Three months ago, Morgan’s secretive, moody boyfriend Flynn was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run accident on a dark road outside River’s End’s long shuttered family amusement park. Morgan is still reeling from the loss of her first love and moreover, she’s wracked with guilt that their fight that night and his getting out of her car along the dark stretch of road may have been the cause of Flynn’s death. On the anniversary of that terrible night, Morgan’s best friend forever, bubbly and spontaneous Toni, convinces Morgan to upload a memorial photo of Flynn onto the internet. When the social media site she’s using suggests Morgan tag Flynn as Evan Murphy, Morgan is shocked, because Evan looks exactly like Flynn. Shaken to the core, Morgan wonders if Flynn is still alive, living in a small town just down the highway, or if he had a twin brother he never mentioned, or if something more sinister is going on.
Together with Tori, Morgan begins digging around and in so doing, can’t deny the growing attraction she feels towards Evan, despite her resolve to keep romantic feelings at bay in respect to Flynn’s memory. What Morgan, Toni, and Evan find only leads to more mysteries, secrets, and a terrible corporate cover-up. In the end, Morgan discovers that what started out as a misnomer by facial recognition software has led them to the root cause of the ruined economy in River’s End, the motive for murder, and, surprisingly, a renewed chance at love.
By far the most interesting part of Forget Me, for me, is how Harrington used the downturn in the economy as both a key plot point and a convincing backdrop against which to place the novel. An entire town has been wiped out, families are struggling to stay afloat (and together), neighborhoods are ghost towns of for sale and foreclosed homes, and everyone feels resigned to hopelessness. But there’s a faint promise that appears now and again in River’s End, the most intriguing example of which is Morgan’s photography portfolio of all the once beloved, now abandoned sites around her small town: “I mean, at first it’s kind of sad. But then . . . looking at some of these forgotten places I feel . . . hope. Like what’s lost can be found again.” (156) Don’t forget what was lost or lose your way in dark, Forget Me seems to say, but look closely, with patience and understanding, and see the promise of a better tomorrow where people, prosperity, and love come back.
- Posted by Cori