Book Review: Notes to Self

   

Notes to Self
By: Avery Sawyer
Published by 

Release Date: Nov. 20, 2011

Genre: Young Adult

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Source:  electronic version provided by author

My thoughts:

I was ready for a break from my usual fantasy/paranormal diet, so this YA contemporary was just the thing. What I wasn't prepared for was how this read was going to dig its claws in, making me think and feel in ways that not many books do.

This book is Robin's story of what happens when she and her best friend both take a bad fall. Robin wakes up and has to figure out how to reclaim her life while learning how her brain now works after a traumatic brain injury, and well as how to do all of this without her best friend Emily, who remains in a coma. 

I am certain that my personal experience with TBI influenced my view of this book. I once had a student- a beautiful, popular, smart girl- whose whole life was turned inside out after an accident. This book reminded me of what I saw with that student- that regaining cognitive function was hard, but figuring out how the accident rearranged her place in the social schema was much, much harder.

I would caution readers against comparisons with Gayle Forman's If I Stay. It's tempting to compare the two, since they both feature girls in comas. But they are two very different stories, told in very different ways. Notes to Self deserves to be read outside of those comparisons.

One last note: Robin's relationship with Reno is absolutely realistic, and absolutely beautiful. This is by far my favorite thing about the book, and makes it one you'll want to have cued up soon- this might make a really nice read for Valentine's Day. :)

Summary from GoodReads:

Two climbed up. Two fell down. 

One woke up. 

In the aftermath of a traumatic brain injury, Robin Saunders has to relearn who she is and find out what happened the night everything changed.