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A review by zareena
The Memory Keepers by Natasha Ngan
3.0
Review originally posted on The Slanted Bookshelf.
My Rating: 3 stars
The Memory Keepers really grabbed be with the first scene. We start off from Seven’s POV as he is breaking into the Whites’ house only to be caught by Alba. The scene ends with her realising he’s a thief and then we go back in time for about a day.
The Memory Keepers is set in the future when memories are the most valuable thing a person has and people steal memories – aka skids – to sell on the black market. London is its own separate state if you will and is divided into two areas: North and South. North is for the wealthy and South is for the poor. Seven is a skid thief from the South. The book alternates from both Seven and Alba’s POV but, unusually, I felt like I understood Seven a lot more. He isn’t the best skid thief around or super cocky. He does what he does because that is his only option for survival. There isn’t much glamour in his job and he knows that. What stood out about Seven for me was how real his fear and loneliness felt. A lot of the time characters in dystopian novels will act like nothing scares them but this isn’t the case with Seven. But he isn’t a coward or a wimp – he loves what he does and acts cocky sometimes, just overly so.
Alba’s loneliness also came across really well but I didn’t like her as much. She is very disconnected from her parents and her mother sometimes abuses her. I understood the way Alba acted but I would have liked for her to have a bit more spine.
As I said, the plot really grabbed me in the first chapter but it started going downhill. Towards the end the author added a ton of different things to the plot and everything felt rushed. The ending had a lot of loose ends and I honestly think a sequel is needed. Also, I lost a bit of interest in the characters and wasn’t really invested in them the whole time. I still liked them but I didn’t really care too much what happened.
All in all The Memory Keepers is an okay book and it was enjoyable but it didn’t grab me.
YA
3 stars
My Rating: 3 stars
The Memory Keepers really grabbed be with the first scene. We start off from Seven’s POV as he is breaking into the Whites’ house only to be caught by Alba. The scene ends with her realising he’s a thief and then we go back in time for about a day.
The Memory Keepers is set in the future when memories are the most valuable thing a person has and people steal memories – aka skids – to sell on the black market. London is its own separate state if you will and is divided into two areas: North and South. North is for the wealthy and South is for the poor. Seven is a skid thief from the South. The book alternates from both Seven and Alba’s POV but, unusually, I felt like I understood Seven a lot more. He isn’t the best skid thief around or super cocky. He does what he does because that is his only option for survival. There isn’t much glamour in his job and he knows that. What stood out about Seven for me was how real his fear and loneliness felt. A lot of the time characters in dystopian novels will act like nothing scares them but this isn’t the case with Seven. But he isn’t a coward or a wimp – he loves what he does and acts cocky sometimes, just overly so.
Alba’s loneliness also came across really well but I didn’t like her as much. She is very disconnected from her parents and her mother sometimes abuses her. I understood the way Alba acted but I would have liked for her to have a bit more spine.
As I said, the plot really grabbed me in the first chapter but it started going downhill. Towards the end the author added a ton of different things to the plot and everything felt rushed. The ending had a lot of loose ends and I honestly think a sequel is needed. Also, I lost a bit of interest in the characters and wasn’t really invested in them the whole time. I still liked them but I didn’t really care too much what happened.
All in all The Memory Keepers is an okay book and it was enjoyable but it didn’t grab me.
YA
3 stars