Sammie was always a girl with a plan: graduate at the top of her class and get out of her small town as soon as humanly possible. Nothing will stand in her way--not even a rare genetic disorder the doctors say will slowly start to steal her memories and then her health. What she needs is a new plan.
So the Memory Book is born: Sammie's notes to her future self, a document of moments great and small. It's where she'll record every perfect detail of her first date with longtime crush, Stuart--a brilliant young writer who is home for the summer. And where she'll admit how much she's missed her childhood best friend, Cooper, and even take some of the blame for the fight that ended their friendship.
Through a mix of heartfelt journal entries, mementos, and guest posts from friends and family, readers will fall in love with Sammie, a brave and remarkable girl who learns to live and love life fully, even though it's not the life she planned.
NetGalley sent me an email about this book because I had read Lara Avery's other amazing book, A Million Miles Away. That one had been a tearjerker, and I don't know why I was expecting any different with this one.
Sammie tells us straight off what's wrong with her: she has a rare disease that affects her brain and that will kill her sooner rather than later. Due to this, she has decided to live her life the best way that she can. That means going to parties with her debate partner that she has kept at a distance, telling her crush how much she likes him, and doing stupid childish things with her childhood best friend Cooper. Sammie write this book to help her remember what she has done, because she thinks that this will help her beat the disease that is determined to take her life.
There were too many fun and laughable moments in this book for it to be really sad. I mean, she starts off the book with a quiz for future Sammie, and tells her that the person writing this journal "fell asleep briefly while you were writing and dreamed you were making out with James Monroe, the fifth president and arbiter of the Monroe Doctrine."
How can you not love her?
Sammie really put her all into living life and watching her do so made me smile. She knew she had this disease that would ravage her health and her brain, but she didn't dwell on it. She went on with her life and tried new things, connecting with people that she hadn't talked to in years. I think the best part of the book, for me, was seeing something that super smart Sammie didn't see until the end. It's painfully obvious to the reader, and watching Sammie miss it makes her that much more real. You want to hug her and tell her it's going to be okay, but that would be near impossible because Sammie is tough. She doesn't need anyone to tell her it's going to be okay, because she knows it isn't.
Cooper was fabulous. A little stoner boy that had been struggling through school, he latches back onto Sammie when he finds out about her disease. But he never treats her like she's some invalid. He treats her like Sammie, which is different than everyone else when they find out. He only wants to hang out with her and make her happy, because he doesn't know how much time she has left. He seems to telepathically understand what Sammie wants and he does it for her, no questions asked. My favorite bits were when he took over Sammie's journal and wrote the memories that she missed. He was also the reason I started hysterically bawling like a baby.
The other cast of characters - Mrs. T {the guidance counselor}, Stuart Shah {the crush}, Maddie {the debate partner} - turn this from a book into real life. They keep Sammie moving forward and learning more about herself than she would have if she had been intent on curing her disease. They cheer her on and sometimes hold her back. They teach her as much as she teaches them.
It's gorgeous, okay? This whole book is so much wonderful wrapped between the cover. Lara Avery is a goddess and everything she writes is beautiful and tearful and I want to read everything she will ever write.
Now I'm going to go calm myself down with a little Game of Thrones.
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