without being overbearing. Also despite occurring in the nineties, everything feels relatable from Claire wanting to play on a gaming system with her new friend to simply how everyone interacts with each other. The cast of characters are just as relatable to any teen you’ll see today.
