Review: (Don't You) Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn

(Don’t You) Forget About Me

Author: Kate Karyus Quinn
Series: Standalone
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: ebook
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Source: egalley received from publisher via Edelweiss
Rating: 2.5 Stars
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***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.*** 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Welcome to Gardnerville.

A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies.

Except...
There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them.

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.

My Review:

Well that was….weird. I don’t know what to really say about this book. It was quite possibly the strangest/creepiest book I’ve ever read. And I honestly can’t even decide if I liked it or not. For some reason, I thought this was a contemporary. I don’t know why my brain thought that, but it did. So I was a bit thrown when I first started reading, but then I was all, “oh okay, this could be cool.” I think the problem was that it was really confusing. This was due to the fact that main character was constantly in a drug-induced haze and so we never really knew what was going on. To say she was unreliable is a massive understatement.

Basically these people live in a magical town where nobody gets sick and they live to be over 200 years old. But as a trade for that, every four years, the teenagers go crazy and there are always pretty high body counts as a result. There’s a super creepy place called the reformatory where the perpetrators get sent. Seriously creepiest building ever. And then towards the end we find out more about it and I literally was shuddering/raising my eyebrows in confused disbelief. This is where the main character’s sister, Piper, was sent, four years ago when she led a bunch of teens to their deaths. Because in addition to the whole forever young thing, some of the people are blessed with crazy powers.

I guess I had a hard time following the story. I never really connected to the main character and quite frankly thought she was a bit crazy and unstable. But I’ve got to hand it to the author for coming up with a really unique story. Because I’ve never read anything like this. I know the whole forever young thing sounds cliché, but it wasn’t in this book. It was completely, 100% distinctive. So if you’re looking for something different with a super creepy vibe, then give this one a try. Happy reading all! 

Have you read this book? What did you think? Were you super creeped out by the reformatory? How did you feel about the main character?