I Remember You by Cathleen Davitt Bell

TL;DR like The Future of Us but with a fixed timeline and without Facebook

(finished 9/1/15)

Sorry if that tl;dr doesn't make too much sense (especially if you haven't read The Future of Us). Essentially, the guy starts gaining memories from the future after meeting the MC.

I initially loved The Future of Us when I first read it, which I think is a lot of the reason I decided to pick up I Remember You. They're a little similar in feel, but they're different in execution in terms of plot and character reactions. (I read The Future of Us back in freshman year or something, so forgive me if I'm remembering things wrong.) The biggest difference is that Lucas' vision of the future doesn't change during the course of the story. I think their history and his memories end up differing by the end, but it's not like in The Future of Us where they're trying to anticipate how things change based on every decision they make.

I liked the characters, but there wasn't anything super special or memorable about most of them. Dex I really liked as a side character, especially towards the end, and I can appreciate Rose as Juliet's best friend. I think some people have mentioned that they didn't like Juliet or Lucas, but I thought they were pretty okay. I didn't really have any complaints about them.

The romance is a little fast, but I feel like it's more realistic than, say, The Soul Seekers series. There's not really any insta-lust and things build up over the course of a couple of months, though with the way the narration condenses, it's not too long of the story.

The narration is interesting in that it becomes apparent that it's Juliet recording everything as a sort of memoir. I know this is kind of cliche but I haven't seen it done all that often, and I really like how the story read.

I feel like this review is really short because I don't have any complaints. That seems to be the trend for me recently. :c

The plot is very character-driven, which I liked, though I guess that can get a little boring for some people. The story spans an entire school year, so some of the stuff seems to blend together even when it's actually spaced out over a period of time, but I think it works well within the narration. I was also surprised with how everything tied together at the end. I really enjoyed the last chapter (or was it the epilogue? I don't remember).

Bonus quote:

"Besides," he went on , smirking. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." (pg 65)

I'm figuring that quote doesn't originate from Welcome to Night Vale but dang was it a good unintentional Easter egg.

TL;DR if you really like The Future of Us and/or time travel(ish) with a fixed timeline, try it out.