Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Naomi's life is just like a flip of a coin. She could have been a Russian girl, she could have not been found as an infant in a type writing case, and she could have not fallen down some stairs and get amnesia but I guess that's what happens when your life is like a flip of a coin.

This is a love story. It says so on the very first page and boy is it a love story but before that it's about the day where she picked heads in a coin flip on whether to go back for a camera. It could have been her or her best friend Will who calls her Chief. She's on the yearbook club/society? Point is she works on the yearbook and she also has a photography class and she ends up tripping on some stairs but saves the camera. The price? Her memory from seventh grade until now.

So it comes as a shock to her when she finds out that her mother has a new husband and daughter. Her father has a fiancée. She has a boyfriend named Ace. How she supposedly knows how to speak French. But then she would have never met the mysterious James. The boy who found her and told her that he once wanted to kiss her.

Naomi was a bit... stuck up in her former life. Well maybe that's not the right word but she was in the popular crowd and she has a diary for her calories plus her room is ridiculously neat. She definitely isn't that person anymore. She's looking at how her life like you would if you were me. With narrow eyes and a questioning look like how can these people even be real? She was at times I thought immature but others very mature. She went for what she wanted but she doesn't do it in the right way. She can probably go either way with you.

Will is her best friend and he is sort of in and out of her life. It's most likely because she is dealing with her own troubles and although he's her best friend she knows nothing really about him. He is this very sweet guy that has a particular sense of humor that I appreciate. He likes to make mixes? I guess you would call them. I think he burns cds and he names them like Amnesia Girl Part 1 or something like that which I thought was very endearing but there are times that Naomi neglects him... I can see his and her perspective but it kind of annoyed me that she did that but again she was dealing with being a new person so no wonder.

Then there's James who according to Will tried to kill himself, does drugs, etc. So he's the bad boy of the bunch. He's very mysterious because he doesn't want to get to close with her. Naomi transforms herself throughout the book. I love how she isn't this neat freak perfect popular person she was. She definitely has flaws and before and after amnesia she is a different person which I find super interesting. She starts all over but she doesn't become what she was. That's so weird. So given another chance she would act differently with the world she is given.

This story also makes me wonder some things about how we could have been anyone. We could have had any life. We are who we are partly because of genetics and who are parents are so what if you were born from someone other than your mother or even adopted? Would we still act the same? Will we be the same person? This was a great book and one of the rare ones that I actually possess and I'm glad I do. Sorry for the non Tuesday post. I'll try to do better!