Scan barcode
_bookishbella's review against another edition
Unfortunately I never finished this book. It wasn't bad at all I just was reading it for too long and I lost interest sadly!
jennjuniper's review against another edition
4.0
Here's where I start my review with a little bit of showing off: I worked YA LitCon 2014, and the moment I opened the box containing our special early editions of The Memory Keepers I swept one aside to hide for myself. The gorgeous cover, combined with an fabulous concept, made me desperate to read it, and I wasn't disappointed.
I absolutely love dystopian fiction, and it's refreshingly fun to read a YA dystopia set in England, rather than in the ruins of America somewhere, and especially one set in London! Ngan has clearly put a lot of thought into her worldbuilding and it shows in the glorious setpieces she's created, often based around well-known London landmarks: the creepy and overgrown Kew Gardens, illegal markets by the ruins of Battersea Power Station, or a partially submerged double decker bus turned into a home. Perhaps this is what it feels like to read Divergent if you've lived in Chicago, but I really enjoyed seeing the clever way Ngan has subverted a familiar city and created such a strong sense of setting that London is almost another character in and of itself.
Into this futuristic and shattered London, Ngan drops a society where the rich live in exquisite mansions in the North, and the poor live practically on top of each other in the South. Instead of money, the most precious stocks are memories, extracted onto microchips and available for 'surfing' at one's leisure - if you can afford it. While this can result in exciting experiences that are no longer available in a falling apart world, there are also secrets in some memories; secrets that people will kill to protect.
This is where our main characters come in. Seven is a thief, trading in copies of the rich's memories, living through the time he can spend outside of his own existence. Alba is the daughter of a criminal prosecutor, who sentences memory thieves to death. Their paths cross when Seven appears to steal a memory from her father, and Alba, lonely and abused by her alcoholic mother, helps him rather than turning him in. A friendship slowly forms between them, one that is sorely tested as it turns out what Seven has stolen is far more dangerous than either of them could ever have imagined.
I absolutely loved this thrill-ride of a book; Seven and Alba were hugely likeable and believable characters, and their unfurling friendship and then love story had me absolutely hooked. They're both isolated survivors, but don't have the usual warrior instincts of the heroes in these sorts of books; a delightful change from the cast of Katniss-wannabes I've been reading of late! The story is seamlessly told from both their points of view, something that often annoys me when done badly, but done perfectly here, building up a believable world around both main characters and peopling it with plausible, multi-layered side-characters, many of whom I got very attached to! The plot itself rattles along at a breathless pace, combining mystery and action as Alba and Seven unravel a truth they never even imagined, and Ngan is unafraid to pull any punches as the story flows on.
This is probably as good a place as any to say that it gets fairly dark in places; there's some rather unpleasant violence, and I'll pop in a trigger warning here for abusive parents and alluded-to past rape. None of it feels gratuitous or unnecessary, but it is present.
Ngan has an easy-to-read, almost conversational style that is simple to get into and then grabs you by the throat, refusing to let go. I read this in huge breathless chunks, wanting to know what happened next, hit by twists I didn't see coming. The Memory Keepers is a hugely enjoyable, carefully plotted, moving and thought-provoking novel set in a fantastically realised world that I loved spending time in, with characters I loved spending time with. Ngan ties up enough loose ends up that there doesn't need to be a sequel, but I'd absolutely love it if there were.
I absolutely love dystopian fiction, and it's refreshingly fun to read a YA dystopia set in England, rather than in the ruins of America somewhere, and especially one set in London! Ngan has clearly put a lot of thought into her worldbuilding and it shows in the glorious setpieces she's created, often based around well-known London landmarks: the creepy and overgrown Kew Gardens, illegal markets by the ruins of Battersea Power Station, or a partially submerged double decker bus turned into a home. Perhaps this is what it feels like to read Divergent if you've lived in Chicago, but I really enjoyed seeing the clever way Ngan has subverted a familiar city and created such a strong sense of setting that London is almost another character in and of itself.
Into this futuristic and shattered London, Ngan drops a society where the rich live in exquisite mansions in the North, and the poor live practically on top of each other in the South. Instead of money, the most precious stocks are memories, extracted onto microchips and available for 'surfing' at one's leisure - if you can afford it. While this can result in exciting experiences that are no longer available in a falling apart world, there are also secrets in some memories; secrets that people will kill to protect.
This is where our main characters come in. Seven is a thief, trading in copies of the rich's memories, living through the time he can spend outside of his own existence. Alba is the daughter of a criminal prosecutor, who sentences memory thieves to death. Their paths cross when Seven appears to steal a memory from her father, and Alba, lonely and abused by her alcoholic mother, helps him rather than turning him in. A friendship slowly forms between them, one that is sorely tested as it turns out what Seven has stolen is far more dangerous than either of them could ever have imagined.
I absolutely loved this thrill-ride of a book; Seven and Alba were hugely likeable and believable characters, and their unfurling friendship and then love story had me absolutely hooked. They're both isolated survivors, but don't have the usual warrior instincts of the heroes in these sorts of books; a delightful change from the cast of Katniss-wannabes I've been reading of late! The story is seamlessly told from both their points of view, something that often annoys me when done badly, but done perfectly here, building up a believable world around both main characters and peopling it with plausible, multi-layered side-characters, many of whom I got very attached to! The plot itself rattles along at a breathless pace, combining mystery and action as Alba and Seven unravel a truth they never even imagined, and Ngan is unafraid to pull any punches as the story flows on.
This is probably as good a place as any to say that it gets fairly dark in places; there's some rather unpleasant violence, and I'll pop in a trigger warning here for abusive parents and alluded-to past rape. None of it feels gratuitous or unnecessary, but it is present.
Ngan has an easy-to-read, almost conversational style that is simple to get into and then grabs you by the throat, refusing to let go. I read this in huge breathless chunks, wanting to know what happened next, hit by twists I didn't see coming. The Memory Keepers is a hugely enjoyable, carefully plotted, moving and thought-provoking novel set in a fantastically realised world that I loved spending time in, with characters I loved spending time with. Ngan ties up enough loose ends up that there doesn't need to be a sequel, but I'd absolutely love it if there were.
More...