FORGET TOMORROW by Pintip Dunn

Review by Elisa 

FORGET TOMORROW
by Pintip Dunn
Age Range: 12 and up
Series: Forget Tomorrow (Book 1)
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Entangled: Teen (November 3, 2015)
Goodreads | Amazon

Imagine a world where your destiny has already been decided...by your future self.

It's Callie's seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she's eagerly awaiting her vision -- a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they're meant to be. A world-class swimmer. A renowned scientist.

Or in Callie's case, a criminal.

In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in prison. The only person who can help is her childhood crush, Logan, a boy she hasn't spoken to in five years.

Logan breaks her free, but can she trust him? He's almost the same boy she remembers, but now he's a whole lot hotter. And he's got his own past to deal with. Callie's falling for him, fast, but she soon learns he has secrets of his own. Secrets that mean they can never be together.

Now, Callie's on the run not only from the government, but also from her fate. If she wants any hope of a future with Logan, she must find a way to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all -- herself.

In a Nutshell:

All the hype. All the 5 stars on goodreads. But, I’m sorry guys, but this book is just not worth the read. I ain’t dishin’ out the love for Forget Tomorrow.

Personally, it kills me to say I dislike a book. Having written one more than one draft to a novel, I know firsthand how freaking hard it is to write a novel. Two stars to this author who poured her heart out. Good job, I sincerely appreciate your effort and I hope it was a rewarding experience for you.

I’m sorry I don’t like the work you spent countless hours on.

What I did like:

• It was dystopian
• There was some nice kissing swoon (nothing more than PG-13)
• The love interest himself was pretty much perfect
• It was refreshing to not have any love triangles
• The brothers/sisters thing the author got down--I liked Calle and Jessa as well as Logan and Mikey
• The world of Harmony and the people within
• A very dramatic escape
• Sully and the scenes in Limbo
• The general plot--a world where Fate is determined by your future memory
• A lot of the main characters were developed quite nicely
• I actually liked Calle, too, the heroine. She had some pretty deep thoughts and was admirably empathetic and sacrificial in her love for others.
• The underlying context of fate, destiny, free will, and hope
• The author did a great job revealing things slowly; it was very paced
• The time-travel element of thoughts.

What I didn’t like:

With all those good things, I am sure you are wondering why I wasn’t into this book. I’ll try to work through it with you:

• I found 95% of the story predictable.
• Although we are following Calle as she figures things out at a good pace, it is much too easy for us to put together beforehand (and not in a helpful way).
• Essentially, by the time something was revealed, instead of saying “Whoa!” along with Calle, I was declaring “It’s about time she came to that conclusion!”
• Of the 5% that I didn’t figure out already, only 1% of it was actually surprising.
• I read and write a lot of flash-fiction (short stories that are usually from 100 to 500 words long). These depend on a “big reveal” at the end. This book was like an insanely long flash-fiction piece. I feel like this dynamic works terribly in novels. I don’t need a big reveal. I need 35 small reveals all through the book which aren’t obvious to me beforehand, keeping me engaged.
• Although there is a lot going on--escaping and running, dogs, surviving, and evil people--I was still rather bored. The action didn’t make up for the fact I had already pieced too much together.
• Calle might have been a character I liked, but her “does he like me?” and “should I like him?” and her “Should we be separate or together?” faucet of inner dialogue just was turned on way too often and spouting too much. I am usually an empathetic one, but I am not sure I would be able to listen to Calle without rolling my eyes until I was dizzy.
• The romance itself was sweet, but there was also little conflict. I wasn’t pulled into it.  
• I kept giving myself permission to skim. Never a good sign in a novel.
• Because I was bored, it took a long time to read--past the launch date. Because I had already planned to review it at ReadingTeen.net I kept hoping it would turn around so I would have something better to report. On my own, I wouldn’t have finished it.  
• I pretty much hated the ending. I can imagine some people thinking that it was great, but it wasn’t my thing. I persevered so hard to reach the end and thought I would be at least rewarded by the types of endings I like.

Doppelgangers

There were elements of it that made me think a lot about Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, going out and surviving in the wilderness, receiving the ultimate privilege at a special age, and, well, it is dystopian. I was also vaguely reminded of book #2 in the Matched series. And especially, Delirium, a series I loved. There were also elements that reminded me of Tempest series by Julie Cross.

Conclusion

Feel free to try it, but I am not planning on reading it ever again nor would I recommend it.

Disclaimer: Calle’s emotions could just be a symptom of the story being geared towards teens who haven’t had a lot of relationship experience. In a way, lots of YA is like this already. This one just much more so. Just because I didn’t like it, this romance might be great for some teens. I probably would have ate it up as a younger teen.

Ethereally and unequivocally penned by Elisa (@AverageAdvocate) at www.AverageAdvocate.com “Inspiring the average American to change the world.”

She also dabbles in fiction hidden amongst others occasionally at www.LesNomsDePlume.com. She also really needs a new picture, because she hasn’t had red hair in like, forever.

Content

Sexuality - Mild (just smooching, a quick consideration of whether she wanted to go further, and brief references to rape)

Language - None (I am pretty sure)

Violence - Moderate

In general, this was a pretty clean read