Reed, Jaime.
Keep Me In Mind.
Scholastic Press/Point 2016 329p $17.99
ISBN 978-0-545-88381-8
ms/hs
Realistic fiction
VG-BN
Keep Me In Mind is a heartfelt
novel about loss and love. After a traumatic
fall, Ellia forgets her boyfriend Liam and all of the excitement and
spontaneity of their relationship, yet Liam perseveres in his effort to regain
her love. During her convalescence, he
pens a book to tell her about their two years together and what they have
meant
to him. Is it the
mixed relationship that pits their families against one
another or something else about Liam and Ellia’s relationship that has their parents on
edge? That is what Ellia has to figure
out when she regains consciousness, only to
discover that she has lost two years’ worth of
memory. Those two years were
important. They represented her
relationship with Liam, the supposed love of her life. As Liam tries to reinsert himself into
Ellia’s life, he realizes the difficulties of doing so, since so
much of their happiness was based on the spontaneity and newness of young
love. Ellia is just trying to survive
the day-to-day
headaches, memory loss, and trauma of trying to fit in with her old
life. She also is trying to survive her
oppressive, overly protective parents.
It is up to the reader to decide whether or not something
can be made of the broken pieces of their lives. Liam’s patience endures as he tutors Ellia,
refrains from mentioning their memories together, and thwarts
the efforts of Ellia’s parents, and his own, to keep them apart. In the end, it appears
that all will be lost. Then Liam places
his
novel about their lives on Ellia’s porch, and it is then that she learns how
she fell, how stubbornly Liam fought to get her treatment, and how
much he really cared about her, and vice versa.
New beginnings are possible in life.
We get few do-overs; most people get none. The resolution is the theme, beautifully
stated. The characterizations are
powerful, and the words of author Jaime Reed truly enable the
reader to visualize and participate in the lives of the protagonists. Though not unique to contemporary novels,
the
writing style with its constantly switching points of view
is the best way to show what Liam and Ellia are
thinking. All in all, this book will
keep teens glued to each page as they seek answers to
the questions about the future of these two protagonists.
This is a very good choice for middle-
and
high-school libraries. In particular, the female teenage
audience
will enjoy the writing style, the conflicts, and the
frustrations of a lost love.
Summary: Ellia has amnesia and forgets the last two
years of her life, the two years when she was involved in a relationship with
Liam.
Amnesia-Fiction, Romance-Fiction --Martha
Squaresky
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