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3.01 AVERAGE
3.01 AVERAGE
It didn't quite live up to the hype, but it was still a great read! A little cheesy but the concept was solid and sweet.
Typically, when I see a book has poor reviews, I give it the benefit of the doubt. That’s what I did in this case, as The Memory Thief has been on my backlist for ages and I wanted to give the audiobook a chance.
Thank goodness this is a short book, because I would have DNF’d it if it were longer. Nothing of consequence happens. Honestly, I am not even sure I could accurately describe *what* happens.
The world building isn’t even really there. There are people who have the power to take and access memories, and memories are used like currency or as punishment, but I have no idea why or how beyond that. Every character in this is bland, even the villains.
The timeline of events was so rushed and confusing. For much of the book I couldn’t figure out if I was seeing flashbacks or if the character was glimpsing memories with their power or if the timeline was linear, or honestly what was even going on. Everything is rushed and convenient and there is never really a moment in which the author allows the story to simply breathe and play out naturally. It felt like they forced the plot along just to get to the end.
Honestly, the whole memory thief idea was interesting but pretty much nothing is done with it. It’s a start, for a foundation, but I’ve read better stories with the same idea.
Thank goodness this is a short book, because I would have DNF’d it if it were longer. Nothing of consequence happens. Honestly, I am not even sure I could accurately describe *what* happens.
The world building isn’t even really there. There are people who have the power to take and access memories, and memories are used like currency or as punishment, but I have no idea why or how beyond that. Every character in this is bland, even the villains.
The timeline of events was so rushed and confusing. For much of the book I couldn’t figure out if I was seeing flashbacks or if the character was glimpsing memories with their power or if the timeline was linear, or honestly what was even going on. Everything is rushed and convenient and there is never really a moment in which the author allows the story to simply breathe and play out naturally. It felt like they forced the plot along just to get to the end.
Honestly, the whole memory thief idea was interesting but pretty much nothing is done with it. It’s a start, for a foundation, but I’ve read better stories with the same idea.
3.5
I liked the premise and characters but listening to the audiobook, I struggled following between the present, and memories. I don't know if that would be the same if I had read the physical book.
I liked the premise and characters but listening to the audiobook, I struggled following between the present, and memories. I don't know if that would be the same if I had read the physical book.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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
2.5 stars
Conflicted, conflicted....
On the one hand, I loved the emphasis on family and love, and not just romantic love. Parents, grandparents, friends, adopted siblings, bio siblings, and significant others all play large roles as far as relationships go. I liked the romance, understated but very sweet and realistic in "betrayals" but without going overboard in reactions to them. Nicely done.
On the other, I had a hard time following some of the characters and most of the world building as it pertained to the plot. 100 pages in and we were still getting info dumps, paragraphs on paragraphs of new information. The beginning of the book already has several pages of info about the world, the different classes/groups of people and the locations. It's a bit overwhelming and felt like it was way more convoluted than the actual content seemed to require.
Overall though, it was an okay read and I would definitely be curious to read more from Mansy in the future.
Conflicted, conflicted....
On the one hand, I loved the emphasis on family and love, and not just romantic love. Parents, grandparents, friends, adopted siblings, bio siblings, and significant others all play large roles as far as relationships go. I liked the romance, understated but very sweet and realistic in "betrayals" but without going overboard in reactions to them. Nicely done.
On the other, I had a hard time following some of the characters and most of the world building as it pertained to the plot. 100 pages in and we were still getting info dumps, paragraphs on paragraphs of new information. The beginning of the book already has several pages of info about the world, the different classes/groups of people and the locations. It's a bit overwhelming and felt like it was way more convoluted than the actual content seemed to require.
Overall though, it was an okay read and I would definitely be curious to read more from Mansy in the future.
adventurous
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to like this book. I loved the title, the cover and the synopsis. It had so much potential and for me, it totally fell flat. The writing wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. Almost every time Etta had problems, someone would show up and solve the problem for her. There was hardly any reason for the character development that felt awkward and forced. The language was so oddly formal, it didn’t seem like it fit, but that could just be the very monotone narrator who sounded the same throughout the range of emotions that Etta experiences. I wouldn’t have finished this book, but I was curious if the ending would redeem everything else. For me, it didn’t.
Fantasy city with a despotic ruler where memories are exchanged, stolen, used to torture and used as currency? Yes please.
