BookPage Teen Top Pick, July 2016

In Lara Avery's heartfelt, funny and bittersweet new novel, a gifted teen's future is derailed when she's diagnosed with a debilitating genetic condition. High school valedictorian Sammie McCoy can't wait to escape small-town Vermont and start college at NYU. But when she learns she has Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC), her freshman-year plans begin to look unlikely. "Basically," Sammie says of NPC, "it's dementia." 

Due to the disorder, Sammie will eventually lose her memory, and so she begins chronicling the major events and little details of her life on a laptop, "writing to remember" all the things she's bound to forget. Meanwhile, she hides her condition from her friends, which works just fine until she bungles a critical debate-club tournament.

Avery is a skillful storyteller who lets Sammie's decline unfold gradually over the course of the novel. From the start, Sammie comes across as smart and sassy, an overachiever with all the answers, but as NPC takes over, she regresses. Her thoughts and perspectives become less sophisticated, more childlike—a reflection of her inner deterioration. Avery fleshes out the narrative with a cast of authentic characters, including Maddie, Sammie's debate-club partner (who sports an electric-red mohawk), and Stuart, a handsome would-be writer and Sammie's longtime crush. 

Avery presents Sammie's story not as a tragedy but as a tale of self-discovery. Without lapsing into sentiment or melodrama, she tackles big questions in a style that teen readers will find appealing. The Memory Book is a memorable read, indeed.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Samantha "Sammie" McCoy, 18, has big plans: win the National Debate Championships with her friend Maddie, become class valedictorian, attend NYU and law school, and become a human rights lawyer. These plans are derailed when she's diagnosed with Niemann-Pick, a terminal illness that will rob her of her memory and physical abilities before killing her. Through journal entries that Sammie writes to her future self, including occasional excerpts from text and email exchanges, Avery (Anything but Ordinary) crafts an emotionally charged story about a young woman who has kept her eyes trained on the future, only to learn that all she has is now. Determined to make the most of the time she has left, Sammie begins a relationship with her longtime crush and attempts to have "normal" teenage experiences like attending parties and getting drunk. Though the marketplace is crowded with stories of teens coping with serious illness, Avery's novel stands out for its strong characters, a heartbreaking narrative that shifts to reflect Sammie's condition, and a love story that will leave many readers in tears. Ages 15–up. Agency: Alloy Entertainment. (July)

Sammie McCoy is a high school senior who seems to have everything to look forward to—she is class valedictorian, a National Debate competitor with her best friend Maddie, and has the possibility of finally getting to date her big crush, Stuart Shah. There's only one thing standing in Sammie's way—a diagnosis of Niemann-Pick Type C disease, a form of dementia that will not only cause Sammie to lose her memory, but also her life. Sammie deals with this disease by keeping a "memory" book in which she records her thoughts and events that are happening. When a memory blackout occurs on the day of the debate finals, Sammie finally tells Maddie what's going on, causing a rift in their friendship. When Sammie confides in Stuart, he tells her they will get through it together, though he does not realize the severity of her condition. The characters feel like real people and the situations are very believable. Sammie wants everyone to treat her as a "normal" person rather than someone on death's doorstep. This one will be a winner with girls.

Gr 9 Up—Overachieving senior Sammie McCoy has her life clearly laid out. First, bring her debate team to victory at Nationals, then deliver her speech as valedictorian, and make the move to NYU to study economics and public policy before moving on to Harvard Law. Her plans get radically interrupted when she is diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, a rare genetic disease that will initially affect her memory, rendering her vigorous studying moot, and that is ultimately fatal. Determined to fight the diagnosis, Sammie begins keeping a diary, figuring that when her memory fails her future self, she will have a way to reference her day-to-day life. Sammie's voice is a bright, relatable, and uncompromising one, and when her inevitable decline begins, readers will be surprised and pained by it, right along with the book's fiercely undeterred protagonist. Strengths abound in Avery's touching novel, and Sammie's relationships, both friendly and romantic, are no exception. Not knowing how to deal with the revelation of her illness, the teen's closest friend, Maddie, pushes her away, and the protagonist's relationships with gifted writer Stuart Shah and boy-next-door Cooper are intensified by her decline, in what feels like a genuinely complicated manner. VERDICT Fans of John Green's work and Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places will be reaching for the tissue box at the book's tear-inducing end.—Joanna Sondheim, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City