The Forgetting

by Sharon Cameron

Overview

From the beloved author of Rook, a brilliant, genre-bending exploration of truth and memory, love and loss in this #1 NYT bestseller about a society that undergoes collective forgetting.

What isn't written, isn't remembered. Even your crimes. Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person's memories — of parents, children, love, life, and self — are lost. Unless they have been written.In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because she is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence — before the people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338160710
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Sharon Cameron is the author of the international bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick The Light in Hidden Places and the critically acclaimed thriller Bluebird. Her debut novel The Dark Unwinding was awarded the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' Sue Alexander Award for Most Promising New Work and the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award and was named a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection. Sharon is also the author of its sequel, A Spark Unseen; Rook, which was an Indiebound Indie Next List Top Ten selection, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection, and a Parents' Choice gold medalist; and The Forgetting, a #1 New York Times bestseller and an Indie Next Pick of the List selection, as well as its companion novel, The Knowing. She lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee, and you can visit her online at sharoncameronbooks.com or follow her on Instagram at @sharoncameronbooks or on Twitter at @CameronSharonE.

Editorial Reviews

06/13/2016
The Forgetting, a consequence-free night of lawlessness and bloodshed accompanied by a total loss of memory, comes to the walled city of Canaan every 12 years, and its citizens rely on their books to remember who they are afterward, unless they decide to start new lives. Teenage Nadia isn’t like the others: she remembers everything, and has been scaling the city’s walls for some time. When the charming Gray catches her and demands that she take him over the wall, she can’t refuse for fear of being reported to the Council. The setting is kept vague until the second half of the novel, when it truly finds its legs and a world-shattering twist is revealed. The sweet romance between Nadia and Gray is hard-earned and realistic, and Cameron (Rook) mines Nadia’s relationships with her family (including her heartbreak over her father’s abandonment) while steadily building tension as the Forgetting draws closer. Memory—and how it shapes identities and futures—is at the heart of this absorbing adventure, and the satisfying conclusion leaves an opening for further novels. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Forgetting:An Autumn 2016 Kids' Indie Next List selection* "Effective worldbuilding and strong characterization . . . A well-crafted fable for our time." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review* "This fantasy is a marvelous achievement." — School Library Journal, starred review"[An] absorbing adventure." — Publishers Weekly"The Forgetting is Sharon Cameron's fourth young adult novel, and she's grown adept at blurring the lines between fantasy, dystopian and science-fiction genres. Cameron reminds us, through Nadia's documented memories, that we must learn to appreciate the truth as much as question it, exploring the morality tucked within the fallacy of memory." — Bookpage, Top PickPraise for Rook:A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selectionAn Indiebound Indie Next Top Ten selectionWinner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award "The suspense kicks right off in this action-packed tale, quickly wrapping readers up in the drama." — Romantic Times"Full of derring-do and double crosses, this romantic adventure is thoroughly engrossing." — Kirkus Reviews"Cameron crafts a brilliant homage to The Scarlet Pimpernel yet also manages to make her telling unique, particularly in... the many twists, turns, betrayals, and lucky breaks [that] will keep readers breathless until the very end." — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books"Rook is sure to be a read all readers will remember." — Portland Book ReviewPraise for The Dark Unwinding:A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selectionWinner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award "Utterly original, romantic, and spellbindingly imaginative." — USA Today"Haunting thrills unfurl..." — Entertainment Weekly"Gripping twists, rich language, and an evocative landscape." — Publishers Weekly"[A] singularly polished piece." — The Horn Book"A strikingly original, twisty gothic tale that holds surprises around every dark corner." —Judy Blundell, author of What I Saw and How I LiedPraise for A Spark Unseen:"Gripping... [an] absorbing, intelligent adventure." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2016
Gr 8 Up—Every 12 years, the orderly city of Canaan undergoes the chaotic, bloody time known as the Forgetting. During these brief hours, people's memories are erased. If it were not for the books in which inhabitants are required by law to record the events of their lives, they would have no way of knowing what happened before the Forgetting, or even of knowing their names or who their families are. Nadia is different. She remembers. The next Forgetting is a few weeks away. The teen is determined to keep her family together and away from the ensuing anarchy, but how? As Nadia works to this end, she comes up with more questions than answers. Why is the supposedly benevolent head of the Council, Janis, having some people's houses ransacked? What happens when people write lies in their books, or their books are stolen? The glassblower's handsome son, Gray, says he wants to help Nadia, but can she trust him? When Nadia searches for the truth, it is more shocking than anything she could have imagined. This fantasy is a marvelous achievement. Cameron creates a world filled with chilling dystopian constructs while maintaining a sense that it is as solid and convincing as our own. Each scene plays out in cinematic clarity—from the pristine walls that encircle the city to the rising of the three moons, from the perpetually anguished face of Nadia's mother, who remembers pain but no facts, to the labyrinthine underground lair where Nadia discovers the truth. VERDICT This excellent work belongs in every collection.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

School Library Journal

★ 2016-06-22
Every 12 years, the people of Canaan lose their memories and must reconstitute identity and relationships from books recording their personal histories—but with her memory secretly intact, Nadia dreads the chaos and violence the imminent Forgetting will bring.Last time, Nadia saw her father replace his family's books with fakes, leaving her mother to raise three daughters alone. Their residual unease has led her mother and older sister to reject Nadia, now 18; only little Genivee accepts her as family. Isolated by what she knows and can't tell, Nadia's become a silent—but observant—loner. She's witnessed floggings and the plight of the Lost: those who've awakened without books, nameless, forced into servitude, penned into fenced quarters at night. She's alarmed at Jonathan's growing power within the governing Council. When handsome, sociable Gray, the glassblower's son, discovers she forages outside city walls, he blackmails her into taking him along. Smarter and tougher than she'd thought, he becomes an ally and friend—but Gray has secrets too. Effective worldbuilding and strong characterization (even minor players have emotional depth) add substance to the fast-paced plot. A cosmetic resemblance to blockbuster teen dystopias allows Cameron to toy slyly with readers' expectations, but this is no retread. The Forgetting ensures racial categories have no meaning, but characters do display differences in skin and hair color (Nadia is blonde with light eyes). A well-crafted fable for our time: as we focus on filling the plate in front of us, we risk forgetting where it came from, what it cost, and what that means. (Science fiction.12-16)

Kirkus Reviews