Remember to Forget, Revised and Expanded Edition by Ashley Royer
Published by Harper Collins on April 5th 2016
Genres: General, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
In Remember to Forget from Watty Award-winning author Ashley Royer, Levi has refused to speak since the tragic death of his girlfriend, Delia, and can’t seem to come out of his depression and hindering self-doubt. Desperate to make some positive change in Levi’s life, his mother sends him to live with his father in Maine. Though the idea of moving from Australia to America seems completely daunting, Levi passively accepts his fate, but once he lands faces personal struggles and self-doubt at the same time he and his dad battle through resentment and misunderstanding. And then, while at therapy, Levi meets Delilah, a girl who eerily reminds him of someone he lost.
As part of the BookSparks 2016 YA Summer Reading, I was provided with this book, Remember to Forget, Revised and Expanded Edition by Ashley Royer. To learn more about Ashley Royer, scroll down – you’ll be surprised – it’s pretty interesting! I was not familiar with the story from Wattpad, and I definitely wouldn’t call myself a Five Seconds of Summer fan, so I went into this story completely blind with this story.
Levi Harrison decides to stop talking after losing his girlfriend in a fatal car accident and draws into himself. After trying many treatments, Levi’s mother decides to send him to his father in Maine to get away from all of the memories lurking behind every bend in his home in Australia. He has clinical depression in addition to slew of other problems making him quite horrible to be around. Levi is a very compelling character and I really felt bad for all he was going through. He meets a girl who resembles his deceased girlfriend a lot.
Ms. Royer did a great job sharing Levi’s emotions without overwhelming readers, even though depression and grief are very tough topics to write about. If readers have any teens struggling with depression and/or grief, this is a great book for them to read. It provides a great view of both topics while also providing them with hope for the future.
As a Christian, I would have liked it if Levi would have found his hope in God. Instead, Levi finds hope in relationships and happiness in finding new friends. While not necessarily a bad thing in itself, I did find myself missing the Christian viewpoint.
The topics covered in this story were very interesting, the plot was good and the pace was steady. Overall, Ms. Royer has done a great job with this debut book and I’m sure as she grows, her stories will grow too!
Ashley Royer is a seventeen-year-old high school honor student. She lives north of Boston, Massachusetts. She works at a local retirement community where she is part of the wait staff and serves the residents. Ashley has been publishing her writing on Wattpad since she was thirteen years old, and she has over 30 million combined reads on her stories. “Remember to Forget” is her first published book. Ashley also has a YouTube channel, callmeashley98, where she posts videos and covers of songs.
You can follow her on twitter, @singsongash, and @RTFbook.
I received a complimentary paperback copy of this book from the publishers and BookSparks as part of the 2016 Young Adult Summer Reading Challenge #YASummerReads in exchange for this post, which is my honest review and unbiased opinion.
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