A review by jillmarlo
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book was kind of underwhelming overall. When I originally read a synopsis for this book, I thought the post apocalypse aspect of it would be much more apparent and therefore this book would be much more sci-fi, but I realize now that the whole virus thing is really just an excuse to cram a bunch of characters together to create interpersonal conflict and provide a basis for why this girl can go down memory lane so much. It was much more character driven and reflective than I usually read. It wasn’t bad necessarily there was just some stuff that wasn’t super well done in my opinion. Especially the ending was just so weird.

Like there’s this huge build up to realizing that the other people in the hospital locked the other participants in their rooms and sentenced them to death and then it was immediately moved past.

Also the characters were all just…weird. Like Piper and Rachel and Yahiko would fly off the rails at a moments notice and fight with each other. Rachel acted like a child sometimes, but then acted normal at others. Piper is actually insane and thinks the army is coming for her and is trying to get Neffy to sleep with Leon in order to make more babies which makes zero sense.

And then Neffy ends up having a baby anyways??

Also the whole octopus thing felt like it was supposed to be super impactful and a massive message on freedom and the balance between having freedom, but being exposed to dangers because of those freedoms, but it just seemed so silly that this girl keeps getting fired from all of her jobs. Eh I don’t know it was just like of underwhelming in many aspects.