Review: The One Memory of Flora Banks

When you forget everything you've ever known in a matter of hours how are you supposed to find the one you love?

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Dates Read: 03/09/2022 to 03/10/2022

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Word to describe: Fantastical

Genre: YA Fiction

The One Memory of Flora Banks is possibly the strangest book I have ever read. Seventeen-year-old Flora suffers from anterograde amnesia due to a brain tumour she had as a child. When the tumour was removed so was Flora's ability to retain and make new memories. She is mentally stuck at 10 years old, forgetting her family, her friends, her favourite things, and almost every little detail of her day-to-day life. To help her cope with this she is constantly medicated with tranquilisers by her parents to stabilise and numb her. She is often stuck staring at the TV and wondering exactly why she is sitting there when she can't even remember turning it on. To help her with her memory loss Flora carries around a small notebook filled with her rules for life and a little backstory telling Flora her age, why she can't remember things, and why she can never leave her hometown.

Everything is going fine until her parents need to travel to Paris to visit her sick brother who Flora cannot remember. To keep her safe, her parents enlist the help of her best friend Paige to stay with her and ensure she doesn't get into any trouble. With the plan in motion, her parents leave for Paris, but after Flora kisses Paige's boyfriend Drake at his leaving party trouble begins. Paige leaves Flora alone and refuses to stay with her. Flora gets lost for days in her own home and forgets where her parents are and why she is no longer friends with Paige - she remembers kissing Drake and decides that he is going to be her saviour because he brought her memory back. She stops taking her medication and flies all the way to the North Pole (or at least she believes it is the north pole!) to chase down Drake and declare their love to one another.

On her travels, readers learn more about the wonderful girl that is Flora Banks, her quirky ways of retaining her memory and her child-like excitement are wonderful to read about. The plot follows a circular writing style that mimics Flora's memory loss. In every new chapter Flora forgets where she is and why she is in Svalbard but she is certain about one thing she kissed a boy at the beach, she kissed Drake and she must find him. It is refreshing to read and over the course of the plot readers get to enjoy the full manic episode of Flora off her medication, and she is delightful. It is a complete juxtaposition between the Flora we first meet at the beginning of the book and the crazy Flora we see when she has travelled to Svalbard.

I love how Flora's character developed through this story. It becomes clear to the reader that despite her odd and eccentric behaviour Flora is perfectly capable of looking after herself. She is ready for love and relationships and to explore the world. We find out that she has run away twice before and forgotten about it. We find out that she has been off her medication before and loved it! We find out the tragedy that is Flora's obsession with Drake but we also find out how cruel and unsympathetic Drake is. Readers slowly begin to love Flora just as much as I did when reading.

This book was presented as a love story. But I don't think that that is really what it is about. The One Memory of Flora Banks does start off with a young woman searching for love amidst a life of difficulty but as the plot develops you realise that Flora does not need love. She is yearning for freedom and this coming-of-age story gives precisely that. This story is free, careless, and filled with adventure. It is whimsical and truly fantastical. And I loved every minute.