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cathman 's review for:
Tell Me an Ending
by Jo Harkin
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
<blockquote>"The problem with thinking about forgetting things is that it always makes you think about the things you want to forget."</blockquote>
Nepenthe is in the business of memory removal (they don't call them wipes). Clients may be self-informed - she knows she witnessed an accident, but doesn't actually remember the event - or self-confidential - not even the knowledge that they had a memory removed. Some people have been against it since the beginning, of course, but the number of protestors outside the clinics has increased in the past year, since the scientists found that memories can be recovered. The result of the following lawsuit is that all the self-confidential patients must be contacted and given the option to have their memory restored.
Noor has been a psychologist at Nepenthe for 10 years now. She's straightlaced - aside from that relationship with a client. She had been working up the courage to ask her boss Louise to okay a slightly dodgy memory wipe for her, but then some slightly dodgy things started to pile up with Louise herself. Noor spotted something with the phrase "RASA" on Louise's phone, but Louise denied any knowledge of...whatever that means. And Louise has been having Noor approve her to look at some patient files, ostensibly because their contact information has changed, and they have to be contacted as self-confidential clients. But on further inspection, Noor discovered, these folks WERE successfully contacted - and they all said they wanted a memory restoration, until Louise got in touch with them and they all changed their minds.
And then there's Mei, who left university a year ago and recently started experiencing traces - she must have had a memory removed, and now snippets have returned. A view of some houses along a canal, a man's voice she doesn't recognize. Contact with her old friends leads her to believe answers lie in Amsterdam, so she leaves her dad's in Kuala Lumpur to chase her memory. And Finn and his wife Mirande, who discovers she had a memory removed when she receives the notification from Nepenthe. Regardless of the controversy over traces and memory restorations, William feels like it may be the only way to restore his former life and relationship with his wife after he finds himself struck with PTSD due to seeing a photo of a crime scene - highly unexpected given his position as chief inspector. And finally Oscar. He has no idea what's going on, just in general. He's currently living in Morocco, but knows very little about himself - no memories before the age of 16, and then only spotty bits for years. Some of the memories don't give him much confidence in his past self - a gun, a white room, men he doesn't know in suits. He does have a lot of money in his bank account to fund his travels - helpful as he goes on the run anytime someone seems to recognize him - but he has no idea where that money came from.
Like any memory wipe/restoration story (Bourne Identity, Eternal Sunshine...), there are elements and differing opinions on how your memories make you who you are and what can be changed by altering them. Sometimes books with different points of view can result in a mush of voices, but I found the characters distinct here. I thought the way characters and relationships melded was interesting. Oscar's sections were my favorites to read - it's of course exciting to read the story of the man on the run who doesn't know why, and he's also good hearted.
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the eARC. Tell Me An Ending will be published March 1st, 2022.
Nepenthe is in the business of memory removal (they don't call them wipes). Clients may be self-informed - she knows she witnessed an accident, but doesn't actually remember the event - or self-confidential - not even the knowledge that they had a memory removed. Some people have been against it since the beginning, of course, but the number of protestors outside the clinics has increased in the past year, since the scientists found that memories can be recovered. The result of the following lawsuit is that all the self-confidential patients must be contacted and given the option to have their memory restored.
Noor has been a psychologist at Nepenthe for 10 years now. She's straightlaced - aside from that relationship with a client. She had been working up the courage to ask her boss Louise to okay a slightly dodgy memory wipe for her, but then some slightly dodgy things started to pile up with Louise herself. Noor spotted something with the phrase "RASA" on Louise's phone, but Louise denied any knowledge of...whatever that means. And Louise has been having Noor approve her to look at some patient files, ostensibly because their contact information has changed, and they have to be contacted as self-confidential clients. But on further inspection, Noor discovered, these folks WERE successfully contacted - and they all said they wanted a memory restoration, until Louise got in touch with them and they all changed their minds.
And then there's Mei, who left university a year ago and recently started experiencing traces - she must have had a memory removed, and now snippets have returned. A view of some houses along a canal, a man's voice she doesn't recognize. Contact with her old friends leads her to believe answers lie in Amsterdam, so she leaves her dad's in Kuala Lumpur to chase her memory. And Finn and his wife Mirande, who discovers she had a memory removed when she receives the notification from Nepenthe. Regardless of the controversy over traces and memory restorations, William feels like it may be the only way to restore his former life and relationship with his wife after he finds himself struck with PTSD due to seeing a photo of a crime scene - highly unexpected given his position as chief inspector. And finally Oscar. He has no idea what's going on, just in general. He's currently living in Morocco, but knows very little about himself - no memories before the age of 16, and then only spotty bits for years. Some of the memories don't give him much confidence in his past self - a gun, a white room, men he doesn't know in suits. He does have a lot of money in his bank account to fund his travels - helpful as he goes on the run anytime someone seems to recognize him - but he has no idea where that money came from.
Like any memory wipe/restoration story (Bourne Identity, Eternal Sunshine...), there are elements and differing opinions on how your memories make you who you are and what can be changed by altering them. Sometimes books with different points of view can result in a mush of voices, but I found the characters distinct here. I thought the way characters and relationships melded was interesting. Oscar's sections were my favorites to read - it's of course exciting to read the story of the man on the run who doesn't know why, and he's also good hearted.
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the eARC. Tell Me An Ending will be published March 1st, 2022.