Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Unremembered #1 Farrar Straus Giroux (March 2013) Library

When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.             

Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?

Unremembered's plot reminded me of Miracle by Elizabeth Scott, both having to do with lone survivors of plane crashes. While Miracle was a more realistic read, Unremembered ventured off into the more unknown sci-fi type of world. Whether this was a good thing was all up to the writer's ability to draw me into Sera's story. Alas, that wasn't the case for this book.

This had so much potential by depicting a survivor of a plane crash that can't remember anything even who she is or where she came from. There was a lot of build up to the moment Sera realizes who she is. Originally the story was flowing and I was enjoying the mystery and even the build up to the big reveal. But, it fell stagnant for me. Sera, wasn't exactly a character who I could feel for. Her character wasn't exactly flat; it was just how the events were occurring that didn't shape her into being someone other than the lost girl we first see her as. There's a boy (there's always a boy) who is supposed to be her soul mate but when Sera was discovering her memories I didn't really understand their love for each other. It didn't tug at my heart like it was supposed to. So not enjoying one of the largest parts of what made the book was disheartening.

The mystery of Sera was really interesting. I was enjoying the story half way through when the big mystery started coming to light. But I didn't like how it was presented at all. Again, the characters made the big difference in me not enjoying how the story was proceeding so that was a major factor in how I perceived the rest of the story. It just didn't work for me. Looking back I feel like most of the story wasn't just build up to the "reveal" but to the second story which frustrates me because if you aren't going to make characters that you can care for it's not worth creating a second story. If more time was taken with the characters I believe I would have enjoyed this book way more. Its sci-fi and mystery elements were on point but the way Unremembered was executed just wasn't believable.