A review by themoonwholistens
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

4.0

“I don’t know. Maybe there’s a place out there where people whose hearts aren’t empty can go on living.”

i love the concept of this story too much from the beginning to the middle but the ending felt like it was missing a whole chunk of something and it was a little disappointing because i was already so invested in the story.

im too much a sucker for stories related to memory especially in a dystopian world. i like to think that this book was also a product of its time with how the ending played out in a way. in the end, this would have been a 5 stars to me if the latter half was executed in a clearer and more luster way that matched the first half so that i didn't have to read it 3 times in order to even get a sense of what happened to everyone.

at the same time, however, the more i sit with this story the more i realized that what happens to the reader is basically what the characters in the story go through too if that was the point of the vagueness. Which is why i ended up changing my rating from a 3 to a 4 because if that was intentional... it was a genius move.

“If you read a novel to the end, then it’s over. I would never want to do something as wasteful as that. I’d much rather keep it here with me, safe and sound, forever.”

story of my life with all my unread books^

— 3.5 —
⇢ content warnings// Sexual assault, Abusive relationship, Cheating, Police brutality, Kidnapping & captivity