[Book Review] ‘Remember Me?’ by Sophie Kinsella

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Madeleine Sophie Townley, known by her pen name Sophie Kinsella, is an English author. Kinsella shot to fame with her very first novel, The Tennis Party, at the age of 24. Thereafter, she went on to publish six more novels as Madeleine Wickham. Her first novel under the pseudonym Sophie Kinsella (taken from her middle name and her mother’s maiden name) was submitted to her publishers anonymously. Kinsella disclosed her real identity for the first time when Can You Keep a Secret? was published in 2003. Known for her engaging style and her impeccable craft in the genre of romantic comedy, Kinsella has seen the first two novels in her critically acclaimed Shopaholic series, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad, adapted for the film Confessions of a Shopaholic in 2009. Her books have sold over 40 million copies across the globe, and have been translated into around 40 languages.

REVIEW

I thought it was all starting to make sense. But now it’s like everything is slipping and sliding away. Fi says I’m a bitch-boss-from-hell. Some guy says I’m his secret lover. What next? I discover I’m an FBI agent?

Remember Me? is the story of Lexi Smart, who has just missed out on a bonus in her dead-end job, has been stood up by her long-time boyfriend, and has to attend her father’s funeral the following day. Her crooked teeth have earned her the name Snaggletooth among her friends, who are perhaps the only silver lining to her otherwise gloomy life. Just when it seems that things could not get any worse, she slips and passes out.

To her utter dismay, she wakes up in a hospital room to find that it has been three years since that accident. What baffles her even more is how she managed to spend such a long time in that high-end hospital. Her glossy hair, well-manicured hands, toned legs, and pearly white teeth further add to her befuddlement.

Things get even spicier when she realizes that she was actually hospitalized after a car accident, and that the severe injury to her head has caused her a bizarre amnesia, one that has completely wiped out her memory of the last three years.

My husband organized surprise sky-writing for me on my wedding day and I can’t bloody remember it? I want to weep.

Deep down, however, she is quite pleased to find out that she is happily married to a charming millionaire, Eric. She has also apparently landed the job of a Director at Deller Carpets, where she worked as an Associate Junior Sales Manager before her life was turned upside down. But life takes yet another unexpected turn when she realizes that she had been having an affair with Eric’s colleague, Jon. It also dawns on her that her married life is anything but perfect. Her best friends have also surprisingly held aloof when she is around.

Unlike most Sophie Kinsella novels, the plot of Remember Me? is far from gripping and even borders on the predictable at times. It is almost as though she put too much effort into the build-up. The storyline is uncharacteristically slow in the beginning, and readers will do well not to get bored.