Psychological Thriller Fans, This One's For You

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Residents of Gardnerville live in a paradise unlike any other place on earth.  Within its borders, no sickness or disease exists.  People routinely live past 100 years old, even though they always look decades younger than their actual ages.  Those wracked with incurable illnesses in the outside world flock to Gardnerville, where their lives are magically prolonged.  The town bestows other gifts as well, like 16-year-old Skylar's ability to "read" people's deep, dark secrets.  

No magical utopia comes without a price, however—and Gardnerville's is steep.  Every four years, the town's strange magic overtakes a teenager's mind, causing them to create a terrible crime.  The perpetrators are locked up in the reformatory; when they return to their families years later, they're different.  Forever.

Four years ago, the crazy overtook Piper, Skylar's older sister.  Skylar's never recovered from the shock of watching Piper force her classmates to jump to their deaths.  Forget-me-not pills help numb her, erasing the awful memories from her hazy mind.  But lately, the drugs aren't enough.  Skylar knows the only way to end Gardnerville's horrific cycle of violence is to stop it.  But how can one zoned-out teenager do that?  The messages Piper left behind may hold the key to ending the fourth year problem for good—if only Skylar can find the courage to remember the very things she's trying so desperately to forget.

In (Don't You) Forget About Me, Kate Karyus Quinn blends many elements (mystery, magic, romance, horror) into a unique and compelling psychological thriller.  It takes some patience to understand the world she's created since the rules aren't too clear, especially in the beginning of the novel.  Still, the story's different, which makes Gardnerville and Skylar's struggle to solve its mysteries even more intriguing.  Multi-layered and full of surprises, (Don't You) Forget About Me is is as mesmerizing as it is haunting.  If you dig a good psychological thriller, this one's for you.  

(Readalikes:  Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language (about a dozen F-bombs + milder invectives), violence/gore, and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of (Don't You) Forget About Me from the generous folks at HarperCollins.  Thank you!