The synopsis sounded promising, but I, unfortunately, ended up DNFing this about 40% through the book. I just wasn't enjoying this book, and I just decided that I couldn't put myself through this anymore, and I needed to move on.

This wasn't the worst book in the world, it had pretty great writing. My problem with the book is how much informations the author is pushing onto the reader at the beginning of the book, and it all happens very quickly. The flashbacks that happen were a little confusing, and I didn't end up finding any of the characters to be very memorable, especially because they were giving so many names early on, and they were hard for me to distinguish.

Going into this book I had high hopes based on the premise, but sadly I was let down. There were so many other things that I didn't like that I could talk about such as the insta-love or the lengthy dialogue,but it's not worth it to me. Since in the end, I didn't finish this book I won't be doing a review post on my blog since I can't talk about over half of the book.

This book moved quickly, but frankly, I felt like that was to its detriment. Then by the second half of the book it felt like everything dragged on.

To me, this was another typical fantasy book; originally I had been intrigued by the book’s premise, but it totally fell flat for me. It reminded me a lot of Sara Holland’s Everless series, and not in a good way.

I don’t really recommend this book to anyone looking for a new fantasy book to pick up; it wasn’t memorable to me in any way except that I just didn’t enjoy it.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this title.

Young adult fantasy is a hit or miss for me and sadly this one was a miss. I wasn’t engaged at all, and had no connection to the characters.

The Memory Thief had me from the very beginning. The characters are so well developed and each character has their own story that pulls you in. The world building in this book is phenomenal and you almost feel like you’ve visited the places the author describes. Memories are basically a currency there and the way the story moves will blow your mind!

This book had a cool concept, but unfortunately it just didn't stand out for me. The world-building wasn't enough for my liking, and the story was taken over by a romance I didn't particularly care about. I think I've just read too many YA fantasies about a girl forced to go on a quest with a boy she "doesn't like" and ends up falling in love with, honestly. Like I said, the overall idea of being able to trade memories was pretty cool, but the execution was lacking. I couldn't stay interested in the story, and there were far too many flashbacks thrown in. I also didn't feel enough tension by the time I was nearing the halfway point, so sadly this one is a DNF for me.

This book had so much potential, but unfortunately with the very 2-dimensional characters and world building based off of info dumping, and bland explanations, I couldn't make myself love it. I was really looking forward to this one, and although I didn't find it inherently bad, it just wasn't what I was looking for, and it ultimately fell flat for me.

I was pulled in to wanting to read this one by the premise which promised a unique fantasy world I'd never read before. Unfortunately it was under realized and it never lived up to the expectations the description set in my mind. The maze and banter were both enjoyable but the pacing, flashbacks, and info dumping didn't make it a fun read for me.

Another book that I really wanted to love but I just couldn’t get into. This book held my attention for the most part, but I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. There was just something about them I couldn't connect to. I thought the world was very interesting, and for the most part so were the characters, but I just felt like I would read it and then forget what was going on. Also, I felt like the book was pretty rushed. I have seen some great reviews, so I honestly think this book was just not for me. I do recommend it because the concept of the book and the setting are really great, but again, it just wasn't for me.

I wasn't a huge fan of memory thief. It wasn't bad, really, but just didn't capture my interest. I don't know if it was the movie The other than are the book, but the characters play flat for me despite the enticing setting. I tried to stick it through but this year I promised myself that if I got to the 50% Mark and still disliked it, I'd DNF it. Despite this I still force myself to read and eventually gave up around the 65% mark.

3.5 stars.

The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy is a good freshman YA fantasy novel. It is based in a fairly well described society which is ruled by four Sifter leaders, of which Madame is the strongest. She rules viciously in a land where memories are currency to be bought, sold, and stolen.

Etta has made a deal with Madame that was meant to keep her mother safe. But Madame, it seems, is not going to keep her word. Upon notice that her mother is to be "auctioned" in a few days' time, Etta sets out to rejoin the Shadows and rescue her mother from the evil Sifter.

Mansy has some clear writing talent and the premise for this novel was interesting and fairly well constructed. The characters overall fell slightly flatter than I would have liked, but there was a decent development in Etta and maybe a hint beginning in Reid. Though no sequel is currently indicated, the writing for these characters did feel a bit like the typical "setup" novel for a fantasy trilogy.

The world building in this novel is decent and there is the creation of some atmospheric setting. The construction is coherent and mostly simple, while still staying unique and interesting. However, there is some info dumping in the beginning that creates a bit of confusion. The different "occupations" and sectors of the public got a little muddled for me and I had to slowly weed out the details of who was who and what powers were given to what factions.

