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3.01 AVERAGE
3.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
***ARC received from Blink and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***
This is a tough one for me because this book has a really interesting premise and there are lot of parts of the book that are very good it just never fully connects. It makes the book feel disjointed in the end.
Etta lives in Craewick, a city under a vicious ruler and memories, where the gift and ungifted live. It is in this aspect that the book really shines, the concept of the gifted. Minders and Sifters are those that can see peoples memories, not just to see but to take. The book starts strong when we are witness to an auction of memories and we get to see, not be told, what happens to those that don't fall in line. But its not just the auction, the threat of people being to take your memories or worse instill memories into you that are not your own is a threat that the author tries to weave into the book. Yet, it is done more through telling the reader as opposed to showing us. We get a very brief glimpse of the asylum, people trapped within their own memories but it is never enough to feel like a threat to our characters. It certainly had the potential to be and for a few brief pages the author does create a very riveting story. Yet, even when Etta's mother goes up for auction it feels like Etta has a ridiculously long time to fix things. Maybe thats not true, maybe its a couple of days but it feels way too long and I think that, for me at least, feel tense enough, even though the author did a good job with reminding us that Etta wasn't nothing more than to save her mother, it never felt like the pacing was as invested in it.
The mid way point is about the part where the plot begins to fall apart. The beginning was really strong, it had the threat there, the fear of the minders, the betrayal and possible consequences. Once you get to the middle part the book feels more interesting in ticking off a list of tropes than it does telling the story that it wanted to.
Maybe had it not been a stand alone and a series it would have had more time to develop into the book it has the true potential to be.
This is a tough one for me because this book has a really interesting premise and there are lot of parts of the book that are very good it just never fully connects. It makes the book feel disjointed in the end.
Etta lives in Craewick, a city under a vicious ruler and memories, where the gift and ungifted live. It is in this aspect that the book really shines, the concept of the gifted. Minders and Sifters are those that can see peoples memories, not just to see but to take. The book starts strong when we are witness to an auction of memories and we get to see, not be told, what happens to those that don't fall in line. But its not just the auction, the threat of people being to take your memories or worse instill memories into you that are not your own is a threat that the author tries to weave into the book. Yet, it is done more through telling the reader as opposed to showing us. We get a very brief glimpse of the asylum, people trapped within their own memories but it is never enough to feel like a threat to our characters. It certainly had the potential to be and for a few brief pages the author does create a very riveting story. Yet, even when Etta's mother goes up for auction it feels like Etta has a ridiculously long time to fix things. Maybe thats not true, maybe its a couple of days but it feels way too long and I think that, for me at least, feel tense enough, even though the author did a good job with reminding us that Etta wasn't nothing more than to save her mother, it never felt like the pacing was as invested in it.
The mid way point is about the part where the plot begins to fall apart. The beginning was really strong, it had the threat there, the fear of the minders, the betrayal and possible consequences. Once you get to the middle part the book feels more interesting in ticking off a list of tropes than it does telling the story that it wanted to.
Maybe had it not been a stand alone and a series it would have had more time to develop into the book it has the true potential to be.
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Holy hell, this book did it all for me and for a fast paced book that isn't easy. I usually don't like fast paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
fast-paced
The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy is a book I was excited to get my hands on as it has an interesting premise that I hadn’t really read before.
Etta Lark lives in a world where memories can be stolen and sold to the highest bidder. Due to an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city’s asylum, Etta has very few choices available to her and when her situation takes a turn and her mother is put up for auction, she will do whatever it will take to save her. That means she needs to turn to the Shadows, the rebel group she used to work for.
I thought Etta was a solid character. She grows a lot through this story and learns so much about herself along the way. When she is tasked to steal the memory of a map of a prison created by a neighboring realm, Etta is partnered with a boy, Reid, who has his own motives for going with her. As Etta shares more about her past with Reid, his motivation for going with her becomes clear to Etta and she has to tell him something she doesn’t want to admit.
I thought the first half of this book was well done but as the story kept going, it lost me. The romance wasn’t my favorite as it felt like insta-love and everything felt rushed. Everything that happens as they enter the neighboring realm seems to just fall into place and a lot of it seemed too convenient.
Overall, this book was just okay for me. There were parts that I enjoyed and others that I didn’t. I thought Etta was well-developed but didn’t love a lot of the other characters in the story. In the end, I thought this was well written but the story itself lacked a little something. I’ll be watching for what Mansy writes next as the premise of this book was promising.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Etta Lark lives in a world where memories can be stolen and sold to the highest bidder. Due to an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city’s asylum, Etta has very few choices available to her and when her situation takes a turn and her mother is put up for auction, she will do whatever it will take to save her. That means she needs to turn to the Shadows, the rebel group she used to work for.
I thought Etta was a solid character. She grows a lot through this story and learns so much about herself along the way. When she is tasked to steal the memory of a map of a prison created by a neighboring realm, Etta is partnered with a boy, Reid, who has his own motives for going with her. As Etta shares more about her past with Reid, his motivation for going with her becomes clear to Etta and she has to tell him something she doesn’t want to admit.
I thought the first half of this book was well done but as the story kept going, it lost me. The romance wasn’t my favorite as it felt like insta-love and everything felt rushed. Everything that happens as they enter the neighboring realm seems to just fall into place and a lot of it seemed too convenient.
Overall, this book was just okay for me. There were parts that I enjoyed and others that I didn’t. I thought Etta was well-developed but didn’t love a lot of the other characters in the story. In the end, I thought this was well written but the story itself lacked a little something. I’ll be watching for what Mansy writes next as the premise of this book was promising.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
adventurous
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced