01 May 2016

Remember to Forget: Oh Yes, You'll Want to...

The plotline: Levi's girlfriend dies, so he decides he's gonna have a mental health crisis and refuse to talk to anyone, ever.  Instead using techniques any competent parent of a two-year-old would know to do (take away the phone and refuse to give the kid anything unless he "uses his words like a big boy"), this nitwit of a mother decides to humour him and schlep him off to a million therapists, dope the kid up on xanax and perpetuate the crisis.

Then when the kid is good and entrenched in his spoilt and bad ways and has dropped out of school, let's ship him off to his dad in America so he can deal with it!  Oh.  And no mention is made of changing cell phone plans.  Apparently the kid kept the same cell phone and the same data plan.  I cannot imagine the roaming charges from Australia.  These folks must be made of money or something.  They also sound suspiciously like Americans in their manner of speaking with a few words like "Mum" sprinkled in.  I only spent two years living there, so I'm sure as heck no expert, but even I can see through this fakery.

Ok.  Then!  The kid meets someone with almost the exact name as his dead girlfriend, and of course, she looks exactly like her, too.  And where did they meet?  In the shrink's office where, despite HIPAA laws and any form of common sense, this 17-year-old chick is working and snooping through client files so she can find out allll about the "mystery" of Levi.

He's spoilt rotten, is what he is.  A simple google search reveals this elective mutism from which he suffers is really super-super rare and almost the exclusive purview of bad novels.

Ahem.

There are just some books I can't put down.  I find myself sneaking little moments to find out what happens next to the characters.  Time spent in the waiting room is not so horrible.  I get a little lost in the story.

Remember to Forget is not one of those books!  Oh, man.  I'm reviewing this for BookLook bloggers, so I have to finish the whole thing no matter how much I hate it.  Which makes sense, because they want me to give an honest review on the book and if I were to just look at the cover and go "meh" it wouldn't be very fair.

But I hope to save someone the pain of wasting their day.  I jumped on this grenade for you.  You're welcome.

TL;DR / conclusion:

This book minimises the plight of people with real mental health issues, and it's corny.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

6 comments:

  1. Hi Happy Elf Mom:

    it's good when you review Australian books.

    Sorry it was not a better one.

    The topic and the relationship do seem interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Adelaide! What a great name you have.

      I think this is an American writing and trying to sound Australian. The result is pretty hideous. :)

      Delete
  2. Sounds like a story where I would get exasperated on every single page.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohhh yes. I wouldn't have finished the whole thing if it weren't a requirement, yk?

      Delete
  3. sounds interesting story ,loved your iconic pic with introduction too

    ReplyDelete

Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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