14.5k reviews for:

The Memory Police

Yōko Ogawa

3.77 AVERAGE

joseph_lemon's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

nukie19's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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A creepy and quiet book about what can be taken from us.

pr_bh's review against another edition

4.0

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Excellent piece of dystopian fiction that deals with the transient nature of our lives and our memories. The Memory Police engages with theme of loss and it does so through the medium of the disappearance of things off of an unnamed island. As things disappear from people's lives, they forget about these things and everything associated with it. Life goes on. But for some people, memories remain. For these people, they fight a battle they will inevitably lose. Ogawa's main character is well developed and the story line is well executed. Although the end felt a bit rushed, I enjoyed the author's attempts at highlighting the loss of self and identity as the story progressed. Would recommend people with a taste for dystopian fiction to try out! Would also recommend people to try reading the book as a nice introduction to dystopian fiction because it is easy to follow!

llam1111's review against another edition

4.5

fast-paced

jmillxo's review against another edition

4.0

dark fast-paced

victoromoayo's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

clemencats's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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wtf bro

bruised_wayne's review against another edition

1.0

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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The premise of the book is very interesting and unique. Ultimately, the story takes forever to answer the question, or reason for the Memory Police. I imagine the dialogue, relationships and prose get somewhat lost in translation (original is in Japanese)... but even keeping this in mind, I just could not get into the story of feel anything for the characters. By the time a shocking development came near the end, I was not surprised and just wanted to be done with the book.

smokeout's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Boring and slow

wavesgoodbye's review against another edition

4.0

challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced