Review: The Last Thing I Remember

The Last Thing I Remember (The Homelanders #1)  by Andrew Klavan
Publication Date: April 29, 2009
Genre: YA Thriller
Pages: 275

Summary

Charlie West has forgotten an entire year in which he was convicted of murder and working with terrorists. He's got to find the answers to deep questions: Who am I? What do I stand for? And how am I going to stay alive?

This book was definitently a surprise. A good surprise, but still a surprise. My expectations (well, my hopes) were that it would be good. But it was better than that.

I walked and I walked. I wanted to get lost in the city in the dark. I knew I needed to get out of here, as far away as possible, before the police hunted me down.

The book started out slow. Introducing Charlie and the world. One thing that annoyed me was that, Charlie would start remembering things and you would get flashbacks in the middle of the action. Like once, the bad guys were about to capture him and the next page is about somthing that happened during a school lunch.

The second half was good as the mystery started to unfold. The action was great and the plot was intresting. The ending was okay. It didn't give the reader any closure. The book just kind of ended in what could've been the middle. But, I guess that's why there are sequels.

There weren't that many characters other than Charlie. There were characters, like Beth, Miler, Josh, and Rick, that could be more important in later books. There was Crazy Jane, who through her crazy mutterings, sometimes made more sense than Charlie. There were the cops, like Detective Rose, that pretty much fit what people think cops should be like.

Then there is Charlie. The typical clean-cut teenage boy who wants to be in the Air Force. He was okay but other then his over the top view of America, he's pretty normal. Now his view annoyed me a little. It was just black-and-white to him. America is the greatest that could do no wrong and everbody else were bad and had no clue how to do things right. Now I love America and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but let's be honesty, ever country, goverment, and person has flaws. And America is no different. 

But, even with what I would consider somewhat of a weak main character and some flaws, I truly enjoyed  the book. It was a pretty easy read. One were I would turn the pages and not realize how many pages I read. The story really sucks you in. You want to figure it out and you keep reading until you realize that you're going to have to read the second book to find out. And that doesn't bother me considering I already have it. 

I happily recommend the book and give it four stars.