The Reminder

By Rune Michaels

Book Overview

Daisy, otherwise known as Daze, keeps hearing her dead mother's voice. Sometimes it's because of her dad, who likes to watch old home movies when he can't sleep. Sometimes it's because of her brother, who was too young to remember Mom, and needs to be reminded by looking at photographs and watching videos. Sometimes it might just be her mind trying to work out what her therapist would call "issues." But this time, it is none of those things. It's something much more wonderful and much more terrifying, something Daze never thought possible. And it might allow Daze to do what she couldn't years ago: save her mother's life. Rune Michaels, the visionary author of Genesis Alpha , plunges headfirst into the waters where science, family, and memory meet, and emerges with a powerful and fascinating story about loss and survival that challenges everything we think we know about the people we love.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416941312
• ISBN13: 9781416941316
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Quality fiction with an enjoyably modern feel to it!

I'm not sure I normally would've picked this book up from a bookstore, but I'm glad it found its way into my hands. The stage is not large, the characters aren't many but the emotions are true and the story carries an urgency that stays with you for days after reading it. The close narrative makes the reader feel as if they've known Daze for years after only a few pages. Her matter-of-fact voice rings out clearly from every page, and in spite of the somewhat sombre subject matter, the book does not have a dreary feel to it at all. It sounds almost absurd to describe a book about grief processing as a page-turner, but this nevertheless is the case with The Reminder. Both in The Reminder and in her earlier novel, Genesis Alpha, Michaels has shown an ability to write in such a novel and exciting way that stories that are at their core realistic read like wildest speculative fiction. She never takes the easy way out and every aspect of the story feels thoroughly thought through. Very enjoyable read about a girl tackling the most difficult of problems in an overwhelmingly modern world.

A fine tale of loss and survival

Rune Michaels' THE REMINDER tells of Daisy, who keeps hearing her dead mother's voice. While she's familiar with the possibilities and reasons, this time it's something different - and holds an opportunity to save her mother's life. A fine tale of loss and survival emerges.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Daisy has never quite come to terms with her mother's death. Though she's told the kids at school tons of stories about hospitals and chemotherapy, she refuses to discuss it with the therapist she's been seeing. And when she starts hearing her mother's voice, she can't help but hope there's some way her mother's still alive. What Daisy stumbles on in her search is both stranger and more complicated that she could possibly have imagined. Now she has to figure out how to deal with the secret her father's been hiding, and the secrets she's been holding deep inside herself. How far will she go to hold on to what seems to be her last real tie to the mother she never wanted to lose? THE REMINDER captures the feelings of loss and mourning perfectly, the gloom that hangs over Daisy's life running through every page. Yet it's far from depressing -- it's a story of survival and hope, about living on and letting go. Readers will sympathize with Daisy's struggle, and follow the mystery eagerly to the final page. The revelation at the end is somewhat abrupt, but looking back, Michaels has done an excellent job of setting it up. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how a modern family deals with the death of one of its members. Reviewed by: Lynn Crow