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theknightswhosaybook 's review for:
The Memory Thief
by Lauren Mansy
*I received a review copy from Netgalley.*
This book was a big disappointment for me. I was so excited about its premise, and then it got a gorgeous cover, and then I got an arc, and everything seemed so perfect.
And then I started reading it.
I knew from practically the first moment that I disliked the writing, and I continued to dislike it to the end of the book. There's no subtlety here. The book doesn't trust you to get anything on your own. When the author wants you to get a message, the characters straight up say it. They practically turn to the reader and go, "Wow, it's so sad that this person died. However, I will put away my guilt and try to live a happy life anyway, because the only way I can move forward is by devoting myself to a higher purpose, which I learned from this other person just now, which you know because you were there. So, yeah. I'm gonna go do that now."
The plot happened too fast. I often feel that books like this try to rely on the fact you've read other books like it to make its arcs work -- like, you've read generic YA fantasy, so you know that when a girl and a boy go on a dangerous journey into the forest together, they're going to fall in love eventually. So maybe, the author thinks sneakily, this book can just skip the part where we pretend we don't know that, and maybe it doesn't have to put so much work into convincing you that these characters are in love. Except that then its character dynamics becomes flat and boring because there's so little to them. Nothing much original. And no excellent writing to add an animating spark to lifeless, stilted conversations.
I did eventually get into the plot, but it took until about 65% in and I still ended up skimming stilted dialogue because I didn't see the point in boring myself any more.
The magic system has some interest to it, which I would certainly hope given that the memory economy was what drew me to this book. But outside of that, the worldbuilding falls flat. The four realms are basic cookie cutter Fantasy Lands™ that are also weirdly small? Like is Craewick larger than one single city? I can't tell. How large is the maze? It might be the size of a house or the size of a city. Are the forests in between the realms larger than the realms themselves? I think they must be, but who knows! There is so much traveling in this book yet no sense of space! I implore this writer to read [b:The Thief|448873|The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)|Megan Whalen Turner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427740839l/448873._SY75_.jpg|1069505] by Megan Whalen Turner to learn how to do a grounded Fantasy Road Trip where you understand and are rooted in the characters' landscape.
So like... it's fine. It's okay. There's nothing horrible in it besides mediocre writing. I wouldn't warn people away from this book, I'm just not recommending it.
This book was a big disappointment for me. I was so excited about its premise, and then it got a gorgeous cover, and then I got an arc, and everything seemed so perfect.
And then I started reading it.
I knew from practically the first moment that I disliked the writing, and I continued to dislike it to the end of the book. There's no subtlety here. The book doesn't trust you to get anything on your own. When the author wants you to get a message, the characters straight up say it. They practically turn to the reader and go, "Wow, it's so sad that this person died. However, I will put away my guilt and try to live a happy life anyway, because the only way I can move forward is by devoting myself to a higher purpose, which I learned from this other person just now, which you know because you were there. So, yeah. I'm gonna go do that now."
The plot happened too fast. I often feel that books like this try to rely on the fact you've read other books like it to make its arcs work -- like, you've read generic YA fantasy, so you know that when a girl and a boy go on a dangerous journey into the forest together, they're going to fall in love eventually. So maybe, the author thinks sneakily, this book can just skip the part where we pretend we don't know that, and maybe it doesn't have to put so much work into convincing you that these characters are in love. Except that then its character dynamics becomes flat and boring because there's so little to them. Nothing much original. And no excellent writing to add an animating spark to lifeless, stilted conversations.
I did eventually get into the plot, but it took until about 65% in and I still ended up skimming stilted dialogue because I didn't see the point in boring myself any more.
The magic system has some interest to it, which I would certainly hope given that the memory economy was what drew me to this book. But outside of that, the worldbuilding falls flat. The four realms are basic cookie cutter Fantasy Lands™ that are also weirdly small? Like is Craewick larger than one single city? I can't tell. How large is the maze? It might be the size of a house or the size of a city. Are the forests in between the realms larger than the realms themselves? I think they must be, but who knows! There is so much traveling in this book yet no sense of space! I implore this writer to read [b:The Thief|448873|The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)|Megan Whalen Turner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427740839l/448873._SY75_.jpg|1069505] by Megan Whalen Turner to learn how to do a grounded Fantasy Road Trip where you understand and are rooted in the characters' landscape.
So like... it's fine. It's okay. There's nothing horrible in it besides mediocre writing. I wouldn't warn people away from this book, I'm just not recommending it.