A review by pollyflorence
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I’ll always love a beautiful, quiet, understated dystopian book & the dreamlike quality of the minimal world building made this feel especially haunting.  

I thought it was a very affecting story and although part of me would love to know more about the bigger picture of this novel— the fact that there are many different ways the novel could be interpreted and that the world and the ending especially is left ambiguous means that the story will always a timely feel to it. 

The matter of fact prose and the eerie calmness in which the characters process the forgetting & 
the lack of distress the characters feel— the way that they accept what’s happening made me think about the many times throughout history that people accept the world as it’s presented to them the way people often choose to turn away from systems of oppression. 

I really couldn’t put it down, it was so beautifully hypnotic. 
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