Point by Numbers: Amnesia

It's time for another journey into Point Horror. And this time it's our first foray into the world of Sinclair Smith. Smith's history with Point started with the release of The Waitress, and continued with other books like Second Sight, Dream Date and The Boy Next Door. But the one I've picked up does intrigue me a little, even if it's a story concept that so rarely sticks the landing. It's time to see if this book is worth remembering. It's Amnesia.

This cover's fine. The biggest problem with a book about Amnesia is that it's pretty tricky to sell the concept of memory loss in a piece of art. But Alicia's frightened and confused expression says it all. I particularly love the logo for the title. Both in how sparkly it is and how it looks like it's dripping. Though, admittedly, it also feels a bit too... erm... cummy? Still, does the job well enough.

We open with our protagonist Alicia Taylor being surrounded in darkness, going down a long tunnel, chased by some dark specter. She hears screams but doesn't know they're coming from her. In fact, she doesn't know much of anything, including her own name. Eventually she awakens to see she's in a hospital bed while a nurse sings tra-la-la constantly. Sadly, the nurse is not Captain Underpants. The nurse calls up Dr. Kellogg, who checks on Alicia. She appears to be in rough shape and has injured her ankle. But more concerningly, she also lost her memory. In fact, Alicia's brain is so foggy that she doesn't even recognize her own face in the mirror. By which I mean, she's so confused about this that she screams that this isn't her face.

A few days pass and while Alicia's still without her memory and still freaks out when she sees her reflection, she's far calmer. We also learn the nurse's name from earlier is Nurse Stewart, but since she keeps singing Tra-La-La, Alicia keeps calling her Nurse Tra-La-La. I mean, shoe fits I guess. She still has no clue of why she ended up in the hospital with amnesia. All anyone else seems to know is that she was found wandering on the highway covered in blood. Dr. Kellogg suggests that while, yes, there's enough precedent to suggest her amnesia is injury related, it could also be from trauma. Something she encountered on that fateful night. Fat lot of good that does Alicia right now given her blank slate brain. Although Alicia's more concerned about Dr. Kellogg and her "game show host smile", as if there's something she's hiding.

Not long after, Alicia's sister Marta arrives. Again, Alicia has no clue who this is, but learns she has a sister named Marta and lives in Grady County in the small town of Grimly. Very "Shadyside" feel to that name. But it turns out that Marta arriving dressed in all black wasn't a good idea since it makes Alicia panic, remembering he dreams about being chased by a shadowy figure. They describe Marta as being husky with a weird low whisper voice and a hiccup laugh. Before Dr. Kellogg leaves, she suggests maybe when they get home that Alicia gets a haircut. I mean, it's an attempt at an icebreaker I guess.

Marta takes Alicia home and begins to tell her what's been going on. Turns out that Alicia was in a coma for four months. She mentions that Alicia and herself were BFFs pretty much, and while Alicia has friends, they weren't as important as her sister. Which, like, we know this is going to be some gaslighting shit, but given Alicia's state, it's no surprise that it works. Marta works at some company as an executive, but that's not important to her. However, there's one boom left to be lowered. Marta reveals that their parents are dead. They died in the same car accident that almost killed Alicia. 

Alicia gets shown her home but notices it's odd that the living room is so dark, as if Marta is hiding something. Marta offers to get dinner for the two of them. When Alicia suggests ordering a pizza, Marta says that Alicia doesn't like pizza. Which even if that were true, she's a blank slate, she'll probably enjoy it. Clearly it's due to whatever she's hiding that she wouldn't want a pizza boy to find out, but we're 37 pages deep into this 181 page book. But for now, no pizza. Denied. In fact, liverwurst sandwiches are Alicia's favorite, though even the amnesiac doesn't believe that, and is curious as to why Marta would need a giant knife to cut a sandwich. 