I enjoy the fact that there is a fantastic setup for an unreliable narrator in this plot. When your memories can be taken, altered, or replaced/erased, how do you know what is real? This fact wasn't used to it's fullest, but it was definitely exploited to a degree...which I appreciated.

The ending was a bit of a whirlwind. The battle felt a little short compared to all the buildup. It wasn't bad, but somehow felt underwhelming. There also exists an epilogue, which does close up a few important matters, but still felt different from the writing in the rest of the book.

Overall, this was a good read and I liked the world that it was set in. It would make good sense for there to be a sequel to this book, but as a standalone it still lines up pretty okay. A stronger ending would have really helped it out, but I was still mostly content with what took place in the pages.

I have been putting this book off for some time as I have watched the reviews roll in as consistent 2s and 3s. Well, I finished it and I agree with most of them. There writing is immature with too much telling instead of showing and really clunky info drops at the start. The conversations fill stilted and full of platitudes. The insta-love is a bit much and most of the book is conversations about things that happened. Finally, the ending was too easy and felt contrived. I also think everyone was way too forgiving of some rather large issues with the MC.

This book had a very dark tone. It brought you in and held you there. The characters were wonderfully sketched, helping you cheer and cry for their successes and misfortunes. The pace was good though it did feel like a lot of information was thrust upon you in the beginning. It would have been nice to have it further spaced out. Would read again though.

The premise is a great ones: memories as commodities. They can be stolen and purchased, or used to deceive and torture. Jules knows this better than anyone. In a desperate attempt to save her mother from a coma and trying to remain under the radar of the vengeful Madame who rules with terror, she must make an alliance with the group she betrayed.

I really did like the premise of the story and I feel like Mansy has an immense world with a rich history, but it was like she tried to put too much of it without context into one story. The glossary in the back helps quite a bit but the story just feels jumbled and overloaded. The characters are interesting and have depth, it is just hard for the author to focus on everything so it can be a difficult read from that perspective.

Book: The Memory Theif
Author: Lauren Mansy
Date: October 1, 2019 (Canada)
Pages: 368
Format: Ebook | Netgalley
Rating: 2/5

Review:

It was a nice quick read, but it didn’t live up to its own expectations.

At the very beginning of The Memory Thief, the world-building seemed to be forced onto the reader as we were shown little of the world besides a note stapled to a door and an execution. I found that the words seemed to be telling me the story as information was relevant and the backstories necessary to understand the stakes and the impact of her mother in the asylum or the kid on the execution stage was lost because there wasn’t any information until after.

We didn’t know about her past until she was captured and then we didn’t know anything beyond three lines of dialogue and a flashback. Every important story plot was told through a flashback just before we met some of the characters. Which, again, didn’t allow me to connect with the story at all. This book needed to be bigger or dive deeper, maybe even the pacing was off. It would have been a nice slow burn kind of story with deep stakes and a sinking feeling of regret and the pain of almost losing a mother

The concept is amazing. The idea behind the story is that memories are used as currency and can be transferred or stolen from one person to the next which really drew my interest and the back of the book really piqued my interest. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t work for me, but I bought the book for my friends when it came out (because they like different books then I do) and they loved it.

I've never considered a concept of memories as currency or something to be weaponized- but WOW. Some of the reviews had me concerned, but this book captivated me. I stayed up all hours of the night to finished it. The character growth was lovely, and there was not one, but two twists I never saw coming. Mansy wove a masterpiece, and I for one look forward to more.

Honestly, disappointing. When I hear memory I go "OOOOOOHHH BRAIN this is going to be good", but, alas, I'm an idiot. Here's the rundown:

Magic System - lazy, underdeveloped: everyone who was "gifted" (meaning they could give and take memories) could just access all the different types of memories with no limitations (except that when the gifted take memories it gives the people who have had the memory taken a headache... but it's mentioned maybe once and doesn't affect the main players of this book in any way whatsoever). If the author had put just a little bit more effort in she could have made the world more interesting by making it so "this type of person can only give/take procedural memories" and this "person can only give/take explicit memory". But nope. Everyone can just do everything. It doesn't even make them a little bit tired.

Characters - well I'll just give you their description and you tell me what you think:
Female lead - strong (but kind), fearless, has a special talent that no one else has, weapon of choice = bow and
arrow, sharp tongue, has a little-sister type figure that she would do anything to protect, absent parents, tragic backstory, is naturally adept in combat with (literally) no effort
Male Lead - love interest (duh), smoking hot, tragic backstory, brooding, has a soft-spot for MC, that's it
Villain - is only evil for the sake of being evil (no motivation except POWERRRRRR), is impossible to defeat... except for when MC does they are defeated within five seconds
Other Characters - who?

