REVIEW
I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review. I was immediately intrigued by the title and fact that dealt with memory. I thought it would be quite intriguing and thought provoking. The author also writes children's fiction under M. P. Kozlowsky but this is his debut adult novel.
SYNOPSIS
"Never trust other people's memories, and watch out for your own
Sean Whittlesea was there when his wife was murdered. He saw the light leave her eyes. He held her dead body in his arms. He knows he wept, but he cannot recollect a single other detail. Tormented by the tragedy, Sean relives the horror over and over again. As he struggles to recall what really happened, his imagination serves up an endless chain of scenarios. The truth, however, remains hidden in the vault of his memory, and the key is nowhere to be found. Nearly two decades later, Sean, now remarried and a father of two, wins a bizarre contest hosted by his eccentric boss. The prize is the Memory Palace, a state-of-the-art black box that purportedly allows its possessor to relive every moment he has ever experienced, playing out all the memories on a screen. While the small machine at first appears to be the answer to the mystery surrounding the death of his wife, it instead upends Sean's life. He pushes his family further and further away as the Memory Palace forces him to confront harsh realities and difficult questions that he lacks the strength to face or answer. Spiraling downward, Sean encounters increasingly harrowing challenges that force him to realize that his memory is not the only thing at stake. To recover the truth about his past, Sean must fight for his very life."
MY THOUGHTS
I really loved the idea of this book. Memory is such an interesting thing because two people can remember the same event completely differently yet neither of them is lying per se. What our memories choose to keep is a mystery. This book really did make me think about what would happen if such an ingrained memory was actually false. There are some really important ones that I think back on and can't imagine not remembering. But can I trust my memory or am I making it better than it actually was? That is the part of this book I loved. Sci-fi hits the nail in the head for me when it can be both entertaining and make me think. It can serve as a jumping off point for contemplation and important questioning, both of which this book did well at.
Where it started to go downhill for me were the characters. I disliked pretty much every single character in this book. I understand that they were probably written to be unlikeable, however, these characters actions bordered on deplorable. Family drama is something that does not hold my attention well. These sort of family conflicts that dissolve into yelling matches seem whiny and make the characters come off as unhinged. I did not think the main character acted like an adult. His son, who was also quite annoying (but as a teenager I understand it more), seemed like more of an adult than he did.
He took me out of the aspect of the book I was enjoying. I wanted less life and family drama and more of the actual sci-fi elements. Overall, while I did really enjoy certain things in this book. I found myself wishing it were over sooner than it was. For such a short book, it took me way too long to get through because every time the character threw a hissy fit I had to put it down. And that was just about every other page it seemed like, especially towards the end. While this did bring up some interesting concepts and questions, I did not enjoy it as much as I was hoping to.
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