Fanboi talk aside – as I do have read all eight of her novels – “Remember Me” is an interestingly subtle departure from her time proven success with the Shopaholic formula. First, let’s recap. Be it as Becky Bloodwood of the Shopaholic series (5 books), Samantha of “The Undomestic Goddess”, Emma of “Can You Keep A Secret”, or Lexi of “Remember Me”, the author’s heroines have always been an embodiment of someone who is flawed, optimistic, and passionate towards family and friends. The formula extends beyond the main character herself. There will be lovers involved, parents, best friends, best friends who are no longer best friends, bosses, and a sister in some cases, and to top it up, Sophie Kinsella’s books are always a fun read that make you laugh-out-loud drawing suspicious glances from people around you.
The bottom line is: does the world need another book from Sophie Kinsella? For those who worship the Shopaholic series, “Remember Me” may come across as less entertaining. It has lesser laugh-out-loud moments per page flipped. For those who find the Shopaholic series too shallow but enjoy reading her standalone novels instead, “Remember Me” may come quite close to “The Undomestic Goddess”, which I still think it is the author’s best work today.
There is a novelty in the idea itself: imagine what would happen if one day you wake up and three years worth of memory has just vanished? And you wake up with a new job title, a new look, new set of friends, and you realize that you are married to someone who is a stranger to you. Through the character Lexi, Sophie Kinsella explores the condition of amnesia, and more so than any of her previous works, I think there are a fair bit of planning in order to make the storyline works – set aside the need to have every small details made sense to the readers. To that, I think Sophie Kinsella has done a great job in delivering a relatively more complex storyline with relatively more character development for those who surround the main character.
“Remember Me” is still a page turner and prompted me in thinking: perhaps all these efforts of upkeeping my own blog site are not too bad an idea just in case one day, touch wood, I bump my head onto something and lose a chunk of memory.
PS. I tried to place a reservation at our National library but I gave up after seeing the queue. I was close to number 250 with just over twenty books available for lending. And knowing how long it may take for the paperback to hit the bookstore, I go for the hardcover instead.
Related Entries: Can You Keep A Secret?, On Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic & Baby, and Undomestic Goddess – A Good Read
9 replies on “Remember Me By Sophie Kinsella – A Calculated Risk That May Or May Not Work For Some”
[…] Entries: Remember Me By Sophie Kinsella – A Calculated Risk That May Or May Not Work For Some, Can You Keep A Secret?, and On Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic & […]
[…] Entries: Remember Me By Sophie Kinsella – A Calculated Risk That May Or May Not Work For Some, On Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic & Baby, and Undomestic Goddess – A Good […]
[…] Entries: Remember Me By Sophie Kinsella – A Calculated Risk That May Or May Not Work For Some, Can You Keep A Secret?, and Undomestic Goddess – A Good […]
I LOVED the book.
I laughed so much half the time!
This is how your book looks like?
Mine was this boring cover!
I will be onto my next book now! About Princess Masako!
G – Which cover do you have over at Vietnam? The big sunflower? That is the US edition I think. The one in Singapore is the UK edition with the lovely Merz convertible with the number plate LEXI 1 and lots of sunflowers.
I guess that pretty much sums up the essence of the story 🙂
Yes it’s the big gaudy sunflower! However that was bought in Singapore too! Borders I think.
Oh well!!!
Oh the sunflowers bit is soooooo nice! I loved it!
G – I know! The sunflowers bit was a very nice surprise to me. Very sweet. Quite an original idea I think (trying to crack my brain to see if I have seen something like that in Korean or Japanese dramas).
[…] glitches and slight over-dramatized plot aside (seriously who really think that stories by, say, Sophie Kinsella is realistic but yet we all love the plots), the emotions and the dilemmas people faced are […]
[…] novels a lot. Like “The Undomestic Goddess”, “Can You Keep A Secret”, and “Remember Me?”. As for “Twenties Girl”, it is still a fun read. I laughed-out-loud while reading […]