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A review by purplesky02
The Memory Thief by Emily Colin
3.0
Oh where to begin. There were parts of this book I really liked--the characters were well developed, the plot was interesting. A woman (Maddie) loses her husband (Aidan) in a mountain climbing accident and a stranger across the country (Nicholas) starts having memories of Aidan. The other main characters, JC, Aidan's best-friend and Gabriel, Maddie and Aidan's four year old son, were my two favorite characters. The story is told in alternating point of view, between Maddie, Aidan and Nicholas. I liked seeing how Maddie and Aidan's relationship developed. I liked the overall story, though there were things that annoyed me: the use of initials for names. Aidan is also known as AJ, for unknown reasons. There is the aforementioned JC. I guess that's only two, but I found it annoying. Gabriel is four years old (almost five, they mention), yet he acts like an older child--more like 7 or 8, maybe 9. He doesn't speak like any four year old I've ever seen or met. His mother puts on a movie and it's...Harry Potter? What? Four year olds are watching Harry Potter? What?
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I don't see why Nicholas had to have a dog. The dog wasn't involved in the story at all and in the end he just ends up abandoning him. It made Nicholas seem like kind of a jerk in a small way. I was annoyed with Aidan's ghost or whatever for making his FOUR YEAR OLD SON say goodbye to him three times over, each time leaving Gabe crying. That is awful! And just for your own needs. The sex scenes were a tad ridiculous. A bit overly graphic. There was a common factor in almost every one of them that I won't mention, but it made me say, "What? Why?" every time.
I was ready to really not like the story, I hated Aidan for taking over Nicholas' life for his own needs. However, I did feel the author wrapped it up nicely. I liked the ending a lot and how it all came together. I loved the character of JC--he was warm, caring, kind, considerate (for the most part, and the times he wasn't, his behavior was understandable).
(END SPOILERS)
One last thing--the editing was sloppy. I noticed several errors (incorrect grammar, a random / at the end of a word). The tense was awkward, I wish she'd stuck to past tense instead of switching between the past tense and present tense.
Overall, I did like the book, and I would read more from Emily Colin. It was well researched in regards to the mountain climbing aspects, and as I said before, I thought the characters were well developed and fleshed out, and the overall plot was a very interesting concept. Saying that, I would've just read a book about the whole Maddie/Aidan/JC triangle.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I don't see why Nicholas had to have a dog. The dog wasn't involved in the story at all and in the end he just ends up abandoning him. It made Nicholas seem like kind of a jerk in a small way. I was annoyed with Aidan's ghost or whatever for making his FOUR YEAR OLD SON say goodbye to him three times over, each time leaving Gabe crying. That is awful! And just for your own needs. The sex scenes were a tad ridiculous. A bit overly graphic. There was a common factor in almost every one of them that I won't mention, but it made me say, "What? Why?" every time.
I was ready to really not like the story, I hated Aidan for taking over Nicholas' life for his own needs. However, I did feel the author wrapped it up nicely. I liked the ending a lot and how it all came together. I loved the character of JC--he was warm, caring, kind, considerate (for the most part, and the times he wasn't, his behavior was understandable).
(END SPOILERS)
One last thing--the editing was sloppy. I noticed several errors (incorrect grammar, a random / at the end of a word). The tense was awkward, I wish she'd stuck to past tense instead of switching between the past tense and present tense.
Overall, I did like the book, and I would read more from Emily Colin. It was well researched in regards to the mountain climbing aspects, and as I said before, I thought the characters were well developed and fleshed out, and the overall plot was a very interesting concept. Saying that, I would've just read a book about the whole Maddie/Aidan/JC triangle.