A review by willkay
You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon

2.0

You Remind Me of Me by Dan Choan

As I started this book I was reminded of another book I have read, The Tesseract. I loved the Tesseract - it is a story that tells of single hour/moment to six totally disparate people whose lives suddenly collide. The book, however, rather than dealing with the moment, spends the time filling in the lives and back stories of the six people. I found the lives of each person fascinating but, by the end (or at least two thirds of the book) felt that the writer, Alex Garland, lost his nerve. Instead of telling the last two character's stories with the same depth, he sort of "bottled out" and just went for the ending of the book. By the end I sort of felt cheated and a book that I was really enjoying and had invested emotionally into, became a bit "meh".

You Remind Me of Me does the same thing. It tells stories about people however these people are all linked. The beginning of the book is understanding how these lives are linked. The author uses a system of jumping around chronologically so that different parts of the tale get filled in and different times. It also adds to the suspense as you try to put the clues together. The book is divided into three parts and the first part is wonderful. Picking up clues, understanding the motivation of the characters, knowing how things are going to happen, builds the suspense. By the time I had got through 150 pages I was seriously enjoying the book. And then the book managed to remind me of The Tesseract again. The final 200 pages just don't work as well. You feel that the author has given up. Once he has these fully rounded characters he becomes lazy and really doesn't write about them with as much depth and feeling - he tends to write with "broad strokes" letting the reader fill in the details.

On the whole it was an enjoyable read. After the first half of the book I was ready to recommend this to anyone and everyone because the first half was brilliant. However, having got to the end I wouldn't recommend this. If you get the chance to pick it up in a "Buy 2 get 1 free" moment and you can't find that third book - go for it. If someone gives it to you as a present, well done! But I wouldn't recommend that you spend your money on it!