As Alicia eats, she asks to see her own ID, but how convenient, Marta tells her that Alicia's ID went missing after the accident. Marta then takes Alicia in her room to rest, while mentioning that Alicia and her parents got along great. Which is odd, since all of the pictures she's seen so far haven't had Alicia in it. I think we're starting to see what the swerve is already. Even more so when we get to Alicia's nightmare. She's riding on a motorcycle, holding some boy who is driving it before shifting to her dancing at a club with the same boy. She wakes up and examines her room. No posters, no TV, nothing that would signify it being her room. She then examines her dresser and finds clothes inside. Only they're super drab and still have the price tag attached. Alicia doesn't know much yet, but she's starting to realize that maybe this is not her beautiful house. And that Marta is certainly not her beautiful sister. 

Marta shows up and sees the mess. Alicia asks about the clothes, but you see, conveniently (get ready for that to be said a lot BTW) before her amnesia, Alicia wanted to change everything. Her look, her room, everything. So that explains why there's still clothing with tags on them. Alicia asks if she was going to college, but Marta says that no, that's not the case. Alicia would have to leave Grimly, and she loves Grimly. Okay, but why no pictures? Well, once again, conveniently, Alicia got into a big fight with their mother and burned every picture of her with the family. I mean, that's more suspicious than the clothes excuse. So, if Marta hoped to hide the truth from Alicia, she swung and missed on that one.

But Marta does have an album of the two of them as kids, which is convincing enough that Alicia starts to believe Marta's claims, especially the one that they never fought. Marta leaves to make cocoa and Alicia remembers what Dr. Kellogg said about how amnesia can be caused by trauma. And whatever caused that trauma hasn't fully gone away yet. She has another nightmare, this time ending with her and Nurse Tra-La-La in straight jackets. When she wakes up, she soon overhears Marta talking to someone about Alicia being gone to visit relatives before Marta leaves. So add that to the pile of questions we're still needing answers to. Made even less better when she tries to call for pizza again but Marta arrives and pulls the phone out of her hands. You know, whatever Marta's grand scheme was, she is doing a horrendous job trying to not come off as a control freak.

You know, at this point, if Alicia socked Marta, it would be justified, but given, you know, whatever she's up to, Alicia just lets her take the phone away for now. Marta says that given her amnesia, she shouldn't communicate with anyone else but Marta. Oh, and going outside is verboten as well. Again, probably the worst poker face for someone talking to an amnesiac ever. But as Marta says, sisters have to stick together, even if Alicia wants to be stuck nowhere near Marta at this point. Some time passes, still no memory returning. There's also no TV or radio in the house and Marta says that puzzles were more Alicia's thing. But when Alicia speaks out against it, Marta snaps and throws the puzzle at the wall in a rage. At this rate, I'd imagine Alicia thinks that instead of a jigsaw puzzle, Marta's going to kill her with an actual jigsaw.

Marta leaves again the next day and Alicia, already sick of Marta's controlling ways and really REALLY wanting that damn pizza, takes some money from a jar in the cupboard and heads to Ken's Pizza Palace. Sadly this isn't Stine, so no Pete's Pizza. We'll settle for Ken. You know, whatever Marta's true intentions are, I guess they don't involve locks... yet. She asks the pizza guy if he knows her, but he doesn't, but he gives her directions to get to town. As Alicia heads off, she notices some guy with a scar on his face following her, so she ducks into a drugstore. She then heads further into town and past the library where she sees Marta lugging a cart of books. So this is her "big executive job"? 

Alicia looks at some pets at a pet shop and buys a canary (Oh god, oh no), before once again seeing the scarred man. So she runs off yet again. She hides in a video store with the clerk, a boy named Mark Phillips. He says that he definitely remembers her from junior high and the carnival that's usually set up around this time. Alicia then heads home, happy that some memories are coming back. When she gets home, she checks a briefcase in the house and finds a bunch of stolen goods. Marta shows up and tells her that this was all stuff that Alicia stole. I mean, it's super obvious who the thief is, but we still have 70 pages to go.

