Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Sci-fi, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Friends to lovers, Amnesia (à la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Rep ✔️: Korean-Canadian main characters
CW ⚠️: PTSD, Loved one with Alzheimer’s, brief discussions of grief and abuse
Rating ⭐️: 5/5
The idea of intentional amnesia has always scared me. It’s hard enough to hold on to memories, so why would we want to get rid of them on purpose? At the same time, knowing all the emotional pain the past can bring, I understand the appeal — which is what makes Meet Me at Blue Hour and its concept so compelling.
FMC Yena Bae is in Busan, South Korea to work at her mother’s groundbreaking memory erasure clinic. And there, she runs into MMC Lucas, the childhood best friend who disappeared from her life years ago. The real kicker? He doesn’t remember her. He’s had her entire existence erased, and she doesn’t know why. Of course, Lucas doesn’t know why either, so it’s hard for Yena to be completely upset with him. I’m glad that we got both of their POVs, so we could experience Lucas’s innocent confusion and Yena’s messy mix of emotions.
The erasure clinic uses recorded sounds linked to certain memories, and the hope is that they can use the same method for memory recovery. Author Sarah Suk included a few chapters in the POV of sounds linked to Yena and Lucas’s memories — a unique and endearing way to present flashbacks. The more I got to know these characters, the more I loved them, and I was desperate to find out what tore them apart. The mystery of it all, though somewhat predictable, was well-executed and unraveled into a satisfying ending.
It’s corny as hell but I’m gonna say it anyway… Not even a memory wipe could make me forget this book. It’s that good.
**Much thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Meet Me at Blue Hour will be released on April 1, 2025.
Sara Bechtol 