Book Review: When I Was Me by Hilary Freeman

2/16/2016 Ezza TheBookDragon 1 Comments

Title: When I Was Me
Author: Hilary Freeman
Amazon Link: Buy now
Book Depository Link: Buy now
Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Mystery/Thriller
Buy: Yes
Review: Goodreads

Synopsis

One girl, two lives. Which is real?

When Ella wakes up one Monday morning, she discovers that she is not herself and that her life is not her own. She looks different, her friends are no longer her friends and her existence has been erased from the internet. Even worse, years of her history appear to have been rewritten overnight. And yet, nobody else thinks that anything weird has happened.

A tense and dark psychological thriller full of unexpected twists and turns about the random events and decisions that make us who we are. If you can't trust your own memories, then who can you trust?

Review

I actually did not expect anything from this book at first. I picked up this book because of two reason: 1) It's on sale. 2)The cover is pretty. Anyway, I'm glad that I picked up this. Sometimes, I'm lucky when it comes to pick a random book. Sometimes, I don't. But this time, I'm lucky.

This book started with Ella waking up one day feeling like not herself. I do sometimes..like where am I? Who am I? But this is not the case for Ella. Because she literally waking up as a new and different Ella. Her room, her mom and her appearance looking so much different than yesterday. Maybe she loses her mind or maybe she just need to calm down and sleep a bit. But nope..even after calming down and all, she still not herself. It's really crazy.

There's so many things Ella needs to find out. The truth, her real self and someone who can really understand her confusion. And she also needs to adapt to her new life now. As she going through with all that emotion and experience, I feel her sadness and loneliness. She actually is a strong girl mentally. Yes, she cried and break down..but there's something in her that I admire. Especially when she was supposed to major in filmography and the next day she's majoring in chemistry/science..I can't even. How am I supposed to feel about this? It's break my heart, like I was picturing myself as her. What will I do if I was her? I can't think. She adapted very well, bravo Ella.

Apart from that, she's trying her best to get back to her real self with the help of this one person who knows everything. And because of that, she discovered something really complex and she had to made a decision for herself. This book is really interesting and I cannot believe how thin this book is. Like I need explanation. I need more. Please, how's Ella doing after everything? I really get attached to Ella and don't want to leave her.

I don't want to review a lot about this book, because I might spoil it without realizing. The vital part to enjoy this book is by not knowing anything about it. I enjoyed it very much and really recommended this book to anyone..and everyone. It's fast paced book and very thin book (I don't like this part), so yeah.

Book Quotes

(may contain spoilers)

Either I have lot my memory.
Or I have lost my mind.
And if I'm not me, fully me, then who am I?

Like the radiographer, she seems delighted that my brain is 'perfect'. Some people have great legs, others great hair. Apparently, I have beautiful brain. It's just my luck that nobody else will ever be able to appreciate its gorgeousness unless I leave my body to science and it ends up in a jar on someone's desk.

The truth is, I have already lived many lives in my lifetime; there have already existed more versions of me than I can count. I have been constantly changing, little by little, cell by cell, pore by pore. All these other transformations were so slow that I simply didn't notice them happening. This one is different because it was so violent and sudden, because it happened overnight.