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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada / McClelland & Stewart for sending this ARC. This review is voluntary; all opinions are my own.
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us is a speculative fiction that shows me again why I love the genre.
It is a series of interconnected short stories with a frame story to help provide direction and context. The stories themselves range from intriguing to incredibly disturbing, in the best way possible. Put together, they provide a mind-warping commentary on government control, technology, identity, and what is worth fighting for.
After reading all the stories with varying levels of dystopian horror, ‘Reincarnation’ deals a devastating blow in the way only the best speculative fiction can. What does it mean to be human? What makes you ‘you’? If your memories aren’t your own, who are you? I had to take a break from the book after this part, as I had a bit of a existential spiral and needed a breath of fresh air after the grief of witnessing what the characters had endured.
After ‘Reincarnation,’ which is easily the emotional peak of the book (if the stories are read in order), the stories become a little more personal, no less lacking in quality but tapered back a bit in tension. The last story and final instalment of the frame story work together to bring home the final messaging and the key theme of resistance found in all dystopian literature. It gives a soft landing point after breaking your brain and punching you in the heart, which I think is kind, and helps redirect focus where it should be - the what ifs and horrifying potential realness that dystopian and speculative fiction is known for.
Do I think we could ever live in a world like the one presented in These Memories Do Not Belong to Us? God I hope not. (Even if I recognize that many things in this book are just a more futuristic version of things that have already happened.)
challenging
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the e-ARC!
'These Memories Do Not Belong to Us' takes place in the far flung future where China has renamed itself Qin and has conquered the entire world. The Party Citizens all have a MindBank inserted into their brains so that they can download and experience other's memories. An unnamed narrator uploads a collection of memories that were determinied to be subersive as a last act of defiance following the death of his mother. The reader follows along in experiencing these memories as they tell the stories of various 'Qin' citizens at all stages of the empire.
Truly my only complaint about this book is that it ended. I would happily read another 250 pages of Ma's unique storytelling in a heartbeat.
The book was compared to Cloud Atlas which I do think is an apt comparison. like with 'Cloud Atlas', 'These Memories Do Not Belong To Us' shows how humans can be connected to one another through space and time by their shared experiences. It's a beautiful thought that no matter how much time passes, there are certain situations and emotions that unite us as human beings. I like that the book ends with a cautious optimism despite the bleak nature of the imagined future.
Obviously, one of the other key themes is censorship and government control of thought. The Qin government is eventually able to suppress what they consider subversive memories and the definition of subversive becomes stricter as time goes on. I found the concept intriguing as censoring someone's memories in this world essentially means censoring that person outright. If their memories dont' fit into the 'Party ideal' then the individual also doesn't fit that ideal. In our current age, that is a bone chiling thought. Although the book is clearly critiquing China's censorship policies, as an American I can see clear parallels with the right wing attempts to ban books about LGBTQ+ people in the US. I think that is what this will make 'These Memories Do Not Belong to Us' a classic: its deeper themes and universiality.
Long story short: I believe this book will become a modern classic and I found it wonderfully thought provoking.
'These Memories Do Not Belong to Us' takes place in the far flung future where China has renamed itself Qin and has conquered the entire world. The Party Citizens all have a MindBank inserted into their brains so that they can download and experience other's memories. An unnamed narrator uploads a collection of memories that were determinied to be subersive as a last act of defiance following the death of his mother. The reader follows along in experiencing these memories as they tell the stories of various 'Qin' citizens at all stages of the empire.
Truly my only complaint about this book is that it ended. I would happily read another 250 pages of Ma's unique storytelling in a heartbeat.
The book was compared to Cloud Atlas which I do think is an apt comparison. like with 'Cloud Atlas', 'These Memories Do Not Belong To Us' shows how humans can be connected to one another through space and time by their shared experiences. It's a beautiful thought that no matter how much time passes, there are certain situations and emotions that unite us as human beings. I like that the book ends with a cautious optimism despite the bleak nature of the imagined future.
Obviously, one of the other key themes is censorship and government control of thought. The Qin government is eventually able to suppress what they consider subversive memories and the definition of subversive becomes stricter as time goes on. I found the concept intriguing as censoring someone's memories in this world essentially means censoring that person outright. If their memories dont' fit into the 'Party ideal' then the individual also doesn't fit that ideal. In our current age, that is a bone chiling thought. Although the book is clearly critiquing China's censorship policies, as an American I can see clear parallels with the right wing attempts to ban books about LGBTQ+ people in the US. I think that is what this will make 'These Memories Do Not Belong to Us' a classic: its deeper themes and universiality.
