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The Reminder
Daisy, otherwise known as Daze, keeps hearing her dead mother's voice. Sometimes it's because of her dad, who likes to watch old home movies when he can't sleep. Sometimes it's because of her brother, who was too young to remember Mom, and needs to be reminded by looking at photographs and watching videos. Sometimes it might just be her mind trying to work out what her therapist would call "issues." But this time, it is none of those things. It's something much more wonderful and much more terrifying, something Daze never thought possible. And it might allow Daze to do what she couldn't years save her mother's life.
Rune Michaels, the visionary author of Genesis Alpha , plunges headfirst into the waters where science, family, and memory meet, and emerges with a powerful and fascinating story about loss and survival that challenges everything we think we know about the people we love.
Rune Michaels, the visionary author of Genesis Alpha , plunges headfirst into the waters where science, family, and memory meet, and emerges with a powerful and fascinating story about loss and survival that challenges everything we think we know about the people we love.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2008
7 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
About the author
Rune Michaels
8 books10 followersRune lives in Reykjavík with her husband, their daughter and their two cats, trying hard not to live a life out of one of her books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 2, 2025
Despite her mother's death over three years ago, Daze still goes to therapy. She doesn't understand why since she has been quite open with her classmates at her new school describing the chemotherapy, the i.v.'s, and the lengthy hospital stays. One day, she discovers an android head in her father's lab - a head that looks like her mother and sounds like her thanks to computer programming. When her father finds a new girlfriend and retires the android to a storage closet, Daze steals the head. This leads to a chain of events in which Daze's fantasy about her mother's death unravels and she must face the truth of what really happened. I really didn't like Daze as a character and the way she treated her little brother.
September 21, 2018
I just bumped into this book by accident while being at the library. The synopsis sounded interesting so decided to pick it up, find a comfy place to sit and start reading. Ended up reading the whole book in one sitting.
The Reminder turned out to be pretty good. I loved how the story progressed and it was perfect and totally right ending for this book. It totally blew my mind, though, since I didn't expect it.
Highly recommend for a quick read (but also important subjects, like family, loss and grief) to get over a reading slump, for instance.
The Reminder turned out to be pretty good. I loved how the story progressed and it was perfect and totally right ending for this book. It totally blew my mind, though, since I didn't expect it.
Highly recommend for a quick read (but also important subjects, like family, loss and grief) to get over a reading slump, for instance.
April 10, 2017
My friend recommend this book to me, and quite honestly the summary interested me. But this book really was not what I thought it would be. It starts off with an interesting plot about a girl who misses her mom after she passes away, then the girl finds a robotic head of her mother. I particularly did not like the girl, Daze (the main character) I felt like she didn't undergo much character development and I felt she made so many annoying poor choices that made me roll my eyes. I especially didn't like how she got in the way of her family's happiness with this nonsense about saving the head's life. There's not much more I can say than that it was definitely a disappointment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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October 15, 2012 Dear (Sharon)
In reading a book entitled The Reminder by Rune Michaels which is a work of a realistic fiction book.I learned that the author Daze talked about the death of her mother and how it affected her. Daze lived in a new house after her mother died. She lived with her father and little brother. Her mother's death made a big impact in her life. After a while Daze started going to her father's office and notice a robot head that her father had build just like her mom. Daze will secretly go to his office every other day just to see the robot head of her mom. After a while her dad meet a new person and had a girlfriend. Her dad hide the head so that his girlfriend wouldn't see it. Daze thought he was throwing it away and stole it. At that point it was a big problem and so much more happened.
