Delaware,
April 19th. It’s her birthday, April’s birthday. April Hope Donovan, that
special girl with a special memory. She suffers from hyperthymesia, a condition
of not being able to forget. And this is how she links especially negative
events with her life. She was born on the day of the Oklahoma City bombing, four
years later, the Columbine High School massacre, four days before her 18th
birthday, the Boston marathon is bombed. Her whole life seems to turn around
those hideous events. She can remember all the details of her life, but what
she does not know yet is that the next catastrophe is already knocking on the
door. All over the country, desperate teenagers have secretly gathered around
the so called Mastermind to seek revenge. And one of them is close to April.
The story
actually does not only revolve around April, but she is the most interesting of
all characters and especially at the beginning of the novel, when she explains
her brain disposition, it is great fun to follow her thoughts. Adding the other
characters spread across the USA first lead to a bit of confusion, it takes
some time until you realize how they are connected and what they have in mind
actually. All individual stories do have some interesting and even gripping
aspects, but since they rotate at a high space you do not really get into them.
This makes the whole novel stay on the surface, even though the content and
message would have deserved to be looked at more closely. This is the reason
why I am a bit disappointed. I liked the tone of the novel, especially April’s
narrative, but the author could have made more of the idea.