Marta tells Alicia that Alicia used to steal all the time, and she threw tantrums and hung around rough kids and was even in a mental hospital for a spell. I bet she even said a swear of two. She then sees the canary and gets super angry about that, again throwing a fit over how nothing she does is good enough for Alicia. Alicia makes food and Marta just tosses it at the wall and tells Alicia not to go anywhere. No, like for serious, Marta may have the flimsiest poker face ever. And truth be told we are really getting into wheel spinning territory with the book. But that's more the fault of needing to be 180 pages, I guess. Oh, and Marta kills the canary but let's be honest, we all saw that coming a mile away. So I can't just fault Stine for this trope.

Alicia has another nightmare, but this time it's of Marta cutting her hair while she slept. Thankfully that didn't happen, but after everything so far, you can't blame Alicia for thinking that's highly likely. Alicia heads back to the hospital to talk with Dr. Kellogg, but when she mentions the four month coma, Dr. Kellogg is confused. Alicia actually was only in the hospital for a few days. She then talks with Mark again and when she mentions Marta, Mark immediately reacts with concern. If anyone's crazy, it's definitely Marta the librarian. She has a long history of throwing tantrums and stealing things. Alicia's concerned, but also has a moment of stupid. Marta's her sister, and even if she's doing all this stuff, she couldn't possibly hurt her, right? Well about 50 pages left to test that theory.

When Alicia heads home, she sees no sign of Marta. She checks Marta's bedroom and finds a diary in which Marta says that Alicia isn't the sister she wanted and she hates her. Turns out this is a bad time as Marta is there with a large knife, pretty much ready to do Alicia in. Alicia makes a run for it, bad wheel and all while Marta chases after her with the knife. Alicia ends up tripping on a cat figurine that Marta put on the stairs because I guess she's Kevin McCallister, and Alicia falls down the stairs. Marta drags her down into the basement and says that she'll soon find a way to kill her. Some time passes and Marta brings Alicia something to eat. That being the dead canary from earlier.

When Marta leaves again, Alicia searches the basement and finds her ID. Her real name is Alicia Fisher, not Taylor. She then starts to get her memories back, specifically of the pictures of her and Marta when they were young. Marta was obsessed with Alicia, and when any other kids tried to even come close to Alicia, Marta would go insane and attack them, then chase them off, then chase after Alicia with a rock in her hand. So now it starts to make more sense to her. Marta is obsessed with Alicia to the point that in Marta's head, they're sisters. But now she at least has that confirmation that they're 100% not sisters.

See, when they were kids, Marta and Alicia were indeed best friends. So much so that they did play pretend like they were sisters. When Marta's family moved to Grimly and visits were less frequent, it broke her. Broke her to the point that she was in a mental hospital for a while. When Marta was released, she still wasn't well and had gotten more violent. Alicia sleeps a bit and dreams again of the boy on the motorcycle before she's awakened by the sound of Marta arguing with a detective. Alicia screams for help and the man finds her. It's the same man with the scar from earlier. Turns out that the detective, Jake Coyle, had been looking for Alicia the entire time and was tipped off about Marta thanks to Mark. As he tries to free Alicia however, Marta sneaks behind Jake and knocks him out with a skillet. So this is the dark future for Paula from Earthbound?

Alicia makes a run for it with Marta chasing after her. She eventually makes it to the carnival as mentioned earlier by Mark. She then gets another memory of the carnival when she was a kid. She and Marta were there, but when Alicia invited a girl named Cindy to come with, Marta punched Cindy, then attacked Alicia for even thinking of inviting anyone else. Marta grabs Alicia and is now ready to finish the job and kill her. Alicia manages to fight her off and the two make it close to the carousel. Eventually Alicia manages to knock Marta into the carousel, her head cracking the platform with a sickening thud. She's not dead, but at least she's finally beaten. As Mark shows up to help Alicia, Marta disappears.