Long story short: I believe this book will become a modern classic and I found it wonderfully thought provoking.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Considered not finishing this one, maybe the experience is better in printed form. I’ll have to take a look at it once it’s added to my local library.
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma is a mixed first and third person multi-POV speculative novel exploring what could happen if China, now called Qin, conquered America and if memories could be inherited. When our unnamed protagonist’s mother passes away, he inherits her MindBank, which contains memories from before, during, and after Qin became the lone global superpower. Knowing that the Party could come for him, he shares these memories with the world instead of keeping them to himself.
As the world goes deeper into censorship and fascism rises up once again, this feels extremely timely. It is in the interest of governments who seek to control the population to obscure facts and distort our collective memories. We see this in the US with photos of the Civil Rights era consistently being shown in black and white despite the fact that we have color photos of many of those same moments so that they will feel further back in time than they actually are. Sometimes our individual memories are the only proof we have of the truth and the idea that a government can distort even that is horrifying but not too far from current reality.
There are multiple POV characters and the reader is expected to figure out for themselves how the different POVs are connected if they are at all. Some of them are snapshots of moments within the history of Qin and others are linked together more clearly. Because so many of them are in first person, it can take a moment to realize that the POV character has changed between chapters, but it becomes apparent fairly quickly.
The most interesting detail was the Chrysanthemum Virus, a disease in Qin’s history that led to the government putting multiple small towns under quarantine in an effort to keep it from spreading. The virus results in flowers bursting from the body of carriers of the disease until it eventually kills them and development towards a cure was not very high on the government’s list.
I would recommend this to fans of speculative fiction and dystopia and readers and of experimental styles of fiction
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I’ve never seen a story illustrate Orwell’s maxim from 1984 that “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past” as well as Yiming Ma’s haunting, troubling novel in stories, These Memories Do Not Belong to Us. This novel imagines a world dominated by a new version of China, a reborn Qin empire. And this empire has more than surveillance and informants to help it control its population. Most, if not all, Qin citizens have a Mindbank implanted in their brains. The original intent was to help people remember everything and to connect them to the Internet. What people didn’t know was that the government also had access to Mindbanks and, along with this access, the power to alter or censor memories...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This constellation novel was excellent. It’s essentially a group of short stories about a far speculative future where the Qin Empire (formerly China) is the world’s megapower. Each tale is woven together and they take place over a wide span of time. Each story or memory in future can be bought, sold and holds value.
This book explores censorship and how thoughts and memories are dangerous in a new world (how far away is this, really?!) The protagonist holds a collection of his late mother’s memories and is determined to share them before they’re destroyed (along with him.) The tales that Ma tells are interesting and beautiful. Any reader would be grateful these are being shared. I tried to put myself into the shoes of someone living in this future world while reading. I bounced back and forth between “how can these be illicit” and “wow, I guess it would be harmful for an authoritarian government for someone to discover this!”
Fans of speculative and dystopian fiction will eat this up. It’s awesome to find a debut novelist write such a cool book in this sub-genre.
Thank you to Yiming Ma, Netgalley and Mariner Books for the gifted eARC.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I would have a difficult time trying to tell someone what this book is about. There are so many characters and situations that you are never sure whose memories you are reliving or if they are true memories at all. The bigger story here though is the message we are given about lives, memories, relationships and our never ending battle with the truth. The concept of the memory banks is all to real and all too terrifying. I was deeply immersed in this book and highly recommend it.
slow-paced
An intriguing and layered exploration of memory, ownership, and the subtle encroachments of technology. What drew me in was the concept—how the book imagines a near-future where memories can be shared, stored, and even owned. While I had hoped for a deeper dive into the tech itself, what I found instead was a series of intimate vignettes that orbit around this premise. These stories raise important questions about privacy and control without ever becoming heavy-handed.
It reads more like a collection of interconnected short stories than a traditional novel, with the technology as the connective tissue rather than the focal point. If you’re someone who enjoys speculative fiction that leans literary, especially with a human-centered lens, this one’s worth checking out.
Thanks to the publisher for the advanced reader copy.