Writing style: that try-hard in class (you know what I'm talking about): it just seemed like Lauren Mansy was trying way to hard to come up with quotable lines and fit in with the big-wigs of YA (THG, Divergent, Shadowhunters, etc.).

Who would enjoy this: maybe 12-13 year olds who want an easy introduction to YA where it's all romance and action written in a voice that they'd want to identify with (hey I remember wanting to become Katniss so no shade children we've all been there). There is no real theme here except the bad guys always lose (which isn't true in the real world AHEM).

2 I didn't hate it but I most certainly wasn't anywhere near liking it.

In a world where memories are currency, power, and weaponry, your past can be bought or stolen, and nightmares implanted.



Etta Lark is a gifted young woman who would do anything to save her mother, who is in a coma. She is her mother's only hope, yet her intricate past and rare gift makes her the target of Madame, a power-hungry megalomaniac. She is ruggedly independent, removing herself as much as she can from the caste system of sorts that rules the realms. I admired her courage, and her devotion to her friends.



This story operates with multiple flashbacks, and a heavy backstory that helps the reader keep up, yet the whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking, "I would have read a whole book about that!" There is a lot going on in this book, especially for its length of just over 300 pages, which plenty of twists, reveals, secrets, and good world building. Multiple times while reading this book I wondered if it might have been better as a series, with more room to expand upon the world that they operated in, as well as fleshing out many of the intriguing characters and relationships, without relying so heavily on flashbacks. The main reasons I believe it would have been a great series, are because the notion of memories being used in this way, with the associated gifts is a pretty big premise, also there are many prominent characters who are alive only in memories, and Etta's time in the Shadows sounds like it could have been a book in itself.



I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but in the end I really liked it. It is great for fans of Defy or Graceling but more clean in content, though the stakes are still high. As a result of this book's shorter, single volume length I think that the punch of some of the more shocking reveals was lost, as I wasn't as hungry for it, and in the end there were so many reveals that some challenges seemed in my mind too easily solved. I'm sorry if this all sounds so negative, but what I am really saying is that I liked it, and I wanted more!



Overall, very entertaining, with many surprising plot twists, and reveals. Hard to put down with a full cast of characters, though I did feel like many of the concepts were really good there just wasn't enough time to expand on it and appreciate it all. Etta is determined and independent, a strong sympathetic character. An entertaining read, with intriguing fantasy concepts, filled with action and hard to put down.



I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I didn't finish this one. Young adult fantasy has been a hit or a miss for me recently, and I had to put this one down because the writing was a slog. It felt so juvenile. The concept of memory as a currency is fascinating, but the author kept info-dumping and I felt like I couldn't keep up with the flashbacks.

The concept is haunting-- a dystopian society where people trade memories or have them forcibly taken away. The poor barter their happiest memories for the bare necessities of life. The pleasant memories of convicted criminals are auctioned off to the highest bidders, as we see in the compelling introduction to the novel.

The rest didn't engage me-- it's a pretty standard female protagonist saves the world while falling in love with the hunky love interest despite secrets that inevitably lead to conflict.

We meet our main character Etta when she's barely scraping by, taking care of her adopted sister. She's pulled into the plot and encounters the obnoxious but inevitably irresistible Reid in circumstances so forgettable that I genuinely can't remember them as I sit down to review this book a few weeks after reading it.

There's an entire taxonomy of people with magical powers not just related to memory, and I really needed that glossary in the back that I didn't encounter until the book was finished.

The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy is a young adult fantasy story that is told in the first person. The idea behind the story is that memories are used like currency and can be transferred or stolen from one person to the next which really drew my interest but unfortunately my expectations weren’t met with how the story was done.

Etta is the main character who is one of the “gifted” in the story however she has been hiding her abilities. The gifted can transfer memories by simply touching someone and the ungifted could only receive memories. Etta’s mother is in danger so she makes a deal to help and ends up paired up with Reid.

There were several things that I found in here that kept me from loving this story. First, the world building is rather brief and tossed in and along with the character building could have really used a lot more depth. The romance also seemed rather rushed going from a dislike to totally in love in what felt like pages.

I also kind of felt that more could have been done with the idea of memories than the overall plot of one ruler wanting control of all the areas which made it feel like more of a cookie cutter plot like a lot of other young adult fantasies. In the end it just wasn’t my cup of tea leaving me at 2 1/2 stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.