Review Detail

Adele Griffin delivers a haunting and powerful story in Ember's recovery from a near-fatal car accident. Ember has lost 6 weeks of her memory before the accident, and this is her journey to discover who she was at that time, and who she has now become.
This books is real yet fantastical at the same time. It takes place in Brooklyn, and with Griffin's description of the locale it feels like you're really there, like maybe it's where you grew up once upon a time. ember has difficult relationships with her parents, her best friend Rachel, and her ex-boyfriend Holden. Teens can definitely relate to these relationships - she fights against her parents' being over-protective, she keeps secrets from her bff, and she is attracted to her ex like a moth to a flame.
There is this eerie and fantastic element to the story as well. Ember's fading in and out of reality because of the memory damage from the accident is disorienting and confusing. She grasps at her lost memories, then holds on tight and struggles with them until we're not sure what's real, what's a memory, and what she fabricating from friends' stories.
Ember's story is a page-turner, a thriller, a haunting romance and shocking tale of self-discovery. When she discovered the truth about her accident I was shocked, despite the hints leading up to it. I felt for her, and it hurt, but I just had to keep reading and turning those pages until the very end!