FORGET ME NOT

Traumatic amnesia and the smothering confines of a conservative town can’t stunt the blooming of young love.

Stevie Green and Nora Martin have been dating secretly for nearly two years when disaster strikes: a terrible accident, a head injury, and suddenly, 18-year-old Stevie has no memory of the past couple of years. She returns from the hospital to a life where nothing feels quite familiar. Her mother, whom she always considered a best friend, is distant due to the reverberations of events that Stevie can’t remember. Her father has grown remote, engrossed by the pundits on Fox News and regurgitating intolerant beliefs. Even Savannah and Rory, her closest friends from Catholic school, feel like strangers, endorsing anti-Asian comments even though Stevie is biracial (Korean and implied White). And then there’s Nora, a girl she can’t recall meeting in her former life but whom she feels utterly connected to all the same. As Stevie fights to regain her memories and reconcile the sensations of wrongness that pervade her relationships, Nora fights for Stevie, determined that their love will regrow despite the hurdles presented by their town and her own hostile, physically abusive mother. Derrick tells Stevie’s story with finesse, the beats well paced and building powerfully. Small-town Pennsylvania is vividly portrayed, the complex emotions Stevie feels for her hometown becoming viscerally relatable.

Heart-rending and heartwarming.