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A review by acidicorchid
Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
Simple, straightforward, and elegant prose packs a punch in a novela about memory and uncertainty that's unlike most books I've laid my hands on.
I picked this up on a whim while browsing the stacks at the library and was happily not disappointed. Kowal takes this first-person pov narrative in an interesting direction, setting us up in the aftermath of the events being relayed to us and using not just the story, but the physical text as part of her character building. She also doesn't put us in Katya's shoes (as, arguably, many stories in this pov strive to), but instead sits us firmly in the recipient's which I think lends itself to the open-endedness of it. I definitely would have been a lot more frustrated with it otherwise.
This short book poses more questions than it answers and left me almost inexplicably unsettled. In a good way! If you're looking for more than a snapshot into a world/larger mystery then this might not be the book for you, but it's amazing for what it is.
I picked this up on a whim while browsing the stacks at the library and was happily not disappointed. Kowal takes this first-person pov narrative in an interesting direction, setting us up in the aftermath of the events being relayed to us and using not just the story, but the physical text as part of her character building. She also doesn't put us in Katya's shoes (as, arguably, many stories in this pov strive to), but instead sits us firmly in the recipient's which I think lends itself to the open-endedness of it. I definitely would have been a lot more frustrated with it otherwise.
This short book poses more questions than it answers and left me almost inexplicably unsettled. In a good way! If you're looking for more than a snapshot into a world/larger mystery then this might not be the book for you, but it's amazing for what it is.