This week’s hair raising read is 2021’s That Weekend by Kara Thomas. The story of three friends who embark to a lake house only to have one return with no memory of what transpired, this story delves into issues of survivor’s guilt, the destructive power of secrets, and the unreliability of memory. On this podcast, we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.
Suggested Reading on Memory Loss & Amnesia in YA Books:
Baran, Katarzyna Agnieszka. The Past, Memory and Trauma in Young Adult Dystopian Writing. Diss. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 2015.
Keetley, Dawn. “Amnesiac Girls: Memory Loss in Young Adult Fiction.” Horror Homeroom, July 10, 2021.
Neustadter, Roger. “Phone Home: From Childhood Amnesia to the Catcher in Sci-Fi—the Transformation of Childhood in Contemporary Science Fiction Films.” Youth & Society 20.3 (1989): 227-240.
Nikolajeva, Maria. “Memory of the Present: Empathy and Identity in Young Adult Fiction.” Narrative Works: Issues, Investigations, & Interventions 4.2 (2014).
Waller, Alison. “Amnesia in Young Adult Fiction.” Memory in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016. 286-291.