A young girl suffering because of a mistake that she made, caught between a rebel group and forced loyalty, all to save someone else? Excellent.
Road trip with someone frustratingly good, wholesome and deadly, who only wants to look out for the MC as she quests to find a map, to find a maze, to find the one person who can overthrow the mad ruler, who the MC may or may not have betrayed years ago? Sounds like a story with the potential for a solid YA adventure.
Unfortunately, despite promising a lot of excellent themes, this book just couldn't deliver for me. The memory exchanging/thieving was a lot of fun, and presented a lot of interesting ideas and ways of developing the story, which gave the bones for an excellent and exciting world.
But it was the characters that I found the hardest to understand. One moment they had their hands at each others' throats, and for good reason, but within a few sentences they had apparently 'forgiven' these terrible past actions.
So I suppose it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the MC and the main boy were already imagining kissing each other within 24 hours of knowing each other - this was so much more toned down that my criticisms of books like Shatter Me, but it still made me cringe.
The pacing of the second half became a little absurd too - in the first half the story was there, everything was set up and it was clear what the challenges would be. You knew what was coming and the question was how the protagonists would overcome those challenges.
The author then tipped those upside and POWERED THROUGH the final third, as though it had been too complicated to actually commit to everything else that had been set up, including adding closeness between characters that could never have existed without some major personality changes, or erasing of the past. I like a good twist, but not when it feels limp.
This also meant that that final third of the story really suffered from telling, rather than showing. I would have gladly read a longer book if that would have enabled Mansy to tell the story that this book had promised.
This is a book with a great cover and a great story to tell, but it didn't quite manage to hit the mark for me. There was so much that I wanted to like, but also a fair amount that I couldn't.
A young girl suffering because of a mistake that she made, caught between a rebel group and forced loyalty, all to save someone else? Excellent.
Road trip with someone frustratingly good, wholesome and deadly, who only wants to look out for the MC as she quests to find a map, to find a maze, to find the one person who can overthrow the mad ruler, who the MC may or may not have betrayed years ago? Sounds like a story with the potential for a solid YA adventure.
Unfortunately, despite promising a lot of excellent themes, this book just couldn't deliver for me. The memory exchanging/thieving was a lot of fun, and presented a lot of interesting ideas and ways of developing the story, which gave the bones for an excellent and exciting world.
But it was the characters that I found the hardest to understand. One moment they had their hands at each others' throats, and for good reason, but within a few sentences they had apparently 'forgiven' these terrible past actions.
So I suppose it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the MC and the main boy were already imagining kissing each other within 24 hours of knowing each other - this was so much more toned down that my criticisms of books like Shatter Me, but it still made me cringe.
The pacing of the second half became a little absurd too - in the first half the story was there, everything was set up and it was clear what the challenges would be. You knew what was coming and the question was how the protagonists would overcome those challenges.
The author then tipped those upside and POWERED THROUGH the final third, as though it had been too complicated to actually commit to everything else that had been set up, including adding closeness between characters that could never have existed without some major personality changes, or erasing of the past. I like a good twist, but not when it feels limp.
This also meant that that final third of the story really suffered from telling, rather than showing. I would have gladly read a longer book if that would have enabled Mansy to tell the story that this book had promised.
This is a book with a great cover and a great story to tell, but it didn't quite manage to hit the mark for me. There was so much that I wanted to like, but also a fair amount that I couldn't.
The Memory Thief is built around a fascinating concept, memories as currency, which of course means as power and corruption and all that goes along with it.
The Gifted have the ability to give and take memories, the Ungifted are used as sources for these memories; talents and skills and happy memories are sold to the highest bidder. But bad memories are also wanted and used.
The pacing of this book was off a bit for my liking, it seemed to be selected chapters from a much longer novel crammed together to make plot twist after plot twist and narrative snippets tie in together at a pace that just wasn’t fulfilling.
The connections between the characters were not believable or well sketched out.
Great idea – not so great in the execution. 2 Stars.
The Gifted have the ability to give and take memories, the Ungifted are used as sources for these memories; talents and skills and happy memories are sold to the highest bidder. But bad memories are also wanted and used.
The pacing of this book was off a bit for my liking, it seemed to be selected chapters from a much longer novel crammed together to make plot twist after plot twist and narrative snippets tie in together at a pace that just wasn’t fulfilling.
The connections between the characters were not believable or well sketched out.
Great idea – not so great in the execution. 2 Stars.