Hilary Zaid

I was drawn to this book by how unique the main character, Amy, and its exploration of the role/importance of the art of the handwritten word in a high digital age sounded and I was mostly satisfied with what it delivered.
The descriptions were flowery in a way that generally worked to create a dream-like feel that I enjoyed. The tech dystopia elements of Q sat neatly on the line between realistic and absurd which made it somehow more true to life. I liked Amy’s struggles of figuring out herself as a middle-aged woman whose life had already come together then fallen apart again. The way both her love of the written word as a calligrapher and her face blindness inform her and the way she views the world as well as her role in the plot was interesting and added a lot of character to the novel.
What brought my enjoyment down a bit was how loosely Amy is tied to the plot. Her involvement is passive and incidental throughout much of it. She sort of wanders away from the central mystery and conspiracy plot to contemplate her life or just because she’s not someone who matters to the plot at that point in the story. At times it could still be engaging but other times I was ready for things to get going again.… (more)

An absolutely brilliant book that will draw you in with each subsequent page, and won't let you go until long after it's done. They say be careful what you wish for, and Amy learns this in the hardest way - leaving her to make a choice - does she follow her dreams, and Q's rules, or side with the vigilantes and take down the tech giant, likely helping the larger world? Zaid did an amazing job of bringing Amy and the world she lives in to life, and the plot moves along at a smooth pace with very few lulls. I loved this, and can't wait to read more by this author!… (more)

My response to Forget I Told You This was uneven. As I began reading, I was excited by the complexity of topics the book was taking on. Near the middle, I simply felt overwhelmed by too many conspiracy theories. Yes, it's a conspiracy theory novel, but the concatination of conspiracies pushed things beyond the point of my ability to willingly suspend disbelief. As I finished reading, I found I was enjoying myself again again. The writer tied up lose ends that had been bothering me and helped me to better understand what had been motivating the central character all along.

If I had to describe this book in terms of other books, I'd call it a cross between Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, with perhaps a bit of Fraya Marske's A Marvellous Light.

What I liked—
• quick pacing
• a lesbian central character, who interacts with other lesbian characters over the course of the book
• the author's knowledge about and respect for book-making and the physical act of writing
• the circus-like moments with unexpected stilt walkers, acrobats, and fire artists
• the over-the-top details in descriptions of the physical realities of Q, the social media company at the novel's center
• family relationships that weren't easy, but that the characters were committed to

What I didn't like—
• the central character's lack of goals and the ways her actions felt like the result of outside influences rather than her own desires
• as noted above, the absolutely baroque piling up of conspiracies and unusual attempts to circumvent those securities
• how quickly the central character's found herself obsessing about sudden infatuations

If you enjoy Dan Brown or similar writers, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll enjoy Forget I Told You This and will find yourself racing through it. I received a free electronic review copy of this title; the opinions are my own.… (more)