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A review by thebobsphere
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
4.0
I am a huge fan of Claire Fuller’s books. I love the way she drops hints and clues in her novels and slowly reveals her character’s backstories. I am noticing that with each book Claire Fuller manages to take this techniques to new levels.
The Memory of Animals is, to a certain extent. a science-fiction novel. The main protagonist Neffy enrols herself to test out a vaccination in order to combat a virus that is spreading (it’s not COVID-19) in the meantime a new strain of the virus has developed and is causing havoc, making the hospital staff depart and leave the test subjects to their own devices.
One of the characters creates a method for visiting the past called revisiting and Neffy responds well to it and through her revisits, we readers get a full picture of her backstory and the reason why she decided to test the vaccine. Not to give much away but it involves octopuses.
The Memory of Animals is about the trauma that memory can dredge up. Neffy’s past consists of decisions which affect her present state. In a way she’s trying to confront it but it’s the actual revisits help her overcome her actions.
Due to the fact that the novel consists of people trapped in a building it’s also about survival. As the COVID-19 pandemic is now a thing of the past, I could not help feeling a bit uncomfortable reading those sections as I’m still not 100% over the anxiety lockdown brought to me. Obviously that’s just me though.
The Memory of Animals is probably, Claire Fuller’s most layered book to date. It also contains her most memorable characters. I may be biased but I do think it’s another great novel from a consistently interesting author.
The Memory of Animals is, to a certain extent. a science-fiction novel. The main protagonist Neffy enrols herself to test out a vaccination in order to combat a virus that is spreading (it’s not COVID-19) in the meantime a new strain of the virus has developed and is causing havoc, making the hospital staff depart and leave the test subjects to their own devices.
One of the characters creates a method for visiting the past called revisiting and Neffy responds well to it and through her revisits, we readers get a full picture of her backstory and the reason why she decided to test the vaccine. Not to give much away but it involves octopuses.
The Memory of Animals is about the trauma that memory can dredge up. Neffy’s past consists of decisions which affect her present state. In a way she’s trying to confront it but it’s the actual revisits help her overcome her actions.
Due to the fact that the novel consists of people trapped in a building it’s also about survival. As the COVID-19 pandemic is now a thing of the past, I could not help feeling a bit uncomfortable reading those sections as I’m still not 100% over the anxiety lockdown brought to me. Obviously that’s just me though.
The Memory of Animals is probably, Claire Fuller’s most layered book to date. It also contains her most memorable characters. I may be biased but I do think it’s another great novel from a consistently interesting author.