by Ann Schlee
First published 1979
Paul wakes up with gaps in his mind. The government has reached into his memories and erased his destruction of a sports center. They have also wiped away his reasons for committing the crime. Paul must navigate a society where authorities can delete inconvenient thoughts and actions from citizens' minds. He struggles to piece together what he did and why he did it when the very evidence of his motivations has been surgically removed from his consciousness. The state maintains order by making people forget their rebellious acts and the anger that drove them. Paul faces the question of whether he can reclaim his identity when the government controls not just his future but his past. His fight becomes one of memory against forgetting, of holding onto pieces of himself that others want to erase. In this world, the most dangerous act is remembering what you are supposed to forget.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, thriller, political-thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: government-conspiracy, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Sports Center
Period: Present Day
224 pages · Hardcover · MacMillan Children's Books
Content warnings: mental-illness