Review: Don't You Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn

Title: Don't You Forget About Me
Author: Kate Karyus Quinn
Series: Stand Alone
Published By: Harper Teen (June 10, 2014)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA Fantasy
My Rating: 3 Stars

Book Description:
Welcome to Gardnerville.

A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies.

Except...
There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them.

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.

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I wanted something different, something out there and so I picked this one up. With a premises like this one, how could I not be in for one wild crazy ride?

This book delivered that is for sure. I don't even know where to begin to describe the sheer unusual-ness of this read. The characters and their bizarre fourth year behavior. The messed up town, The Reformatory, the pills...I could go on and on but I won't Instead, I will say this, if you are tired of all the sameness out there in this genre, this is a read you don't want to miss.

It will give you the strange, the unusual and the bizarre, it will make your mind whirl with all the possibilities and with exactly WTF is going on feeling.

You know those stories that are so different, so unique that you just don't even know what to think about them? That long after you have put the book down your mind is still reeling and it is hard to forget it? And writing a review is almost impossible because where do you begin, what do you say without ruining anything or giving too much away?

This is one of the stories. 

I have to warn you, I don't think this book, this read, will be for everyone. It is just so....different and complicated and filled with so much that is not normal that some are going to down right hate it while others won't care for it at all. And then, others will probably love it and think it one of a kind. 

So, which category do I fall under? Even after putting the book down for over 24 hours before trying to write this review, I am still not sure.

I applaud the uniqueness and the whole crazy messed up concept because I asked for a ride and a ride I did get, but, did I love it? I still don't know. 

And the sad thing is, I can't even tell you why or why not because it would ruin the whole story. I don't think there is a lot I can tell about it without giving something away. 

Gardnervill is a town like no other. Where no one gets sick but lots of people die...at the hands of others. You see, every four years (the fourth year) the towns people (usually the youth) go crazy. Something afflicts them and people are lead to their death. Some go crazy, some have strange new abilities that set those around them on fire, some, like Piper, Skylar's sister, have the strange ability to coerce others to do exactly what they want, even if that means their death.

People come to Gardnerville to survive, to be healed from their afflictions, but is the strange town with it's dangerous fourth year worth it? 

This really truly has all the makings for a really great horror flick even though the book itself wasn't frightening or scary in the least. 

Even though I still can't settle on my feelings for this one, I will say that it gave me exactly what I wanted at the time. Something unlike anything else I have ever read. Something that kept me guessing and scratching my head until the very end. 

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*