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MEM cover art

MEM

Written by: Bethany C. Morrow
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
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Publisher's Summary

MEM is a rare novel, a small book carrying very big ideas, the kind of story that stays with you long after you've finished listening to it. Set in the glittering art deco world of a century ago, MEM makes one slight alteration to history: a scientist in Montreal discovers a method allowing people to have their memories extracted from their minds, whole and complete. 

The Mems exist as mirror-images of their source-zombie-like creatures destined to experience that singular memory over and over, until they expire in the cavernous Vault where they are kept. And then there is Dolores Extract #1, the first Mem capable of creating her own memories. An ageless beauty shrouded in mystery, she is allowed to live on her own, and create her own existence, until one day she is summoned back to the Vault. What happens next is a gorgeously rendered, heart-breaking novel in the vein of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

Debut novelist Bethany Morrow has created an allegory for our own time, exploring profound questions of ownership and how they relate to identity, memory, and history, all in the shadows of Montreal's now forgotten slave trade.

©2018 Bethany C. Morrow (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about MEM

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  • Overall
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  • 2022-11-24

An interesting concept

Not fully compelled by this storyline and the narration was a bit overdone in a very lamenting tone. Toooo much lamentation!
An interesting concept - reminded me of The Island but sadly fell short of it's potential in my opinion.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great SciFi!

I really enjoyed this one and thought there was so much good conversation about "true" selves and what constitutes "yourself." I loved the alternative history aspect to this, but found it was really hard to be anchored in the year/time because it was never quite clear if it was the past, present, or some variation of the future.

I really liked the characters and how they developed. It was interesting to me how Dolores Extract #1 is viewed and treated by different characters and people in her life. Most of this was based on other people's opinions and fears of what a free thinking individual can pose for them.

I wasn't a huge fan of the "romance" that was included, even though it started to make me feel things at the end. It felt a little out of place to me - a little forced, jammed in, and not as developed as I would have liked. If this book had been longer (it was less than 200 pages!), I think it would have been better for the romance to develop.

I really liked listening to this as an audio. The narrator did a great job of having the right inflections, reactions, and tone to how she explained the story. It made it easy to determine who was speaking to Dolores Extract #1 and how she felt about it. However, it also made it difficult to understand the time period and if we were in the past or present.

It took me a bit to get into this one, but once I did, I couldn't stop reading! I got hooked on the characters, their development, and even their relationships. If you like the idea of holding onto memories, losing memories, and being a Person, this is definitely the book for you.

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    4 out of 5 stars

I really liked this.

It's not the greatest thing I've read but I really liked it and am going to start following the author. At first the holes in the science fiction concept bugged me (why would extracting a memory create a whole body?" but the story is good enough that it was easy to suspend my belief. The ending is perfect: I didn't predict it myself but it made complete sense.

The narration is perfect (for me,) Soneela Nankani has a beautiful voice and it's not over the top nor dull

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