Review: The Memory Key by Liana Liu

In a five-minutes-into-the-future world, a bereaved daughter must choose between losing memories of her mother to the haze of time and the reality-distorting, visceral pain of complete, perfect recall.

Lora Mint is determined not to forget.

Though her mother’s been dead for five years, Lora struggles to remember every detail about her—most importantly, the specific events that occurred the night she sped off in her car, never to return.

But in a world ravaged by Vergets disease, a viral form of Alzheimer’s, that isn’t easy. Usually Lora is aided by her memory key, a standard-issue chip embedded in her brain that preserves memories just the way a human brain would. Then a minor accident damages Lora’s key, and her memories go haywire. Suddenly Lora remembers a moment from the night of her mother’s disappearance that indicates her death was no accident. Can she trust these formerly forgotten memories? Or is her ability to remember every painful part of her past driving her slowly mad—burying the truth forever?

Lora’s longing for her lost mother and journey to patch up her broken memories is filled with authentic and poignant emotion. Her race to uncover the truth is a twisty ride. In the end, Liana Liu’s story will spark topical conversations about memory and privacy in a world that is reliant on increasingly invasive forms of technology.

I think it's best that I mention right now that I didn't finish this book - I gave it my best shot, got to around the halfway mark, but I couldn't finish it. It's a pity because I had soooo many high hopes for The Memory Key, but this book just didn't live up to it. It lacked in world building, the main character was reckless and annoying and the romance seemed pointless, underdeveloped and not interesting. 

I think my main problem though was the formatting and the writing. I don't know if this is because of issues with the eGalley or if it will be the same in the published version, but it was so hard to tell when Lora was having a flashback and this was really disorientating and really put me off my trail. As well as that, the writing was another big let down. The dialogue seemed overly formal and clumsy, it was difficult to read and actually feel immersed in this conversation because I was too busy cringing at some of the wording.

The storyline was good, the premise was interesting and I was in half of a mind to push myself through just to see how it ended, but with a review schedule absolutely packed until at least June, I have much better books to spend my time reading...

Overall Rating: DNF

Book released 3rd March 2015 by HarperTeen

Book received from the author in exchange for an honest review