Book Review: Don't You Forget About Me

Don't You Forget About Me
Mhairi McFarlane
3/5

Georgina can't grow up, or at least that's what everyone in her life is saying to her. She dropped out of university and has worked a series of dead-end jobs since then, the latest of which she was brutally fired from. On that same night, she finds her boyfriend cheating on her, and he really destroys her by saying that he didn't even think they were actually dating. She gets a job at a nice new bar but doesn't know that she'll have to work for her kind of serious but very secret high school boyfriend. Lucas says he doesn't remember her, when prompted he says he vaguely does but generally he does not.

I liked this book but I really just could not understand the him saying he forgot it all. I thought that it would be excused away in something unrealistic, yet possibly more realistic than just everyone accepting him "forgetting". Like I legit thought he would say he had a head injury a couple of years ago or something I don't know. I would have rated it higher if that whole thing had not felt so convenient, he forgot but he didn't but he's been pining and also secretly in love with her.

Props for dealing with stereotypes. Georgina saw a therapist, she didn't let herself be brought down by men, or family members, who try to tell her she's nothing. The reveal at the end was nice and again, dealt with some hard issues, but Lucas was let off the hook way too easily for my liking. It was twelve years ago so I understand not getting mad about that, yet everything he did was reflective of that same avoidance in communication that made the relationship feel a little problematic.

I'm still a sucker for romance though so his speech at the end kind of got me. I'd still recommend it cause it's something that I finished in a day and just read very easily, it's not anything that astounds you with it's depth but it's deeper than you think it is.