I recommend this book because I don't like reading at all but i read this book in a week. This book really touched me. I don't know what i will do the day i lose my mom. It will be the worst day of my life. While i was reading this book i thought about and it really made me think about it and i know Daze should really be heart broken after this happened especially since she lost her mom at such a young age. Daze mother was momentous to her. She was the best in her life and This book made my realize that one of the worst thing that can ever happen is losing your mother because your mother is the only one that really be there for you when you don't have no one to go to. Your mother is the one that has your back . I also know she gets frustrated when she sees that her brother don't remember his mother. Throughout the whole book i thought that her mother died from cancer because that's was the bogus story she told everyone at school and to all her friends. But i learned while reading that, it ended up being that her mother killed her self. At the end of the book Daze's father explains what really happened to her mother and how Daze found her dead in the inundated bath tub. If i were Daze, i would of done the same thing and lied about my mother's death because one its already bad that i lost my mother and two it will be worst if i told my friends and others from school that my mother killed her self. And that i was the one who found her dead in a inundated bath tube. How did Daze really feel? How dose she feel when she is alone at home and need some one to talk to? I think that Daze might grow up with that picture of how her mother died in her head. Because in the end of the book Daze said she will never forget the day or how her mother died. Something that this book makes me think about in life is that we are the sons and daughters of death. So we will all die one day but the worst thing is losing someone you love especially your mother.
In reading a book entitled The Reminder by Rune Michaels which is a work of a realistic fiction book.I learned that the author Daze talked about the death of her mother and how it affected her. Daze lived in a new house after her mother died. She lived with her father and little brother. Her mother's death made a big impact in her life. After a while Daze started going to her father's office and notice a robot head that her father had build just like her mom. Daze will secretly go to his office every other day just to see the robot head of her mom. After a while her dad meet a new person and had a girlfriend. Her dad hide the head so that his girlfriend wouldn't see it. Daze thought he was throwing it away and stole it. At that point it was a big problem and so much more happened.
I recommend this book because I don't like reading at all but i read this book in a week. This book really touched me. I don't know what i will do the day i lose my mom. It will be the worst day of my life. While i was reading this book i thought about and it really made me think about it and i know Daze should really be heart broken after this happened especially since she lost her mom at such a young age. Daze mother was momentous to her. She was the best in her life and This book made my realize that one of the worst thing that can ever happen is losing your mother because your mother is the only one that really be there for you when you don't have no one to go to. Your mother is the one that has your back . I also know she gets frustrated when she sees that her brother don't remember his mother. Throughout the whole book i thought that her mother died from cancer because that's was the bogus story she told everyone at school and to all her friends. But i learned while reading that, it ended up being that her mother killed her self. At the end of the book Daze's father explains what really happened to her mother and how Daze found her dead in the inundated bath tub. If i were Daze, i would of done the same thing and lied about my mother's death because one its already bad that i lost my mother and two it will be worst if i told my friends and others from school that my mother killed her self. And that i was the one who found her dead in a inundated bath tube. How did Daze really feel? How dose she feel when she is alone at home and need some one to talk to? I think that Daze might grow up with that picture of how her mother died in her head. Because in the end of the book Daze said she will never forget the day or how her mother died. Something that this book makes me think about in life is that we are the sons and daughters of death. So we will all die one day but the worst thing is losing someone you love especially your mother.
August 11, 2010
2.5 stars
Daze stops by her father’s office unannounced one afternoon and overhears what sounds like her parents having a conversation in her father’s workshop. She knows it’s impossible because her mother is dead, but she hopes that if she sneaks into the workshop, she will find her mother there - alive. Instead, Daze finds an android head that looks and sounds like her mother. It is connected to a laptop that runs a program allowing the head to make limited conversation. Even though the head is a poor substitute for her actual mother, Daze becomes obsessed with it and hides the fact that she knows about it from her father. The situation comes to a climax when Daze’s father tries to get rid of the head, and Daze rescues it by putting it in her backpack and taking it to school with her. When a fellow student discovers the head, Daze runs to the only person who might be able to help – her therapist. With her therapist’s help and the support of her father, Daze finally confronts the truth of her mother’s death.
Reminder is a quick read with short chapters that keep the plot moving quickly as well as emotional moments that give some depth to the main character, but the premise of the story is so ridiculous that it is hard to get in to. An android head is not futuristic enough to put the novel in the realm of sci-fi, but it strains the willing suspension of disbelief for readers expecting realistic fiction. At the climax of the story when the head rolls out of Daze’s backpack, it’s hard not to laugh at the mental image even though it isn’t intended to be a funny moment. However, Daze is a sympathetic character whose grief over the loss of her mother will ring true to anyone who has lost a loved one. Reminder may have some appeal for teens looking for an easy read that doesn’t require too much from the reader.
Daze stops by her father’s office unannounced one afternoon and overhears what sounds like her parents having a conversation in her father’s workshop. She knows it’s impossible because her mother is dead, but she hopes that if she sneaks into the workshop, she will find her mother there - alive. Instead, Daze finds an android head that looks and sounds like her mother. It is connected to a laptop that runs a program allowing the head to make limited conversation. Even though the head is a poor substitute for her actual mother, Daze becomes obsessed with it and hides the fact that she knows about it from her father. The situation comes to a climax when Daze’s father tries to get rid of the head, and Daze rescues it by putting it in her backpack and taking it to school with her. When a fellow student discovers the head, Daze runs to the only person who might be able to help – her therapist. With her therapist’s help and the support of her father, Daze finally confronts the truth of her mother’s death.
Reminder is a quick read with short chapters that keep the plot moving quickly as well as emotional moments that give some depth to the main character, but the premise of the story is so ridiculous that it is hard to get in to. An android head is not futuristic enough to put the novel in the realm of sci-fi, but it strains the willing suspension of disbelief for readers expecting realistic fiction. At the climax of the story when the head rolls out of Daze’s backpack, it’s hard not to laugh at the mental image even though it isn’t intended to be a funny moment. However, Daze is a sympathetic character whose grief over the loss of her mother will ring true to anyone who has lost a loved one. Reminder may have some appeal for teens looking for an easy read that doesn’t require too much from the reader.
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May 10, 2011The REMINDER tells the story about Daisy, a girl who keeps hearing her dead mother’s voice. She can’t help but she still hopes her mother still alive. So she wants to do something that everybody will think she was crazy. She wants to bring her mother’s life back. But she found out that her father hided some truth that she can’t never imagined. She found her mother’s head in her father’s laboratory (Not a real head, but a robotic replica that her dad has created with a computer program simulating her mom’s voice and giving this head the ability to response to the questions and carry on conversations.) and she also found out her father had a new girl friend. When days later her mother’s head goes missing. After that she finally realized that everything was a plan of the game that created by her dad, including her mother’s death.
Overall THE REMINDER is a good book; it captures the feelings of loss and mourning perfectly, the gloom that hangs over Daisy's life running through every page. And it's also a story of survival and hope, about living on and letting go. Readers will sympathize with Daisy's struggle, and follow the mystery eagerly to the final page. The revelation at the end is somewhat abrupt, but looking back, Rune Michaels has done an excellent job of writing this novel.
This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how a modern family deals with the death of one of its members.
Overall THE REMINDER is a good book; it captures the feelings of loss and mourning perfectly, the gloom that hangs over Daisy's life running through every page. And it's also a story of survival and hope, about living on and letting go. Readers will sympathize with Daisy's struggle, and follow the mystery eagerly to the final page. The revelation at the end is somewhat abrupt, but looking back, Rune Michaels has done an excellent job of writing this novel.
This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how a modern family deals with the death of one of its members.
November 17, 2012
Reviewed by Lynn Crow for TeensReadToo.com
Daisy has never quite come to terms with her mother's death. Though she's told the kids at school tons of stories about hospitals and chemotherapy, she refuses to discuss it with the therapist she's been seeing. And when she starts hearing her mother's voice, she can't help but hope there's some way her mother's still alive.
What Daisy stumbles on in her search is both stranger and more complicated that she could possibly have imagined. Now she has to figure out how to deal with the secret her father's been hiding, and the secrets she's been holding deep inside herself.
