I Don't Remember: Stories of Memory Loss & Amnesia for Teens

It's always fun to read a book and try to discover the hidden secrets.  And there is nothing more secretive than lost memories.  So this week, I'm sharing teen stories about amnesia and memory loss.  Here are a few of my favorites . . . .

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
Years after six kindergarteners go missing, five return as teens and struggle to reacclimate to life with their families in spite of trauma and an inability to remember about their experiences. None of them remember the sixth victim, Max, the only one who hasn't come back. Which leaves Max's sister, Avery, wanting answers and is determined to find her brother.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron
Canaan is a quiet city on an idyllic world, hemmed in by high walls, but every twelve years the town breaks out in a chaos of bloody violence, after which all the people undergo the Forgetting, in which they are left without any trace of memory of themselves, their families, or their lives--but somehow seventeen-year-old Nadia has never forgotten, and she is determined to find out what causes it and how to put a stop to the Forgetting forever.

Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde
A girl finds herself running through the forest at the edge of a village with no memory of anything, even her own name, and later learns that she might be twelve-year-old Isabelle, believed to be stolen by a witch six years before.


More Stories --
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner
Destroy All Monsters by Sam J. Miller
Forgotten: A Novel by Cat Patrick
Grown: A Novel by Tiffany D. Jackson
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Mind Games by Shana Silver
The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley
Reverie by Ryan La Sala
Remember Me Always by Renee Collins
The Ruinous Sweep by Tim Wynne-Jones
Shadow State by Elyse Brayden
Surface Tension by Mike Mullin
With Malice by Eileen Cook

Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through September 24, 2021.

Crime Scene

This week, I am sharing crime stories for teens.  Here are a few of my favorites . . . .

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
Eleven years after six kindergarteners were taken, five come back--with no idea of where they've been and no memory of the sixth victim, Max, but Avery, Max's sister, is determined to find her brother.

Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn
A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable home life, sixteen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find that his mother is going on trial for the murder of his abusive stepfather.

The Invisible by Mats Wahl
A Swedish teenager is assaulted and killed, but returns as a ghost to find his killer.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Sixteen-year-old Gemma, a British city-dweller, is abducted while on vacation with her parents and taken to the Australian outback, where she soon realizes that escape attempts are futile, and in time she learns that her captor is not as despicable as she first believed.

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
Followed everywhere by the ghost of her recently deceased best friend, Hannah investigates the serial murders of young girls in her community.


More Teen Crime Stories --
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn
Gentlemen by Michael Northrop
Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake
Jude by Kate Morgenroth
Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky
The Lost Causes by Jessica Koosed Etting
The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude
Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn
The Murderer's Ape by Jakob Wegelius
Panic by Sharon M. Draper
Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier
Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams
Shine by Lauren Myracle
There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
We Now Return to Our Regular Life by Martin Wilson
Who Killed Christopher Goodman? by Allan Wolf
Wild Blues by Beth Kephart

Check these books out at the Arnold Branch.

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

Eleven years ago, six kindergartners disappeared on the first day of school.
No one knows what happened to them.  The only clues were a man carrying wrapping paper and a comment one of the kids made that she was "going to the leaving".

Now, five of the kids have come back. 
They still don't know what happened as none of the kids have memories of their time away.  They were simply dropped off at a playground with maps to their homes.

Who took them?  Where have them been?  And where is the sixth kid?



This book's unusual incorporation of spacial blocking, imagery, and highlighted text add to the heightened sense of strangeness and mystery.  It's told from the point of view of two of the victims as well as the sister of the kids who never returned.  It's a great mystery for teens to read.