two Amnesia books in a row! SBD
I didn't even know they were memory loss stories. I think maybe I wouldn't have read them if I'd known. I don't like amnesiac titles and there are two? And I read 'em both?
The interesting thing is in each book, someone lies for a big chunk of the book. There's a Mary Jo Putney historical up as a freebie on Amazon, and I found a Brockmann I hadn't read--so of course I had to load 'em up right away.
In the Brockmann, the hero lies by not telling the heroine that he's got no idea who he is. I get why he does that--he's got a lot of hints that he wasn't Not a Nice Guy in his past. Of course just like the actual memory loss, the lie goes on too long. I didn't mind so much though. I liked the characters.
In the Putney, the heroine lies by telling the hero he's her husband. Her lie helps her keep her house (kinda) After that she spends pages agonizing about the fact that he probably has a family somewhere and they'll be frantically looking for him but really, she's keeping him safe because he seems so secure about her.. I couldn't get past that lie. Once she finally gets around to telling the hero--right after they finally do the deed--he forgives her almost at once. Not me. I thought it was pretty unforgivably selfish.
So now I'm trying to figure out if I don't like her lie because I've got the romance reader Standard Double Standard: the hero can get away with schmuck behavior I don't forgive in the heroine. Although come to think of it, I didn't like the hero in that movie Overboard for the same schtick.
And I still don't like amnesiacs. Two DEM (deus ex machina) and while I seem able to believe people turn into werewolves and crash-test dummies, I have trouble with plots in which people with bad head injuries forget their past but behave perfectly normally for weeks and weeks (ie not have horrible fits and headaches and shifts in temperaments--like normal head injury vicitms). Maybe if it was a SuperDuperRayGun that sucked out their memory and not a bump on the head.
Yeah, yeah. I put an amnesiac in a book once, but her memory loss lasts a matter of hours and she only lost an hour or two of her life.
Anyone read an amnesia book they like and maybe even believe?
The interesting thing is in each book, someone lies for a big chunk of the book. There's a Mary Jo Putney historical up as a freebie on Amazon, and I found a Brockmann I hadn't read--so of course I had to load 'em up right away.
In the Brockmann, the hero lies by not telling the heroine that he's got no idea who he is. I get why he does that--he's got a lot of hints that he wasn't Not a Nice Guy in his past. Of course just like the actual memory loss, the lie goes on too long. I didn't mind so much though. I liked the characters.
In the Putney, the heroine lies by telling the hero he's her husband. Her lie helps her keep her house (kinda) After that she spends pages agonizing about the fact that he probably has a family somewhere and they'll be frantically looking for him but really, she's keeping him safe because he seems so secure about her.. I couldn't get past that lie. Once she finally gets around to telling the hero--right after they finally do the deed--he forgives her almost at once. Not me. I thought it was pretty unforgivably selfish.
So now I'm trying to figure out if I don't like her lie because I've got the romance reader Standard Double Standard: the hero can get away with schmuck behavior I don't forgive in the heroine. Although come to think of it, I didn't like the hero in that movie Overboard for the same schtick.
And I still don't like amnesiacs. Two DEM (deus ex machina) and while I seem able to believe people turn into werewolves and crash-test dummies, I have trouble with plots in which people with bad head injuries forget their past but behave perfectly normally for weeks and weeks (ie not have horrible fits and headaches and shifts in temperaments--like normal head injury vicitms). Maybe if it was a SuperDuperRayGun that sucked out their memory and not a bump on the head.
Yeah, yeah. I put an amnesiac in a book once, but her memory loss lasts a matter of hours and she only lost an hour or two of her life.
Anyone read an amnesia book they like and maybe even believe?
Uh-oh. My current wip has a hero who, as a result of a head injury, has no memory of the time around the injury. But it's a long time ago, and it's just a few days/week that he's missing. I did research amnesia, and think it's realistic enough. I hope. (And no, he doesn't suddenly get his memory back. Ever.)
ReplyDeleteI liked "Remember Me?" by Sophie Kinsella. No sudden memory return, and a fun book!
ReplyDeleteI know the Putney of which you speak, but I have, of course, forgotten its name. (Didn't the name change from the Regency to the Avon version?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I liked the set-up of her having to learn about him and treat him as if he already belonged in her life, but I agree -- the lie went on waaayy too long. The reveal, not only the guy's reaction, but her presentation of the facts, seemed really unbelievable too.
Funny, until you said so, I hadn't thought of the OTHER head injury signs that would surely show up. And now that you've pointed it out, I'm thinking, "Well, duh!"
Duh. The Bourne Identity. CIA brainwashing totally explains the amnesia.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have an amnesia story on my hard drive that I will sell to somebody someday. I heart amnesia.