Review: The Forgetting Curve by Angie Smibert

Book Description via Goodreads:

ARC, 202 pages

May 1, 2012, Marshall Cavendish

Aiden Nomura likes to open doors—especially using his skills as a hacker—to see what’s hidden inside. He believes everything is part of a greater system: the universe. The universe shows him the doors, and he keeps pulling until one cracks open. Aiden exposes the flaw, and the universe—or someone else—will fix it. It’s like a game.

Until it isn’t.

When a TFC opens in Bern, Switzerland, where Aiden is attending boarding school, he knows things are changing. Shortly after, bombs go off within quiet, safe Bern. Then Aiden learns that his cousin Winter, back in the States, has had a mental breakdown. He returns to the US immediately.

But when he arrives home in Hamilton, Winter’s mental state isn’t the only thing that’s different. The city is becoming even stricter, and an underground movement is growing.

Along with Winter’s friend, Velvet, Aiden slowly cracks open doors in this new world. But behind those doors are things Aiden doesn’t want to see—things about his society, his city, even his own family. And this time Aiden may be the only one who can fix things... before someone else gets hurt.

Source: Bridget, Marshall Cavendish (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

Aiden Nomura was rich, glossy and handsome. Yes, he was the only son of the head of the Nomura business and he was bound for awesomeness in the future. However, during his pastime he was a hacker. He wanted to open doors, nudging them and sometimes prying them open with force, code, etc.

I was intrigued and fascinated with the Nomura family. As a whole, they were an interesting bunch of intelligent and talented people. But each one of them had their own life story, their own struggles, their own drama and their own desires. In this installment, I got to dig deep into Winter Nomura’s life. In Memento Nora, she was Micah’s best friend. In The Forgetting Curve, she was the girl diagnosed with schizophrenia who spent her time creating kinetic sculptures, asking about Japan and trying to find out what happened to her parents. She remained strong, determined and creative but that didn’t mean that she was safe from TFC.

Based on what I read in Memento Nora, I knew that TFC would continue aiming for control and power through deception and terrorism. But in The Forgetting Curve, the already powerful company decided to take everything to the next level. TFC was spreading all over Europe now.  Aiden’s nostalgic and beautiful Bern was being bombed. Something that violent and unexpected rattled the peaceful place. I was terrified and panicked over the expansion to Europe. I have to say that I was expecting some of the things in this installment but I was still surprised with the twists and turns and I enjoyed the chase for truth. She was one of the victims.

As Aiden strived to unlock the door to the truth about his cousin’s recent past, he will find out as much about himself and his father. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives of Winter and Aiden, as well as the peppered perspectives of Velvet in between. Seeing the aftermath and everyday effects of TFC and the society from three different perspectives completed the whole picture for me. The elite and the privileged mingled with the ones who slipped off the radar, the hiding and the rebels.

The casts by Meme Girl, an unknown girl broadcasting about the ugly truth of the society, politics and TFC and rebel-themed songs were one of the things that I really liked. It was a good way of tracking what was going on in Aiden and Winter’s world. Sometimes the life of the Nomuras just gets so stressful and complicated that I forget what’s really happening outside of their little world.

I was freaked out over how much people could distort and even ruin your life, your beliefs by making you forget. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t and doesn’t want to forget. I like to keep all my memories in my head. The idea of a person being vulnerable to losing those memories – the ones that define and make that person – was just plain harsh and awful. Not all memories are good but people hold on to those, both good and bad. It’s a part of them and it’s unfair to take it away. It’s like losing a part of yourself.

The Forgetting Curve is charming, thought-provoking and engrossing. This fast-paced read is perfect for quick reads. I highly recommend this to dystopian and science fiction readers and fans of Possession by Elana Johnson! Big, awesome stories come in small packages. Like this book.

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