librarian4life55 's review for:

The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello

4.0

---

This was an extremely intense and uncomfortable read for me. As someone prone to anxiety I felt panicked when reading Caroline’s manic thoughts and actions, and from that point of view was glad to be done with this book. Also for that reason I can’t say I enjoyed it, but it gets 4 stars because I couldn’t put it down. The premise is very clever, a totally original plot, with a couple of revelations in part 2 which turns everything on its head. The writing quality though is not consistent, I started out identifying with Caroline’s observations on being a suburban stay at home mum, her thoughts on how much of your true self you reveal to others in order to fit in and comparing being a School mum to actually being back in school yourself particularly resonated with me. Despite being a tough read for me, the fast paced train of thought passages really do make you feel how caroline must be feeling, confused and panicked, but then there are other places where the writing seems immature, plus the author is way too concerned with bladder control. Need a couple of days back in real life to get over this one.