How far will she go to hold on to what seems to be her last real tie to the mother she never wanted to lose?
THE REMINDER captures the feelings of loss and mourning perfectly, the gloom that hangs over Daisy's life running through every page. Yet it's far from depressing -- it's a story of survival and hope, about living on and letting go. Readers will sympathize with Daisy's struggle, and follow the mystery eagerly to the final page. The revelation at the end is somewhat abrupt, but looking back, Michaels has done an excellent job of setting it up.
This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how a modern family deals with the death of one of its members.
Daisy has never quite come to terms with her mother's death. Though she's told the kids at school tons of stories about hospitals and chemotherapy, she refuses to discuss it with the therapist she's been seeing. And when she starts hearing her mother's voice, she can't help but hope there's some way her mother's still alive.
What Daisy stumbles on in her search is both stranger and more complicated that she could possibly have imagined. Now she has to figure out how to deal with the secret her father's been hiding, and the secrets she's been holding deep inside herself.
How far will she go to hold on to what seems to be her last real tie to the mother she never wanted to lose?
THE REMINDER captures the feelings of loss and mourning perfectly, the gloom that hangs over Daisy's life running through every page. Yet it's far from depressing -- it's a story of survival and hope, about living on and letting go. Readers will sympathize with Daisy's struggle, and follow the mystery eagerly to the final page. The revelation at the end is somewhat abrupt, but looking back, Michaels has done an excellent job of setting it up.
This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how a modern family deals with the death of one of its members.
June 12, 2014
The Reminder is not the type of book I would usually pick up and decide to read in my free time. In middle school a teacher recommended it to me and gave me a copy and not till this year did I actually decide to pick it up and read it. It was a strange book, very unlike anything I have read before. It starts of normally with a young girl who misses her mother who passed away but it turns in to a drama when she finds out her dad created a robot of her. Again, her dad created a robot of her mom, this is where the book starts to get interesting. It was not the type of interesting I usually look for but it was strange enough that it made me keep reading. This young girl becomes very close to her robot mother and starts to treat it like it's her actual mother. It goes back to a normal book when the main character becomes upset that her dad is seeing someone else. But she begins to like the lady her dad is with, but continues to try to converse with her dead mother. She thinks the robot is a true representation of her mother and actually becomes angry when it does not show mother like quality's. This is not the type of book I would recommend to my friends, but I would recommend it to people who like a thrill and an interesting but weird story. This book was well written but it just was not my type of read.
November 2, 2008
Daisy called Daze most of the time, has to deal with her mother's death. She has a little brother named Ryan who she has to babysit and a supportive but seemingly quiet father. She misses her mom dearly, and she hears her father talking to her one day. She gets suspicous until she learns that her dad is talking to her mother's head, specifically an androids head. She knows it's not her mother, but she begins to think it is, she keeps talking to her despite the fact that she has a fairly limited response, but begins to think this head is her mom. She talks to her mom for two months, until it all comes to an end.
Her father has found a new girlfriend, and he knows that the head is missing. Daze ends up wanting to save her mom's head, so she heads to her therapist's office, where she and her dad get some stuff out in the open, and closure can begin.
All in all it was nice concept but the book seemed to end too aprubtly, and the book falls short of dealing with the concept of coping with a loved one's death. While the head is an interesting spin of coping it seems too much like other fiction I've read.
Her father has found a new girlfriend, and he knows that the head is missing. Daze ends up wanting to save her mom's head, so she heads to her therapist's office, where she and her dad get some stuff out in the open, and closure can begin.
All in all it was nice concept but the book seemed to end too aprubtly, and the book falls short of dealing with the concept of coping with a loved one's death. While the head is an interesting spin of coping it seems too much like other fiction I've read.
