Me on The One Memory of Flora Banks

Title: The One Memory of Flora Banks
Author: Emily Barr
Release Date: May 2, 2017
Publisher: Philomel Books (Penguin imprint)

Seventeen-year-old Flora Banks has no short-term memory. Her mind resets itself several times a day, and has since the age of ten, when the tumor that was removed from Flora's brain took with it her ability to make new memories. That is, until she kisses Drake, her best friend's boyfriend, the night before he leaves town. Miraculously, this one memory breaks through Flora's fractured mind, and sticks. Flora is convinced that Drake is responsible for restoring her memory and making her whole again. So when an encouraging email from Drake suggests she meet him on the other side of the world, Flora knows with certainty that this is the first step toward reclaiming her life. With little more than the words "be brave" inked into her skin, and written reminders of who she is and why her memory is so limited, Flora sets off on an impossible journey to Svalbard, Norway, the land of the midnight sun, determined to find Drake. But from the moment she arrives in the arctic, nothing is quite as it seems, and Flora must "be brave" if she is ever to learn the truth about herself, and to make it safely home.

The One Memory of Flora Banks is an intriguing look at memory and perception, at a girl who has no short-term memory but can suddenly remember a kiss, at what makes her feel brave, but it missed the mark with me.

Flora is kind, sweet, and friendly, mostly because much of her personality is stuck at the age at which the amnesia first took over her memories. She's a ten-year-old in a seventeen-year-old's body. Because of her type of amnesia, she struggles to keep recent memories in her head. Her life is full of gaps and confusion, notes and post-its and messages scrawled on her arms in thick marker. But then she kisses Drake, her friend Paige's boyfriend, and hours later she can remember it. Days later, she can remember it. This new memory sets off a journey for Flora, away from her home and towards Drake, but there are certain things that some people have been keeping from her.

The premise of this book is interesting, I was drawn in by Flora and her lack of memories of the last seven years. At the idea that she could suddenly remember something. At the idea that something was being kept from her by someone close to her. Reading this isn't like other books, Flora's life happens in spurts and moments, full of repetition and reassurances. But it just didn't click with me, not completely. I felt both interested and not, curious about where Flora would go while waiting for something else to happen. While this didn't completely work out with me, I do think some will enjoy this, those who like contemporary stories with gentle intrigue and mystery about them, those who like lost and unreliable narrators.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Penguin Random House Canada.)

Me on Strange the Dreamer

Title: Strange the Dreamer
Author: Laini Taylor
Release Date: March 28, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around— and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he's been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever. What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving? The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo's dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Strange the Dreamer is haunting, lingering. Lyrical and impossible. The journey of a lifetime for a dreamer such as Lazlo Strange, one he yearned for but never thought it would come true. Until it did.

Lazlo is lost and alone. Abandoned as an infant, raised in an abbey and a library, all he ever had was what he could dream. Something more than his life as an orphan. Something like his true name. But no one was there to tell it to him. And so he dreamed and he wondered, he wrote book after book of possibilities after reading book after book on the lost city called Weep. He knew something was there, something that stirred him up inside. but how would he ever find the chance to leave the library and find out the truth? He's curious and passionate, questioning, a definite romantic, but it leaves him blind. Who is Lazlo Strange?

The city called Weep is a curious place. Covered in shadow and secret, in theft, in missing memories and haunted dreams. What is the truth behind what happened two hundred years ago when the city went quiet? Or what happened fifteen years ago when a name was ripped from everyone's minds? This is a city of ghosts, ghosts of loved ones and ghosts of love. Of gods, their desires, and what grows from them.

Reading this was like watching someone put a puzzle together. Seeing the pieces laid out, separate and unconnected. Lazlo, Thyon Nero, the Godslayer. The city called Weep. The blue-skinned goddess. Seeing the pieces come together, reveal the secrets and the truths lost and forgotten. While reading this I couldn't shake these overwhelming feelings. Sorrow and despair. Fear. A deep-seated craving for the truth, for a place to be. At the beginning I didn't know what would happen, and now at the end I can't wait to wonder what will happen next. I'm certain that fans of Laini Taylor's previous books will devour this.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Hachette Book Group Canada.)

Me on The Swan Riders

Title: The Swan Riders
Author: Erin Bow
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (Simon & Schuster imprint)

Greta Stuart has become AI. New transmitters have silvered her fingerprints. New receptors have transformed her vision. And the whole of her memory has become one book in a vast library of instant knowledge. Greta is ready to rule the world. But the new technology is also killing her. Greta is only sixteen years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. Of course the leader of the AIs, an ancient and compelling artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he's done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult. First though, Greta will have to find a way to stay sane inside her new self. Talis's plan for that involves a road trip. Escorted by Swan Riders, Greta and Talis set out on a horseback journey across the strange and not-quite-deserted landscape of Saskatchewan. But there are other people interested in Greta, people who want to change the world... and the Swan Riders might not be as loyal as they appear.

The Swan Riders is tense, full of gambles and plots and plans. It's a look at what it is to be human, what makes us human, and the lengths we will go to in order to keep our humanity. In order to keep those around us human and sympathetic.

Greta, now an AI with a failing human body, is struggling with a number of problems. One is the decaying of her body. The memories that overwhelm her, that remind her what she left behind. The torture. The quiet moments with Xie. It can hold her AI consciousness for a time, but not forever, and one day she'll have to pick a new body if she wants to continue to move around. Another is Talis, for a number of reasons. And one is the Swan Riders, the army of young people who've volunteered to be the bodies for the AIs. As a former princess, a girl turned captive in order to keep the peace, she knows the Swan Riders as murderers. As angels coming down to Earth in order to carry out justice, to kill the royal children of the parents that dare go to war.

Talis. Oh, Talis. You never expect an AI to be so layered. But circumstances have changed. Talis has changed. Meeting Greta. Being in Rachel's body. The journey to the Red Mountains. His relationship with Greta has changed, from omnipotent intelligence vs stoic princess into something more of a friendship, a companionship. Greta has changed Talis, just as he changed her.

Knowing there would be a follow-up to the punch in the gut that was The Scorpion Rules, I wasn't sure what I expected to find here. More Greta, more of the struggle between her human emotions and her new AI brain, yes. More Talis being amoral and calculating, of course. But I don't know that I expected this. This exploration of what it is to be human. This look at devotion and faith, at the lengths we go to in order to send our message, our hopes, to those we look up to as gods. This book definitely expands on the world of the AIs and their Swan Riders, expands on purpose and end goals. This wasn't the book I expected, I'd hoped for a moment between Greta and Xie but it never happened, but I do think this was a good follow-up. I never knew what was going to happen, who was going to act first, or how Greta was going to fight back in order to keep those she cares about safe. When you read this, be prepared for another punch to the gut.

(I borrowed a copy of this book from the library.)