Response to "Erased" (Annam)

In "Erased" by Laura Nici, an intriguing question is posted: If you had the chance to permanently erase a bad memory from your mind, would you do it? In the story, we meet the serious-minded and mature Miles, a teenage boy who is plagued by the memories of his deadbeat mother. Although Miles lives a seemingly content life with his grandfather, distant images and all too real reminders of his mother always seem to put a damper on his days. Miles is aware of a doctor nearby who, as the story goes, performs "abnormal acts of service in a normal looking building" for his clients, known as memory erasing. “Only those longing to forget go inside", he believes.
The story flows with flashbacks from Miles everyday life, where he is consumed with the bitterness of his past and his desire to put an end to it, leading up to present day, where Miles gives the reader a play-by-play of his thoughts and surroundings as he is waiting in the office of Dr. Maurice Crow, the strange and eccentric memory erasing doctor.

Inspired by the film, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Laura puts her own unique spin on an already compelling story. But unlike its movie counterpart, Laura’s story is one that has a harsher outlook on the effects that life can have on us, thus making it more relatable. Sympathy and relatability are just a small range of emotions the reader can feel towards the main character.
The way Laura has Miles describe his every thoughts and surroundings in such a detailed way makes you feel like your right there walking beside him. As you come to put two and two together, and start to realize that Miles has decided to go through with erasing the memory of his mother as he waits in the doctor’s office, anxiety and anticipation begin to build. Basically you will be asking questions such as “Will he actually go through with it”? and “How does it work?” with genuine curiosity.
I loved the abrupt ending, leaving the readers imagination to take over. The short, random, italicized passages that are littered throughout the story happen to be Miles present day thoughts, while the longer, regular paragraphs are the past events leading up to the present day. Also, the description of each character gives so much insight into who they are, even though there aren’t many of them. For example, Miles’ grandfather’s warm and comforting personality is shown through the words, and his best friend, Joseph’s dimwitted persona is comically apparent.
I read this story in one entire sitting and could not put it down. I feel like Laura accomplished fully enthralling the reader with the story without even trying. The plot itself is very intense, but she managed to keep the intensity without going overboard, and without sounding too corny. She took a supposedly fictionalized and unimaginable situation and turned it into something believable.
There is very little I would have changed, and I helped Laura with fixing up certain aspects of the story until we had something we were both really proud of. Personally, I don’t know if I myself could have went about taking this complex topic and turning it into such an effective short story. So with that said, I think Laura did a great job with it.