April 19, 2010
This book had an incredible twist at the end that I did not expect. Daze (nickname from Daisy) is the main character, and she and her family have moved to a new town following the death of her mother. Daze is trying to deal with her grief, as well as support her little brother, Ryan. Ryan doesn't remember their mother very well, and it is important to Daze that he doesn't forget her. Her father is an engineer/teacher in some type of artificial intelligence research at a university. In his grief, he builds an android head of his wife, and programs it to respond to simple commands and questions, using his wife's real voice from their home movies. Daze finds out about the head when visiting her father's lab, only she doesn't let her father know. She becomes attached to this robotic version of "mom", and it helps her move through some of her sadness. When her dad begins to move on, Daze doesn't want "mom" to be thrown away, and so she steals her. Things don't go well, and then - an unexpected twist that left me feeling so sad for Daze. Stick with the sometimes strange plot - the ending makes it worth it.
January 6, 2009
After Daisy's mother dies, she has a hard time dealing with her grief, and as a teen, she starts to hear her mother's voice. She discovers that her father, a math/science genius, has made a robotic replica head of her mother, and put her voice in it. Daisy secretly begins to spend time with the head, and it seems to make her much happier, but then it disappears from his office and she gets into trouble trying to hide it. In the end, it all comes out, including the fact that she has been telling everyone that her mother died of cancer, when she killed herself with pills in the bathtub, and Daisy found her there. She and her father resolve to take the robotic head apart, and face facts, and it looks like they are headed in the right direction to begin healing from their grief at the end of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2012
Daisy, aka Daze, has been struggling with her mother's death for years. One day she thinks she hears her mother's voice, and thinks it might just be her father watching home movies again. But the voice is coming from her father's office, and he seems to be speaking to it. Daze sneaks in later and discovers that her father has created a replica of her mother's head, which speaks in her mother's voice...
I read this book in about an hour. The plot is fairly simple and straightforward. I had expected Daze to react in horror to finding what her father has been working on, but instead she becomes very attached to the head. The twist at the end came out of nowhere but overall I felt like the story was much more simple than I had expected. This might be good for a reluctant reader as a high-interest, low-level story.
I read this book in about an hour. The plot is fairly simple and straightforward. I had expected Daze to react in horror to finding what her father has been working on, but instead she becomes very attached to the head. The twist at the end came out of nowhere but overall I felt like the story was much more simple than I had expected. This might be good for a reluctant reader as a high-interest, low-level story.
June 25, 2010
Despite her mother's death over three years ago, Daze still goes to therapy. She doesn't understand why since she has been quite open with her classmates at her new school describing the chemotherapy, the i.v.'s, and the lengthy hospital stays. One day, she discovers an android head in her father's lab - a head that looks like her mother and sounds like her thanks to computer programming. When her father finds a new girlfriend and retires the android to a storage closet, Daze steals the head. This leads to a chain of events in which Daze's fantasy about her mother's death unravels and she must face the truth of what really happened. I really didn't like Daze as a character and the way she treated her little brother.
February 6, 2013
I got this book without knowing what it was, my school did a "Blind Date With A Book" and I got this book! Which I admit was sadder and more twisted than I thought a book for a date would be, haha! I did not expect anything that happened in this book, which has been happening a lot lately...hmmm. Which don't get me wrong, I loved this book, and I couldn't put it down, its just not what I expected haha! I got really worried about Daze throughout this book, and the story with her mom caught me by surprise, so did that other "thing" I never thought her dad was crazy, or weird. I loved her little brother and I feel kinda bad about what she did to that boy who "liked" her which he kinda deserved but still.... anyway great book really loved it!
January 6, 2009
The Reminder is a very interesting book. This book is about a teenage girl named Suzie. She lost her mom when she was at about 7 years old.She would always have nightmares about her. One day she went to her dads job and found a doll that looked exactly like her mom, so every time she went to her dads job she would always go and talk to the mom like it was her real mom. Then one day her dad found out about it because she got in a fight at school and she the doll's head in her backpack and it fell out so she ran away so she wouldnt get in trouble. Then her dad and her buried the head together
August 18, 2010
In a nutshell, this book is about a girl who discovers an android head of her deceased mother in her father's office and talks to it to replace the whole blown through her life by her mother's passing.
