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bookishlykenia's review
5.0
I love books that hold my interest from start to finish. No inbetween or the beginning was slow then it picked up. Nope this was fast paced and it kept me guessing the whole way through. Even at the end it had me guessing what would happen next.
I tend to read at night, this always ends with me going to bed at two In the morning. But with this one, I could not put it down. I had to find out every ounce of information to see who was lying and to whom. Because everybody lies.
You will come to find out, this is my favorite line from the book. Everybody lies. The plot was done well, I think, a girl who can steal memories. She hates who she is and feels she is not redeemable. She’s in love with a man who wants to be excepted just like she does. Their relationship hit heard because they had secrets and as confused as they were, there was love there. Fight me if you want but there was love and I am game!
This book had me in tears, which means it was memorable. Seriously, if I cried, the story will always have a spot in my heart. I’m not kidding!! And I cried hard, I love books where emotions run raw and your able to imagine those feelings and manifest them onto yourself.
Wow this reviews is totally at the rush of my thumbs (typing this on my phone) and completely different mood from my review on my blog. So if y’all are interested link is in my BIO! You check out my full review on there! So excited for book 2! I’m ready for my heart to bleed some more.
I tend to read at night, this always ends with me going to bed at two In the morning. But with this one, I could not put it down. I had to find out every ounce of information to see who was lying and to whom. Because everybody lies.
You will come to find out, this is my favorite line from the book. Everybody lies. The plot was done well, I think, a girl who can steal memories. She hates who she is and feels she is not redeemable. She’s in love with a man who wants to be excepted just like she does. Their relationship hit heard because they had secrets and as confused as they were, there was love there. Fight me if you want but there was love and I am game!
This book had me in tears, which means it was memorable. Seriously, if I cried, the story will always have a spot in my heart. I’m not kidding!! And I cried hard, I love books where emotions run raw and your able to imagine those feelings and manifest them onto yourself.
Wow this reviews is totally at the rush of my thumbs (typing this on my phone) and completely different mood from my review on my blog. So if y’all are interested link is in my BIO! You check out my full review on there! So excited for book 2! I’m ready for my heart to bleed some more.
becca_ca_ca's review
4.0
I was given a copy of this book for an honest review, so here goes!
Last Memoria is an interesting concept about a young woman who can take the memories of people she touches (goodness, we’ve certainly all wished for that ability after a night out...). However, after being separated from her brother, she tries to meet back up with him, while avoiding her jailer King, who it appears used to enslave her.
This did a lot of back and forth travelling at the beginning, which I wasn’t a fan of. However, once that was over and the main storyline got underway, the pace picked up. It was also a narrative of two parts, from two different perspectives which also made this interesting to read. It wasn’t just our memory stealing protagonist we heard from, which made for some insightful storytelling.
AND THE ENDING! The switch in narrative made that twist at the end much more powerful.
Were there some issues? Yeah... but the world building, plot development and set up for the next one out weighed a line of corny dialogue here or there.
Will I be picking up the second one.
Definitely.
Worth a read :)
Last Memoria is an interesting concept about a young woman who can take the memories of people she touches (goodness, we’ve certainly all wished for that ability after a night out...). However, after being separated from her brother, she tries to meet back up with him, while avoiding her jailer King, who it appears used to enslave her.
This did a lot of back and forth travelling at the beginning, which I wasn’t a fan of. However, once that was over and the main storyline got underway, the pace picked up. It was also a narrative of two parts, from two different perspectives which also made this interesting to read. It wasn’t just our memory stealing protagonist we heard from, which made for some insightful storytelling.
AND THE ENDING! The switch in narrative made that twist at the end much more powerful.
Were there some issues? Yeah... but the world building, plot development and set up for the next one out weighed a line of corny dialogue here or there.
Will I be picking up the second one.
Definitely.
Worth a read :)
beccadillonx's review
5.0
When I first saw this book, the cover drew me in. The beauty and darkness of it made me interested to what the story involved. I ended up reading this book in two days, split only because I started it one evening so had to go to sleep.
I thought that it would be a stereotypical girl meets boy romance story, I didn’t really understand just how much of a dark thriller this book was. It brings up the importance of memories as historical knowledge, the idea that memories make a person and the power that memories can hold. It makes you question who is a victim and who is a villain, as you learn so much as the book progresses.
I felt shock, upset, and intrigue, as the book begins by keeping you with a small shroud of mystery, not really knowing what is going on, but not so much that you lose interest. Instead, I felt that I HAD to continue to read to find out what was happening and why. You get the sense that you don’t know the full story until the end similarly to some of the characters which I absolutely loved, I was really kept on the edge of my seat. There was a lot to process but in no way was it overwhelming.
I loved the unique personalities of each of the characters, although I do wish we would have learned about and seen more of some of them such as Havric. I did however, enjoy how the book is split into two parts, so you can see different perspectives of the story, further pushing into the idea of who is good and evil, and whether there is a good as we are constantly reminded that everybody lies.
I also want to quickly note that the writing style was also beautifully done, I felt like i was there in the moment everything was described so well, I really fell into the writing of the book.
Overall I really LOVED reading this book. Even from a short paraphrased description my mum was hooked on the idea and I’m sure she’ll want to read it as well. I have rated it 5/5 and I CANNOT wait for the next book in the series to come out!!
*I received a free copy for my own honest review, Thank you to the author for reaching out to me and giving me this opportunity!*
I thought that it would be a stereotypical girl meets boy romance story, I didn’t really understand just how much of a dark thriller this book was. It brings up the importance of memories as historical knowledge, the idea that memories make a person and the power that memories can hold. It makes you question who is a victim and who is a villain, as you learn so much as the book progresses.
I felt shock, upset, and intrigue, as the book begins by keeping you with a small shroud of mystery, not really knowing what is going on, but not so much that you lose interest. Instead, I felt that I HAD to continue to read to find out what was happening and why. You get the sense that you don’t know the full story until the end similarly to some of the characters which I absolutely loved, I was really kept on the edge of my seat. There was a lot to process but in no way was it overwhelming.
I loved the unique personalities of each of the characters, although I do wish we would have learned about and seen more of some of them such as Havric. I did however, enjoy how the book is split into two parts, so you can see different perspectives of the story, further pushing into the idea of who is good and evil, and whether there is a good as we are constantly reminded that everybody lies.
I also want to quickly note that the writing style was also beautifully done, I felt like i was there in the moment everything was described so well, I really fell into the writing of the book.
Overall I really LOVED reading this book. Even from a short paraphrased description my mum was hooked on the idea and I’m sure she’ll want to read it as well. I have rated it 5/5 and I CANNOT wait for the next book in the series to come out!!
*I received a free copy for my own honest review, Thank you to the author for reaching out to me and giving me this opportunity!*
sincerelyabiblio's review
3.0
This book really sparked my interest and I was really excited when Rachel Emma Shaw reaches out and offered a free digital copy for an honest review!
There were a lot of things I liked about this story and a lot of things I struggled with. Overall, I think it was a good story and I’m intrigued to read the second part but I’m not exactly dying for a continuation of the story. That being said, I think I would still recommend it to certain readers.
My non-spoiler 3 pros and cons are:
Pros:
1. Falon was a really interesting character that was well written! I also loved Havric as well.
2. The memoria world was amazing. I loved the physical descriptions, their world, their magical abilities. You can tell this is where most of the authors initial focus was in writing the story as it’s the most flushed out. I even wish we could have stayed in the memoria world longer!
3. The descriptions of the cities were so good, I loved that you had one underground, one building upwards towards the sky and another that was your basic city. Arvendon was definitely my favorite!
Cons:
1. It took me until chapter 11 to get into the story and even then the second half was written much better and the plot was more interesting. It just was a con for me that it took so long to get to that point.
2. Sarilla began to get a little annoying. She was constantly keeping secrets and deciding who got to know some things when. And then she would go through phases of being really independent and wanting more for herself to just following whoever was around her that decided they were in charge. I think it would have been better to get more of her character in the beginning than at the very end.
3. There were a lot of characters we didn’t spend a lot of time with that sad things happened to and I just did not care about them at all. (More in spoiler section below.) I wish we could have had more time with these people!
Beware minor spoilers ahead!!
By certain readers, I mean those who don’t quit reading a book the second they become disinterested. I think that’s a very fair way of reading but I’m always the type to push myself to finish! And in this case, I was super glad I did!
This beginning of the novel was super hard for me to get into. I was really confused by what was going on, what it exactly meant to be a memoria and how the memories seemed to suck them in. It seems like a power that was really out of control and made Sarilla a hard narrator to follow. By about chapter 11, I understood what was going on and the plot really began to develop. This felt like a really late start and I wish we would have either spent more time with her and her brother or that we had spent no time with them at all. In all honestly, I didn’t really care about his fate. I didn’t know his character enough to like him but knew enough to be turned off by him. I felt the same indifference with her sister, father, and the whole memoria population. The surprise factor of what happened to them was totally there, we just didn’t get the time to fully connect with these characters!
The second half of the novel is narrated by Falon. I loved the second half! I really liked how conflicted Falon was and how we got to see what it was like for someone who had gaps in their memories. He had so much emotion that flipped between hating her and loving her. It felt pretty real for the situation he was in. And this brought us to the ending which I really liked because even though Sarilla was starting to really annoy me, it made sense why she had become the way she was and in the end I was happy with her fate.
As I said, this book is definitely not going to be for all readers but for those who stick with it, you won’t regret it!
There were a lot of things I liked about this story and a lot of things I struggled with. Overall, I think it was a good story and I’m intrigued to read the second part but I’m not exactly dying for a continuation of the story. That being said, I think I would still recommend it to certain readers.
My non-spoiler 3 pros and cons are:
Pros:
1. Falon was a really interesting character that was well written! I also loved Havric as well.
2. The memoria world was amazing. I loved the physical descriptions, their world, their magical abilities. You can tell this is where most of the authors initial focus was in writing the story as it’s the most flushed out. I even wish we could have stayed in the memoria world longer!
3. The descriptions of the cities were so good, I loved that you had one underground, one building upwards towards the sky and another that was your basic city. Arvendon was definitely my favorite!
Cons:
1. It took me until chapter 11 to get into the story and even then the second half was written much better and the plot was more interesting. It just was a con for me that it took so long to get to that point.
2. Sarilla began to get a little annoying. She was constantly keeping secrets and deciding who got to know some things when. And then she would go through phases of being really independent and wanting more for herself to just following whoever was around her that decided they were in charge. I think it would have been better to get more of her character in the beginning than at the very end.
3. There were a lot of characters we didn’t spend a lot of time with that sad things happened to and I just did not care about them at all. (More in spoiler section below.) I wish we could have had more time with these people!
Beware minor spoilers ahead!!
By certain readers, I mean those who don’t quit reading a book the second they become disinterested. I think that’s a very fair way of reading but I’m always the type to push myself to finish! And in this case, I was super glad I did!
This beginning of the novel was super hard for me to get into. I was really confused by what was going on, what it exactly meant to be a memoria and how the memories seemed to suck them in. It seems like a power that was really out of control and made Sarilla a hard narrator to follow. By about chapter 11, I understood what was going on and the plot really began to develop. This felt like a really late start and I wish we would have either spent more time with her and her brother or that we had spent no time with them at all. In all honestly, I didn’t really care about his fate. I didn’t know his character enough to like him but knew enough to be turned off by him. I felt the same indifference with her sister, father, and the whole memoria population. The surprise factor of what happened to them was totally there, we just didn’t get the time to fully connect with these characters!
The second half of the novel is narrated by Falon. I loved the second half! I really liked how conflicted Falon was and how we got to see what it was like for someone who had gaps in their memories. He had so much emotion that flipped between hating her and loving her. It felt pretty real for the situation he was in. And this brought us to the ending which I really liked because even though Sarilla was starting to really annoy me, it made sense why she had become the way she was and in the end I was happy with her fate.
As I said, this book is definitely not going to be for all readers but for those who stick with it, you won’t regret it!
libellumartinae's review against another edition
3.0
Hello there, lovelies!
This ARC will come out in May, but I was lucky enough to read it in advance thank to the author, for which I am very thankful.
This is a rather interesting book, because of the themes it talks about, coming on to with a strong contrast that honestly made me reflect about my entire view through the entire book, in a way that challenges the reader to search for more and to review constantly her thoughts.
Such as what happens to Falon, who goes through a (for me too quick) change of heart, rather interesting to see since it completely helps the reader to understand and sympathize with the character.
Although my favorite POV to read about was Sarilla's since I felt like she is a rather complex and unique character, hating her own nature and unable to hear further about everything else, but still with a soft nature for her family and an high sense of duty which makes even the simplest of actions an order, an obligation
In a constant contrast between hate and knowledge the book develops itself in a cruel way where monsters are much more human than you might think which is something rather interesting to see written and portrayed so well by both the characters.
The book still has two main flaws: the worlbuilding and the pace of the narration.
The former is rather lacking creating confusion about what memoris truly are and what the blackvine is, to the point where you are unable to completely understand such concepts till the end, although the writer has told me that this is due to Falon's condition (which I am not spoiling you), so thread carefully about this topic!
I also think that in some points the pace of the narration was too fast, making some event unclear, enough to disrupt the rhythm of the narration and create even further confusion.
I do have to say that this is simply my opinion.
English is not my first language as you might know, so the confusion I felt through the book might have also been coming from that, and my own taste.
This book is very interesting for the topics and themes it talk about in a rather interesting and new way, that will make you hang on till the last page, always changing your opinion.
This ARC will come out in May, but I was lucky enough to read it in advance thank to the author, for which I am very thankful.
This is a rather interesting book, because of the themes it talks about, coming on to with a strong contrast that honestly made me reflect about my entire view through the entire book, in a way that challenges the reader to search for more and to review constantly her thoughts.
Such as what happens to Falon, who goes through a (for me too quick) change of heart, rather interesting to see since it completely helps the reader to understand and sympathize with the character.
Although my favorite POV to read about was Sarilla's since I felt like she is a rather complex and unique character, hating her own nature and unable to hear further about everything else, but still with a soft nature for her family and an high sense of duty which makes even the simplest of actions an order, an obligation
In a constant contrast between hate and knowledge the book develops itself in a cruel way where monsters are much more human than you might think which is something rather interesting to see written and portrayed so well by both the characters.
The book still has two main flaws: the worlbuilding and the pace of the narration.
The former is rather lacking creating confusion about what memoris truly are and what the blackvine is, to the point where you are unable to completely understand such concepts till the end, although the writer has told me that this is due to Falon's condition (which I am not spoiling you), so thread carefully about this topic!
I also think that in some points the pace of the narration was too fast, making some event unclear, enough to disrupt the rhythm of the narration and create even further confusion.
I do have to say that this is simply my opinion.
English is not my first language as you might know, so the confusion I felt through the book might have also been coming from that, and my own taste.
This book is very interesting for the topics and themes it talk about in a rather interesting and new way, that will make you hang on till the last page, always changing your opinion.
tobesmagobes's review against another edition
5.0
The author recommended this on Reddit and I am so happy she did. All the good tropes, very queer, very angsty, loved the audiobook, 4.5 stars
elenajohansen's review
1.0
The entire book is plagued by inconsistency at all levels.
The most obvious being technical presentation, as it's riddled with errors. There are several instances of words being incorrectly used in place of their homonyms: "taught" when it should be "taut," "vile" when it's obviously meant to be "vial," and so forth. In addition, a word specific to the story--Sarilla's unwanted nickname--switches between "beastie" and "beasty" frequently, sometimes even on the same page. Stack those errors on top of repeated incorrect hyphenation (both present when it shouldn't be in things like "dirt-track" and missing when it should be present, like "Sarilla shaped hole") and a general tendency toward word repetition and excessive stage direction, it's reasonable to guess this was edited poorly or not at all.
The story is also inconsistent in characterization. Is Sarilla the scared fugitive who must avoid going into town where she might be recognized, or the brave sister who needs to save her brother? Is she the meek wimp who can't stop her brother from acting stupidly and getting himself caught, or the sass-talking pain in the backside who's constantly needling her captors even when it endangers her? The level of danger itself is inconsistent; she'll be terrified of someone noticing her on one page, then she'll act recklessly in the open when anyone could see her, because the plot needs her to, so it's fine.
Thematically, there's some inconsistency built on top of the apparent running gag of this novel: "everybody lies." Those two words are used to hide from the reader everything from character backstory and motivations to fundamental ways in which the world operates. World-building was introduced long after it was needed. I didn't know what the "graves" in the forest were that everyone was so terrified about, and when they turned out to be abandoned tunnels one could fall into, no one bothered to explain how they'd come to be called "graves." I knew the name of Sarilla's uncle/antagonist from the beginning, but not that he was King until nearly halfway through the book--that seemed like something that shouldn't have been a mystery. I didn't know there was another country peopled by memoria until even later--when Sarilla finally gets a "quest," just in time for the narrative to switch from her POV to Falon's.
The story suffered from a pronounced lack of direction, resulting from most of the important characters spending most of their time without any real agency.
I was floundering through Sarilla's half of the book trying to figure out what her goal was. At first, it seemed simple--stay safe long enough to get to the rest of her family. Okay. But why? The story never told me what was going to happen when they were reunited. (No, wait, it did, another character explained it in the final chapters that aren't even from her POV.) She abandons her brother because he's going to get them caught. She changes her mind and searches for him. He's caught by the army. She follows so she can get him back, but she gets captured by her former lover and his companions in the process. They kidnap her...why? It's not clear for a while. When it turns out it's so Falon can regain his stolen memories, they all turn around and go back for her brother, who has them. Except then he's dead, and so is the rest of her family. At 40%. I was literally staring at the text and thinking, "So the book's over then? Sarilla can't reunite with her family, which I thought was her arc, and Falon can't get his memories back, because the brother is dead."
I should not be having a standoff with a book about whether or not the story is over at 40%.
And it's not, because hey! everybody lies! Sarilla actually as Falon's memories, so he still has a goal. But she doesn't! Because I have no idea what she wants now! At the halfway mark, Falon takes her before the King and he says "So how about you help me destroy all the memoria in this other country that hasn't been talked about at all before?"
She accepts. I'm not clear on why at the time, though eventually it's explained that her deep self-hatred makes her want to destroy the monsters she came from. But also it's the King's idea to eventually double-cross them. Sarilla never seems to make her own decisions.
But the narrative switches POV to Falon, and for a while it looks like things are getting better, plot-wise. There's a clear goal: Sarilla's going to destroy stuff and Falon's sticking around to get her memories back from her.
Only then Falon loses his agency by getting taken over by blackvine, which turns out to be a physical form of infectious memory/psychic connection to the race of memoria under threat. Once it's a part of him, it's serious emotional whiplash between hating Sarilla and loving her--the memoria want her because she might have their ancient repository of racial memory. Or not. But probably. But she says she doesn't.
Any interest I still had, I lost here, though I made myself finish the book as it's for a book club. The constant "everybody lies" story-washing gives the narrative permission to make every character so unreliable there's no ground to stand on for a reader to accurately interpret the text. The ending reveals so many layers of betrayal that no one is who we thought they were--except I barely thought these characters were anyone specific already, because for most of Sarilla's half, she's fighting against being overwhelmed by floating memories that constantly distract her from reality. For Falon's half, he spends a great deal of it possessed by a foreign collective consciousness. No one can go five pages without a radical shift in self-perception or opinions expressed or behaviors modified.
At the bitter end, Falon believes that Sarilla wasn't born a monster because of her power (despite saying so at various points at least half a dozen times) but that the King "made" her that way. Then, when he gets his memories back and finds out his part in shaping her actions, he believes that he made her a monster. In both cases, again, the agency for the only female character in the book, the titular character, is usurped by the influence of male characters who take credit/blame for making her who she is. Ultimately, that's a pretty misogynist conclusion that I don't care for.
The entire novel is an inconsistent, sucking quicksand pit of a story. I cannot recommend it to anyone and won't be reading the next book.
The most obvious being technical presentation, as it's riddled with errors. There are several instances of words being incorrectly used in place of their homonyms: "taught" when it should be "taut," "vile" when it's obviously meant to be "vial," and so forth. In addition, a word specific to the story--Sarilla's unwanted nickname--switches between "beastie" and "beasty" frequently, sometimes even on the same page. Stack those errors on top of repeated incorrect hyphenation (both present when it shouldn't be in things like "dirt-track" and missing when it should be present, like "Sarilla shaped hole") and a general tendency toward word repetition and excessive stage direction, it's reasonable to guess this was edited poorly or not at all.
The story is also inconsistent in characterization. Is Sarilla the scared fugitive who must avoid going into town where she might be recognized, or the brave sister who needs to save her brother? Is she the meek wimp who can't stop her brother from acting stupidly and getting himself caught, or the sass-talking pain in the backside who's constantly needling her captors even when it endangers her? The level of danger itself is inconsistent; she'll be terrified of someone noticing her on one page, then she'll act recklessly in the open when anyone could see her, because the plot needs her to, so it's fine.
Thematically, there's some inconsistency built on top of the apparent running gag of this novel: "everybody lies." Those two words are used to hide from the reader everything from character backstory and motivations to fundamental ways in which the world operates. World-building was introduced long after it was needed. I didn't know what the "graves" in the forest were that everyone was so terrified about, and when they turned out to be abandoned tunnels one could fall into, no one bothered to explain how they'd come to be called "graves." I knew the name of Sarilla's uncle/antagonist from the beginning, but not that he was King until nearly halfway through the book--that seemed like something that shouldn't have been a mystery. I didn't know there was another country peopled by memoria until even later--when Sarilla finally gets a "quest," just in time for the narrative to switch from her POV to Falon's.
The story suffered from a pronounced lack of direction, resulting from most of the important characters spending most of their time without any real agency.
I was floundering through Sarilla's half of the book trying to figure out what her goal was. At first, it seemed simple--stay safe long enough to get to the rest of her family. Okay. But why? The story never told me what was going to happen when they were reunited. (No, wait, it did, another character explained it in the final chapters that aren't even from her POV.) She abandons her brother because he's going to get them caught. She changes her mind and searches for him. He's caught by the army. She follows so she can get him back, but she gets captured by her former lover and his companions in the process. They kidnap her...why? It's not clear for a while. When it turns out it's so Falon can regain his stolen memories, they all turn around and go back for her brother, who has them. Except then he's dead, and so is the rest of her family. At 40%. I was literally staring at the text and thinking, "So the book's over then? Sarilla can't reunite with her family, which I thought was her arc, and Falon can't get his memories back, because the brother is dead."
I should not be having a standoff with a book about whether or not the story is over at 40%.
And it's not, because hey! everybody lies! Sarilla actually as Falon's memories, so he still has a goal. But she doesn't! Because I have no idea what she wants now! At the halfway mark, Falon takes her before the King and he says "So how about you help me destroy all the memoria in this other country that hasn't been talked about at all before?"
She accepts. I'm not clear on why at the time, though eventually it's explained that her deep self-hatred makes her want to destroy the monsters she came from. But also it's the King's idea to eventually double-cross them. Sarilla never seems to make her own decisions.
But the narrative switches POV to Falon, and for a while it looks like things are getting better, plot-wise. There's a clear goal: Sarilla's going to destroy stuff and Falon's sticking around to get her memories back from her.
Only then Falon loses his agency by getting taken over by blackvine, which turns out to be a physical form of infectious memory/psychic connection to the race of memoria under threat. Once it's a part of him, it's serious emotional whiplash between hating Sarilla and loving her--the memoria want her because she might have their ancient repository of racial memory. Or not. But probably. But she says she doesn't.
Any interest I still had, I lost here, though I made myself finish the book as it's for a book club. The constant "everybody lies" story-washing gives the narrative permission to make every character so unreliable there's no ground to stand on for a reader to accurately interpret the text. The ending reveals so many layers of betrayal that no one is who we thought they were--except I barely thought these characters were anyone specific already, because for most of Sarilla's half, she's fighting against being overwhelmed by floating memories that constantly distract her from reality. For Falon's half, he spends a great deal of it possessed by a foreign collective consciousness. No one can go five pages without a radical shift in self-perception or opinions expressed or behaviors modified.
At the bitter end, Falon believes that Sarilla wasn't born a monster because of her power (despite saying so at various points at least half a dozen times) but that the King "made" her that way. Then, when he gets his memories back and finds out his part in shaping her actions, he believes that he made her a monster. In both cases, again, the agency for the only female character in the book, the titular character, is usurped by the influence of male characters who take credit/blame for making her who she is. Ultimately, that's a pretty misogynist conclusion that I don't care for.
The entire novel is an inconsistent, sucking quicksand pit of a story. I cannot recommend it to anyone and won't be reading the next book.
kitvaria_sarene's review
5.0
4,5 stars
This was our second favourite SPFBO finalist at the Hive - find our full review here: https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2021/04/last-memoria-by-rachel-emma-shaw-spfbo-6-finalist-review/
For me, the books biggest strength is definitely it's characters. While a few scenes could have used a bit more depth, overall I enjoyed spending my time with them, and finding out what happened to them, as we quickly learn there is some shared past. I cared for them and was eager to find out how they would fare!
The plot was both a strength and a weakness of this book. There is some back and forth and back again that just felt so very, very ineffective of the characters, as it could have been so easily avoided when they had just spoken two sentences with each other. And being on the road together all day for days on end, I would expect they would have done so. That part just didn’t feel very smooth or realistic to me. The plot often goes the exact opposite way of what I expected, and while I love being surprised by books, some of these twists just felt a bit rushed. With a few scenes I’d have loved a bit more padding around the edges. On the other hand I have read so many fantasy books, that any book that surprises me not once, not twice, but again and again is a definite plus, so I’d say these balance each other out for me.
I also loved the world building! We have memory stealing magic, and we have a world that seems both familiar and also foreign at the same time. There's ruins and a mysterious threat called "blackvine" in the woods, and I enjoyed puzzling together a bigger picture throughout the story!
Despite a few flaws, I enjoyed this one from start to finish. There’s tremendous talent at display, and like Theo I will not just pick up the sequel, I will definitely keep a close eye on the author from here on out!
This was our second favourite SPFBO finalist at the Hive - find our full review here: https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2021/04/last-memoria-by-rachel-emma-shaw-spfbo-6-finalist-review/
For me, the books biggest strength is definitely it's characters. While a few scenes could have used a bit more depth, overall I enjoyed spending my time with them, and finding out what happened to them, as we quickly learn there is some shared past. I cared for them and was eager to find out how they would fare!
The plot was both a strength and a weakness of this book. There is some back and forth and back again that just felt so very, very ineffective of the characters, as it could have been so easily avoided when they had just spoken two sentences with each other. And being on the road together all day for days on end, I would expect they would have done so. That part just didn’t feel very smooth or realistic to me. The plot often goes the exact opposite way of what I expected, and while I love being surprised by books, some of these twists just felt a bit rushed. With a few scenes I’d have loved a bit more padding around the edges. On the other hand I have read so many fantasy books, that any book that surprises me not once, not twice, but again and again is a definite plus, so I’d say these balance each other out for me.
I also loved the world building! We have memory stealing magic, and we have a world that seems both familiar and also foreign at the same time. There's ruins and a mysterious threat called "blackvine" in the woods, and I enjoyed puzzling together a bigger picture throughout the story!
Despite a few flaws, I enjoyed this one from start to finish. There’s tremendous talent at display, and like Theo I will not just pick up the sequel, I will definitely keep a close eye on the author from here on out!
tabatha_shipley's review
5.0
What I Did Like:
-Dual POV storyline. I’ve seen that done a lot. I haven’t often seen it done like this and I LOVED the way it shaped this story.
-The messages and themes in this one are HUGE. Really the entire book could be driven by the question if you had a chance to cut one thing from your memory, would you? Big messages, big lessons.
-Characters. They’re both so much deeper than they seem on the surface and I loved diving into their backgrounds. This book has MORALITY QUESTIONS, which is one of my favorite things to see in YA books. Can you be a good person if you have done bad things?
Who Should Read This One:
-Fantasy readers. The world created here by memory reading is wonderful. It’s a great dive into a fantasy world that has been well conceptualized.
-Science Fiction fans who like books that go just outside the realm of plausible into something that forces them to THINK.
-Readers who like BIG emotions packed into their characters.
My Rating: 5 Stars. This will appeal to a wide range of readers. Highly recommended!
For Full Review (including what I didn’t like): https://youtu.be/e27XHLzNjdg
-Dual POV storyline. I’ve seen that done a lot. I haven’t often seen it done like this and I LOVED the way it shaped this story.
-The messages and themes in this one are HUGE. Really the entire book could be driven by the question if you had a chance to cut one thing from your memory, would you? Big messages, big lessons.
-Characters. They’re both so much deeper than they seem on the surface and I loved diving into their backgrounds. This book has MORALITY QUESTIONS, which is one of my favorite things to see in YA books. Can you be a good person if you have done bad things?
Who Should Read This One:
-Fantasy readers. The world created here by memory reading is wonderful. It’s a great dive into a fantasy world that has been well conceptualized.
-Science Fiction fans who like books that go just outside the realm of plausible into something that forces them to THINK.
-Readers who like BIG emotions packed into their characters.
My Rating: 5 Stars. This will appeal to a wide range of readers. Highly recommended!
For Full Review (including what I didn’t like): https://youtu.be/e27XHLzNjdg
pizzabrot's review
5.0
4.5 stars. Everything was SO good except for the sloppy editing (if there even was any?). Renford's eyes constantly switch between dark brown and pale blue, and sentences start one way and ending a completely different one grammatically (see what I did there?) . It's fine though, I still absolutely LOVED the writing style, the characters and the whole plot in general. The ending was a bit too muddled for my taste, but still really well done and it means a lot that I suffer unnecessary continuity errors like mentioned above with pleasure if it means having a book like this.
Not really sure this book needed a sequel, but you can bet that I'm going to read it anyway.
Not really sure this book needed a sequel, but you can bet that I'm going to read it anyway.