Goodreads Summary

Remember For Me by Diana Tarant Schmidt

Clara Eros thought her life was ending with Alzheimer’s. She was mistaken. A war between good and evil has raged for as long as humanity has existed, and the balance of power between its forces has always remained equal. But that longstanding balance has begun to shift, and the survival of mankind may be at risk. What is the source of this duality, and how do the proponents of light and darkness use humans to further their cause? When Clara Eros awakens with no memory, her questions are fundamental: who is she; and why is she here? The answer she receives is predetermined and singular: she has been recruited to fight a battle against the reign of darkness. But is Clara just a pawn in a much larger game? Once her transformation is complete, Clara finds herself, in body and mind, as a younger, stronger version of the person she can no longer remember, and now she must search for the common thread hidden within malevolence and turn the tide in a war where humanity is succumbing to chaos and brutality. Will she be strong enough to bring humanity back into the light?

My Thoughts

What an interesting book.  When Diana Tarant Schmidt contacted me about reading and reviewing her book, Remember For Me, I was caught immediately by its premise, and how her idea came to be.  Having seen first hand the pain that dementia and Alzheimer’s causes, I was very intrigued by her fictionalized account of this disease, as well as the trouble we find our world in today.  With gorgeous prose that is carried throughout the book, the story jumps right in, with little given information, and I’ll admit I was a little confused at first.  The concept of the Go’ El and Poneros, as the forces of good and evil in the world, is amazing and complex.  I was completely on board with the idea, once I started to figure out how it all worked.  I thought the examples she chose to show, as the workings of either group, were very effective, but I would have liked more concrete detail about how these groups operate. While the characters and story line are engaging, I found that the plot took a back seat to the philosophical questions and ideas that this book brings to the surface.  Each event was a little rushed through, and many seemed to not have definitive endings, but you still got something out of each moment.  There were some entertaining scenes and surprises, but as a whole the plot was a little underwhelming and abstract.  And yet, I didn’t totally mind, because I got so much more out of this story.  I felt like I could relate to every character in some way, and all of their emotions were vibrant and real.  As someone who has always struggled to understand people’s blind faith in religion, I appreciated, and was pleasantly surprised, at how open minded and inclusive this story was, while getting across a peaceful and generally faithful message.  I kept thinking how relevant this book is right now, (wars, terrorism, shootings, domestic abuse, etc.) and I loved this concept as an explanation for both the world’s beauty and its destruction.