Overall, this book was average (if not a little mediocre.) The characters were, ah, adequate for the story. I liked the main character, but I found her hard to relate to (and understand) at times. The story seemed original, but a bit strange. It was almost... uncomfortable to read. The ending had a nice little twist, but, by my standards, not twisted enough.
This book wasn't a waste of time but was also not a good use of it. I don't necessarily recommend it.
Overall, this book was average (if not a little mediocre.) The characters were, ah, adequate for the story. I liked the main character, but I found her hard to relate to (and understand) at times. The story seemed original, but a bit strange. It was almost... uncomfortable to read. The ending had a nice little twist, but, by my standards, not twisted enough.
This book wasn't a waste of time but was also not a good use of it. I don't necessarily recommend it.
April 6, 2010
Daisy mother is dead, so why does she keep hearing her voice? Maybe because her father created a life-like replica of her head and embedded it with artificial intelligence so it sounds like her mother and responds to questions. When Daisy stumbles upon this, at first she is horrified, but slowly grows to almost love it. When her father starts dating someone and tosses the head in the storage room, Daisy fears he's trying to get rid of her mother for good and steals the head.
December 1, 2008
I like the last 4 chapters when you find out what happened to the mother but the rest seemed contrived and creepy. I was more interested in the way a tragic death effects a teen rather than the weird sci-fi method of trying to convey that. It was a quick read and some teen girls would probably like it.
February 20, 2011
Weirdest book I ever read. Very sad and emotional at some parts (mostly at the end), but the story was just weird. Unexpected too. I thought the book was going in a whole different direction. The writing wasn't bad at all, it was easy to follow and wasn't confusing. Although, I was a little confused about the plot.
Overall, an okay book.
Overall, an okay book.
December 9, 2011
The Reminder
by Rune Michaels
Daisy, or Daze for short, thinks she keeps hearing her dead mother's voice. And she is hearing it...but she's not sure if she is hearing her mother's ghost or if her mother is still alive. This is an amazing mystery that is short, interesting, and has a twist at the end that I dare you to guess. A must read for mystery fans.
by Rune Michaels
Daisy, or Daze for short, thinks she keeps hearing her dead mother's voice. And she is hearing it...but she's not sure if she is hearing her mother's ghost or if her mother is still alive. This is an amazing mystery that is short, interesting, and has a twist at the end that I dare you to guess. A must read for mystery fans.
August 28, 2010
I enjoyed this unique teen novel about dealing with loss and grief - with a bit of mystery and science fiction mixed in. Read my full review at:
http://greatbooksforkidsandteens.blog...
http://greatbooksforkidsandteens.blog...
July 26, 2016
Daze is hearing things - specifically her mom's voice. But how can that be? Her mom is dead!
Good story about dealing with death, loss, and grieving. Also a bit of action, and AI technology as well.
Good story about dealing with death, loss, and grieving. Also a bit of action, and AI technology as well.
December 9, 2013
At first I thought that this book was quite a strange novel but as I progressed I grew to like it. I liked how much the author gave the reader insights about Daze's thoughts and what went through her mind throughout the story.
February 10, 2009
it sounds interesting,,,talking to her dead mother and thinking she could save her
May 26, 2009
It was very nice.
September 4, 2010
grief, family dynamics, healing from loss, teen perspective
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August 2, 2011An intriguing and thought-provoking read. There is more here than what appears in the first half of the book.
March 13, 2012
creepy coping mechanism. venting your sorrow into building a computer head?
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October 23, 2012Was a great book:)
April 14, 2013
This book was better than I imagined it would be. it was fast paced and I enjoyed reading it, it was a good plot line!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews