A review by mlevis
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

This constellation novel was excellent.  It’s essentially a group of short stories about a far speculative future where the Qin Empire (formerly China) is the world’s megapower.  Each tale is woven together and they take place over a wide span of time.   Each story or memory in future can be  bought, sold and holds value.

This book explores censorship and how thoughts and memories are dangerous in a new world (how far away is this, really?!)  The protagonist holds a collection of his late mother’s memories and is determined to share them before they’re destroyed (along with him.)  The tales that Ma tells are interesting and beautiful.   Any reader would be grateful these are being shared.  I tried to put myself into the shoes of someone living in this future world while reading.  I bounced back and forth between “how can these be illicit” and “wow, I guess it would be harmful for an authoritarian government for someone to discover this!”

Fans of speculative and dystopian fiction will eat this up.  It’s awesome to find a debut novelist write such a cool book in this sub-genre.

Thank you to Yiming Ma, Netgalley and Mariner Books for the gifted eARC.