After a while, the two relax along with Detective Coyle. We finally learn who Alicia is. Alicia is the daughter of famed photographer Lyle Fisher. Her mother had died when Alicia was ten. Lyle had recently left on an African wildlife photography assignment. We also learn that Marta's parents both died in a car accident months ago which Alicia believes may have been what put her over the edge. We also learn that the boy in her dreams is named Lou and he's coming with Mr. Fisher to pick up Alicia at the hospital. Though this also means that Mark gets seriously cucked here. But we learn he's a flirt, so I guess it's not a big deal?

Now that her memories are back, Alicia remembers what happened that night. She had thought she saw Marta at her high school on that fateful day. When she drove home, Marta had snuck into her car and started attacking her, causing Alicia's car to drive off into the woods. In the struggle, Alicia managed to escape and was found in the state she was. Mr. Fisher and Lou show up. Mr. Fisher is of course frustrated that the hospital just took Marta's word as gospel, but Alicia doesn't really want to talk about it anymore given, you know, everything in this book. 

Some time passes and Alicia continues to paint pictures in the art room of her high school. Constantly calling the works "Amnesia". Suddenly she gets attacked by Marta, who slashes her with a knife. Except that doesn't happen. It's all a bad dream as she's awakened by Lou and another boy named Fred. They say that Marta is locked up in a mental hospital and she doesn't have to worry anymore. Fred asks if she'll finish her latest Amnesia painting, but Alicia says that maybe it's time to finally start making new memories. 

Amnesia is pretty good. For my first Sinclair Smith book, I come off very positive over the experience and definitely am interested in reading other works. But I do have issues with the book. The obvious one being that this is again a book where the villain's motivations are based on poor mental health. But it's also the only way to tell this book. There's also something else the book doesn't make super obvious, but it also feels really prevalent in Marta's motivations. Given everything we know of her, how she worshipped Alicia and how she would kill anyone that came in between them, this feels less like a sisterly mentality and more of a romantic one. If this were any other book and even from a later time frame, Marta would likely be presented more as a lesbian. And I can buy that honestly. Therein lies the bigger can of worms though as if Marta is a lesbian and her motivations are romantic, then it not just paints a bad image of mental health, but with gay people as well. So thankfully the book sticks with the sister idea instead.

Alicia is also a great protagonist. Not the most dynamic, but that makes sense given her amnesia. But you do feel her plight. Her confusion over what's going on. Her concern as Marta gets more and more intense. And her fear when things finally reach their crescendo. Sometimes she's a bit too gullible in believing Marta, but again, given the amnesia, it's never to a point where you feel like she's being too dumb. And given her injury, it's not like she can do too much to really overpower someone as dangerous as Marta for the most part.

It's also easy to see the inspiration for this book. This feels a lot like Stephen King's Misery. Only instead of an obsessed fan, our villain is an obsessed former BFF. And, in terms of horror, it works well, always giving this sense of tension about what Marta is capable of. And if she'd truly kill the one person she truly cares about. Is truly obsessed about. Although most of that just comes from how poorly thought out her plan is. Sometimes she has tight alibis for things like Alicia's missing ID, others she's just really bad about like the whole phone issue. But she still feels effective. Someone so over the edge and in so deep that she could perhaps finish off Alicia if the situation demanded. So while it doesn't break new ground with the concept, it at least feels like it's trying to be its own thing and isn't just a carbon copy of Misery.

So overall, it's a book I both really like for a lot of things, and don't like for some of the implications of the villain motivations. Again, I am no doubt projecting Marta being gay as part of her character and it could have just been sisters given how clingy she was. But I do feel so tired of the poor mental health trope so often with these types of thrillers. But given I still read these, I guess I just have to live with that. In the end, Amnesia is a definite recommend, though don't expect too much of a subversion of the tropes. It's a book that's not too easy to forget at least. Amnesia gets an A-.