Review: Don't You Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn

Don't You Forget About Me

By: Kate Karyus Quinn

Pub. Date: June 10, 2014

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 336

Source: Edelweiss

Welcome to Gardnerville.

A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies.

Except...
There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them.

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.

I received this galley in exchange for an honest review.

Don't You Forget About Me is a very different kind of book then what I am used too. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but at some parts, even the magical aspects felt a little too far fetched for me. In the town of Garderville, nothing is as it seems. The town is a paradise of sorts, once people enter the town they never get sick again. People on the brink of dying enter the town limits and are instantly cured. Nobody understands why, and no one ever questions it. The only downfall is that every four years, teenagers do unspeakable things for no real reason, and people die.

It takes a while before you really understand what is going on in the story. Told in the point of view of Skylar, there are two types of chapters. The first is set in the present time, where Skylar is talking to the reader, and the second type is told by Skylar to her sister Piper about things that happened in the past. I ended up enjoying the past chapters much more. I couldn't really stand Skylar in the present. She's going through a lot though, her sister is probably dead, and her father killed himself, and she takes these pills to calm herself and also make her forget basically everything.

Her "love" interest, Foote was a very interesting character with a very sad back story. Even after the story ended, I was still really confused about him, and what exactly happened to him in the past, and in the present. I would have liked to understand him better.

Don't You Forget About Me is a fast read, even if it did take me 50 or so pages to fully get into him. It was definitely good, and I do recommend it if you are looking for something a little different then what you are used too.