The Memory Game by Sharon Sant

Author: Sharon Sant
Pages 116
Date Published: September 30 2013
Publisher: Lightfoot Press

Introduction
       After a fight with his mother David Cottle goes to do his paper run, while taking the quick way around his village, he becomes the victim of a hit-and-run.
       Although his body is dead, the spirit of him is still hanging around and he doesn't know why. While hanging around his old school, he discovers that Bethany Willis, the weird girl that everybody at school bullies, including David,--when he was alive-- can see him. At first, David only talks to her because he's lonely with nobody to talk to and he believes that she might know why he's stuck here after his body has died, but as time goes on, they find that sometimes not everything ends after you die.

Cover
       I really like the cover of this. Assuming that the face is the face of David of course.

Title
       I understand the significance of the title being a reference to the actual "memory game" that Beth and David play to help David remember simple things about life that he seems to be forgetting. Although the memory game is  sweet, a better title for the book probably could have been chosen.

David
       It's refreshing reading a book with a male protagonist. I've read so many books with a female protagonist that I welcome the change. David's character is such a realistic 15 year old boy. The writing of his thoughts and his character himself really sound like what a 15 year old boy would. I enjoyed his character development throughout the book and reading the way his opinion changes on Bethany was great as well.

Bethany (Slight spoilers)
       Bethany is known as the "weird girl" at school and she doesn't have any friends. Her mom died a year prior to when the story takes place, so it's just her and her father, but she pretty much takes care of him instead of the other way around. As for the secrets she keeps, you can take a pretty good guess at what's going on after the first chapter or too, which might seem kind of quick to find out what she's hiding, but the book itself isn't very long, so I think that the character development of Beth was well done.

Ending
       I kind of expected the book to end like this, but I'm not disappointed. It was a very bittersweet ending but I am pleased with the way it went.

Conclusion
       I didn't think I was going to be able to get attached to David or Beth due to the length of the book. I just didn't think I was going to have enough pages to really get to know them, or like them at all. But I was wrong. This book was lovely and a little sad. I enjoyed every moment of reading. I think boys could read this, although this is classified as a love story, it isn't too heavy on the relationship front between David and Beth. I wouldn't recommend this book to younger readers as it deals with sensitive and mature topics such as self harm, alcohol, and domestic violence and I believe very brief mention of sex through I'm not sure of that one.