Review Detail

New Canaan is home to the Knowing, a group of people descended from colonists from the planet Earth--sent to a new planet to try to create a utopian civilization. The Knowing believe that they have succeeded. They never forget anything--and not only do they not forget, retrieving their memories mean that they relive every aspect of them. Samara is one of the Knowing, and she's tired of the painful memories that plague her. When her best friend's death is added to Samara's many other heart-wrenching memories, she becomes determined to find the secret to forgetting, and her quest leads her to Canaan. Canaan is the site of the original colony from earth, but it was deserted by those settlers and deemed cursed.

While in Canaan, Samara finds Beckett and Jill, two Earthlings who have come--with a ship full of others--to find the lost colony. Beckett and Jill end up stranded without communication with the ship that brought them, and Samara first helps them after Beckett is injured, and then she decides to take them to the leaders of New Canaan.

THE KNOWING by Sharon Cameron has so much more to its plot, that offering up more of a synopsis that isn't a long rewriting of the whole story is really difficult. Suffice to say that it's a science fiction novel filled with intrigue, intelligence, and insights into human nature. Its main characters, Beckett and Samara, are wonderfully written and likeable, and their friendship and subsequent romance is well developed and very sweet. The plot has good pacing, the action sequences had me flipping pages as fast as I could, and the secondary characters are interesting, although many of the adults in particular are superficial and Jill is just plain annoying.

I haven't read the companion novel to THE KNOWING, so I can attest to it being able to stand on its own if you haven't read THE FORGETTING. However, the reviews for THE FORGETTING are great, and I know I'll be grabbing a copy to fill in some of the historical information referenced in THE KNOWING. Plus, THE KNOWING is evidence that Sharon Cameron can write a good book. She has put together a satisfying novel with lovely main characters, and I highly recommend it.

My thanks to the publisher and YA Books Central for a copy of the book in exchange for my unbiased review.