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keen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Miscarriage and Car accident
Minor: Murder, Child death, and Dementia
saturnsheart's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Confinement, and Miscarriage
Minor: Bullying and Death
andhe's review
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
An engaging short novel that is similar in concept to 'Westworld', 'Blade Runner', 'Never Let Me Go', or any other science-fiction work which focuses on the experience of artificial humans, be they clones, androids or some other creation. Like many of those works Mem explores the question of whether artificial life that so closely emulates our own possesses the quality of personhood, but Mem also adds its own creative twist; it's artificial humans (Mems) are avatars containing the extracted memories of the upper-class residents of art deco era Montreal. These mems have no true sentience of their own, they re-enact and relive the extracted memory of their source over and over again until they wither and die. But our heroine and the point of view character of the novel is different; she is the first Mem capable of forming her own memories and therefore her own identity.
To discuss the details and ramifications of the memory extraction process in detail would spoil much of the novel. However what I can say is that the focus on memory, on what we choose to remember and on what we choose to forget gives this novel it's own distinctive character that differentiates it enough from the heavy-hitting novels and films in the genre that have trod similar ground. Morrow's ability to find that point of difference and her elegiac prose make this a worthwhile and engaging read by and large.
To discuss the details and ramifications of the memory extraction process in detail would spoil much of the novel. However what I can say is that the focus on memory, on what we choose to remember and on what we choose to forget gives this novel it's own distinctive character that differentiates it enough from the heavy-hitting novels and films in the genre that have trod similar ground. Morrow's ability to find that point of difference and her elegiac prose make this a worthwhile and engaging read by and large.
Content Warnings
Minor: Miscarriage
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