Book Review: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Sometimes, a girl needs to lose.
If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss.
She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps.
She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia.
She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place.
She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief". She'd get all his inside jokes, and maybe he wouldn't be so frustrated with her for forgetting things she can't possibly remember.
She'd know about her mom's new family.
She'd know about her dad's fiancee.
She wouldn't have to spend her junior year relearning all the French she supposedly knew already.
She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her.
She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.
But Naomi picked heads.

One little coin flip and her life will never be the same. After a head injury, Naomi must face the fact that 4 years of her life are missing to her. She doesn't remember her best friend, her boyfriend or why her parents are divorced. She can't recall why she was going to drop her photography class or how she came to be so passionate about being the editor of the school yearbook. Life moves on however, and so does Naomi.
I absolutely loved this book. Every character Zevin created was intensely real and completely believable. I felt a connection to Naomi from page one. Hers is a story that could really happen to anyone. One of my favorite characters is Naomi's dad. I feel that a lot of teen books today portray parents in very stereotypical ways. Not so in Memoirs. Naomi's dad felt like a real person to me - one that Naomi could actually relate to. Their relationship is only a small part of the whole story but to me it was important and I was impressed with the way Zevin wrote him.
I don't want to say too much for fear of giving too much away - this is really a story you need to experience for yourself!
I highly recommend this book to YA fiction and / or romance fans - 5 stars.