Reef is an orphan who was taken in by his mother's best friend. Although she has welcomed Reef into the home, her children have not. One, in particular, is fairly abusive. Theo still has both his parents, but he seems to constantly disappoint his father. Theo's dad had "ruled the school" when he was a kid, but Theo would rather tend his garden than take karate lessons. Then, one day, memories start showing up in Theo's mind, memories of things that happened to someone else. The same thing starts happening to Reef. The two middle school boys figure out that they are experiencing each other's memories, and once a memory goes to the other boy, it is gone from the original owner's mind. It gets so bad that both boys are finding it hard to function in daily life. They have to find a way to stop the "phenomenon" before both boys sink into a confused stupor.
Gordon Korman is a good writer and has really figured out an authentic tween voice. He also recognizes that 12-year-olds can have deep, poignant and complex emotions. As a result, I enjoyed listening to this book. That said, the premise and plot are kind of weak. It was just too improbable for me. It felt like a realistic fiction that wasn't at all realistic. It made me wonder if the author, who is 60, is starting to have occasional memory loss, and that prompted the premise. Or maybe his parents are struggling with dementia and he is dealing with that. Kids that are Korman fans will probably like the book, but I thought ReStart, which is also by Korman and deals with memory loss, had a much stronger plot and premise. (256, 2023)
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