NARCOSIS ROOM

A teenager who undergoes
unconventional therapy for memory loss becomes disturbed by what she learns
when she starts remembering in this YA mystery.

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Savage’s
parents run the famous Narcosis Clinic in Seattle. Patients there receive a
variety of treatments while they sleep for three months. Dr. Belinda Savage is
a psychiatrist and plastic surgeon while her husband, Warren, specializes in
dermatology. The two physicians have treated Ellie as well, primarily to help
her overcome retrograde amnesia. This stems from an incident at a boarding
school a couple of years ago—evidently so traumatic that Ellie’s brain is
making her forget. She befriends fellow patient Dean Mathews, a 19-year-old
Canadian pop star whose lisp causes him to avoid conversation and most social
interactions. Ellie, however, truly likes schoolmate Cole Evans, but he barely
acknowledges her. It turns out that Cole is irate because the two had a
romantic moment last summer, which Ellie apparently later disregarded. But she
is genuinely shocked upon hearing this, as she doesn’t remember any of it or
that she was once best friends with Cole’s twin, Marley. Ellie soon links her
lapses in memory to the Narcosis Clinic and suspects her parents of something
devious. Cypress’ (Slay Me, 2018, etc.) novel deftly explores the dark
side of therapy while retaining an appropriate sense of humor. Ellie, for
example, ultimately creates Ellie-Me, essentially a manifestation of her
pre-Narcosis self. It’s a remarkable display of how she copes with fleeting
memories. But there are also welcome comedic touches, particularly when she
responds to Ellie-Me around others, who can’t see the latter. The relationship
between Cole and Ellie is absorbing (it’s indisputably a mutual affection)
while the twins’ dynamic—they’re supportive but playfully combative—is likewise
effective. The plot eventually spins into thriller territory but shrewdly
incorporates themes of parenting and self-confidence. Cypress’ prose throughout
is colorful: a crowd getting into “a ginormous frenzy” and Ellie walking “in a
fog of convoluted memories and migraine medicine.”

Well-defined characters in a
zigzagging medical tale rife with surprises.