Worlds Unlike Our Own

Hello readers! Welcome to my stop on the Inkyard Press Fall 2021 YA Blog Tour for Lies My Memory Told Me by Sacha Wunsch! Thank you to Inkyard Press and the author for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this tour.

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Synopsis: Enhanced Memory changed everything. By sharing someone else’s memory, you can experience anything and everything with no risk at all: learn any skill instantly, travel the world from home, and safeguard all your most treasured secrets forever. Nova’s parents invented this technology, and it’s slowly taking over their lives. Nova doesn’t mind—mostly. She knows Enhanced Memory is a gift.

But Kade says Nova doesn’t know the costs of this technology that’s taken the world by storm. Kade runs a secret vlog cataloging real experiences, is always on the move, and is strangely afraid of Nova—even though she feels more comfortable with him than she ever has with anyone. Suddenly there are things Nova can’t stop noticing: the way her parents don’t meet her eyes anymore, the questions no one wants her to ask, and the relentless feeling that there’s something she’s forgotten.

But there’s danger around every corner, and her own home might be the most dangerous place of all.

Review:
Thank you to the publisher, Inkyard Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nova is the daughter of two scientists who invented Enhanced Memory, a technology that has taken the world by storm and changed the lives of people everywhere. A form of memory sharing, it makes it possible to experience anything, from learning new skills, to traveling the world, to partaking in the most dangerous of adventure sports in a completely risk free manner. Nova has always considered it a gift that has made people’s lives better, until she meets Kade, a critic of the technology who claims that there are serious long term effects to using it. He runs a secret channel where he creates videos of real experiences and seems almost paranoid about staying under the radar. While Nova initially dismisses his words, the more she pays attention to things around her, they begin to feel out of place, as she begins to have a feeling that she has forgotten something very important.

I’ve had this ARC for a couple of months now, and had set it aside to read closer to the release date, but I was pretty nervous to pick it up because of the mixed reviews I started to see. Having read this however, I’m quite confused about the lower ratings and negative reviews this is getting because I rather enjoyed it. The writing itself was average but the concept of Enhanced Memory was a fascinating one and I love reading about futuristic technology like this. But the more intriguing aspect of the story was the question of morality that hung over it all, making the reader question, right alongside Nova, how right was it to use this technology and how far were they willing to go to get the memories needed for it, particularly as she started to discover the shadier side of how it worked and what could be done with it.

Nova was a good protagonist and seeing through her perspective how her thoughts on the EM technology change as she learns about how different each person’s experiences are was very interesting. Nova’s parents, on the other hand, didn’t feel like real characters at all, just people there for the purpose of the plot. I’m not sure how intentional it was, but this largely contributed to the ending falling flat, and a little more development on their arcs would have helped a lot.

Admittedly, this was a little predictable after the 60% mark, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. What didn’t work for me however, was how quickly everything was resolved in the end. It wasn’t a pacing issue since the same brisk narration was maintained right until the end, but revealing a conspiracy of the scale that it turned out to be should have been much harder than what Nova needed to do. Also, while it did tie up all the important points, I didn’t feel like it was a complete ending – an epilogue of some sort would have been a really good inclusion.

Overall, this was a fun, fast-paced read with a unique story concept, appropriate for both middle grade and YA. It’s definitely a very different kind of novel, kind of a mix of a mystery and a psychological thriller, and if you’re a fan of either, I would definitely recommend this book!

Lies My Memory Told Me releases on October 19th, 2021.

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About the Author

Sacha Wunsch grew up dividing her time between the family farm in Canada and traveling to numerous fictional worlds. She was a bookseller before discovering her love of writing mind-twisty novels – which has proved an excellent job since she gets to blame all the TV she watches on her love of storytelling. She now splits her time between the city and the lake, and still travels to made-up worlds as often as she can.

Social Media Links: Website | Twitter | Instagram

Buy this book at:
Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Google Play | Kobo | Libro FM | Target | Walmart

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Do you plan to read this book? Let me know in the comments below!

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