The Reminders, Val Emmich. Kindle.

Heart, memory, music.

Val Emmich’s debut novel follows Joan, a ten-year-old girl who remembers everything, and her friendship with Gavin, a man who is desperately trying to forget. Joan has a rare neurological condition called HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory), which causes her to remember every detail and event of her life, down to the date, starting from age five. She is frustrated that her parents and others in her life are capable of forgetting, and is on a quest to write a famous song that will ensure the world won’t forget her. Gavin is an old friend of Joan’s parents—and current actor on a detective show—who stays with them after his boyfriend Sydney passes away unexpectedly. Joan and Gavin combine forces as he collaborates on her song and she helps him embrace both loss and grief while retelling her own memories of Sydney.

This is a heartfelt story told through the eyes of two authentic characters; Emmich deftly embodies the voices of both a strong-willed, pre-teen girl and a grieving TV actor. His own real-life experience as an actor and musician shine through his narrative, forming an enduring, resonant story. I enjoyed seeing the world through Joan’s eyes and imagining how I might approach my own life differently if I were incapable of forgetting. I also loved Gavin’s exploration of grief, and the question of what is more painful: to remember or to forget the ones we’ve lost. Emmich’s writing is authentic, and though I would have liked to delve a little more deeply into both Joan’s and Gavin’s backstories, I appreciated the first-person focus on their shared experience.

Favorite Quotation: “It’s true there’s a brief thrill that comes with digging up what’s been lost, like the strange joy one feels when poking a tender wound. But when the thrill passes, the wound still remains.”