Erase Me / Josh Silver / Book Review

ERASE ME

Eli is fine. That's what he keeps telling everyone. His parents. His brother. His therapist. He's fine. Sure, he's been numb inside for the past year, since the traumatic car accident that took months of his memory. But other than that, he's perfectly fine.

He would like to feel something again, though. Even if that means doing something extreme. Even if that means Traumaland.

Eli didn't mean to stumble upon this illicit establishment, where VR headsets allow people to pay to experience trauma by the minute. But it sure does the trick. High octane trauma has a way of making even the numbest individuals feel something. But as much as they assured him these scenes were acted out by, you know, paid actors, something feels off... And when Eli stumbles upon a scene where he himself is the star of the trauma, he knows there's something darker, something much more dangerous, happening here than he ever imagined. And whatever he lost in those few months wasn't erased by accident.

THOUGHTS

This is a weird little book, and I'm not complaining. It definitely isn't what I expected. It's slower. It's stranger. And the way it handles a mental health crisis in its characters is nuanced and refreshing. Will most readers like this book? Absolutely not. But I enjoyed this odd little book a lot.

PROS

Messy Mental Health	Eli isn't okay, and this book doesn't pretend that he is. He's got a lot of other stuff going on, of course. This isn't, necessarily, a book about his mental health. But that's a key factor in what plays out. Eli is going through a crisis of mental health (and absolutely, page-by-page, justifying every strange or difficult or irrational decision he makes because of it). And it is hard to read, but in a good way. It's also a strange place to be in, as a reader, especially in the YA space where mental health struggles are either A) the entire plot of the book and very very difficult to read or B) simply character quirks or minor plot points. Eli's going through it, and he's also going through a very real conspiracy plot unfolding around him, too. And these two things coexist in a way that I really liked (even if it is hard to be in his perspective as it all unfolds).
Romance-less	There are two types of LGBTQ+ books in the YA market: coming-out stories or romances. And I like both of these types of books. But you know what's even better? LGBTQ+ rep that isn't dependent on telling people your identity or on finding a romantic entanglement. Eli is gay. His parents are trying to set him up with a nice neighbor boy. There are pieces of a romance involved in his backstory. But this book isn't a romance, and it doesn't have a major romantic subplot, either. And I just really like that.
Traumaland	At the beginning of this book, Eli stumbles across a strange nightclub where anyone can pay for a VR headset to live through something traumatic. And this weird trauma club is so strange and so horrifying and absolutely feels plausible in this book. It feels like you could step right into it with Eli and be a strange sort of voyeur on the most traumatic moments of people's lives alongside some of the worst people in existence (i.e. those who would also pay to experience the trauma inflicted on others). It was weird, unusual, dark, unsettling (i.e. the perfect setting for a book like this).

CONS

I like the conspiracy that gets built up (and realized) in this book. I do. Don't get me wrong. But at some point, it felt like it swelled a little bit too big for this book to contain. So many revelations one after another meant that it fell just a bit flat in the end. Was it terrible? Absolutely not. But perhaps a touch too ambitious for what we got. The characters, who are otherwise the stars of this production, got lost in the weeds in the final unveiling, and that didn't quite work for me.	Too Big
Sometimes it is really hard to write a review because what you really want to criticize would be a major spoiler (and you actually did like the book, so you would like others to read it unspoiled). Suffice it to say that at least one of the major revelations, to do with the nightclub part of this whole tangled web, was a bit of a letdown for me. The ultimate resolution here just didn't quite click in a satisfying way. I wanted more than I got, at least on this one front.	Too Bleh
When you're working with grand conspiracy, you really need all the little hints and breadcrumbs to come together. And they did here... barring some interpersonal motivations. And this lack of character-driven choice really unsettled the ending for me. Did it make sense? Mostly, yeah. I wasn't going to question it. But if I were to question why certain choices were made, on an interpersonal level, I might be... a bit disappointed. The justification wasn't entirely there. Half the equation worked. The other half felt... odd. Like it was missing just the right twist to make it truly compelling.	Too Huh?

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10

Fans of Teri Terry's Slated will like this new bit of dystopian memory-meddling. Those who liked Scott Westerfeld's Pretties will like the messy mental healthy landscape that emerges in this book.

Details Publisher: Delacorte Press Date: March 10, 2026 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.