The Memory Thief

by Lauren Mansy

This thrilling YA fantasy debut follows seventeen-year-old Etta Lark as she navigates the underworld of Craewick to pull off the heist of a lifetime. A YALSA (The Young Adult Library Services Association) Teens' Top Ten Book for 2020, Mansy crafts a grim reality where memories are worth their weight in gold.    

In the city of Craewick, memories reign.   

The power-obsessed ruler of the city, Madame, has cultivated a society in which memories are currency, citizens are divided by ability, and Gifted individuals can take memories from others through touch as they please.   

Seventeen-year-old Etta Lark is desperate to live outside of the corrupt culture, but she grapples with the guilt of an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city's asylum. When Madame threatens to put her mother up for auction, a Craewick practice in which a "criminal's" memories are sold to the highest bidder before being killed, Etta will do whatever it takes to save her. Even if it means rejoining the Shadows, the rebel group she swore off in the wake of the accident years earlier.   

To rescue her mother, Etta must prove her allegiance to the Shadows by stealing a memorized map of the Maze, a formidable prison created by the bloodthirsty ruler of a neighboring Realm. Etta faces startling attacks, unexpected romance, and, above all, her own past as she uncovers a conspiracy that challenges everything she knew about herself and the world around her.   

In a place where nothing is what it seems, can Etta ever become more than a memory thief? 

Perfect for fans of high-stakemagical heists such as: 

• Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows) 
• Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen) 
• Roshani Chokshi (The Gilded Wolves)   

 

"Mansy's debut will delight fantasy readers who revel in fully developed settings and unusual powers."- Booklist   

"A welcome addition to the YA fantasy canon, The Memory Thief is a suspenseful page-turner, delightfully chock full of unexpected twists and turns."- Shelf Awareness

• ISBN10: 0310767652
• ISBN13: 9780310767657
• Publish Date: 14 November 2019 (first published 1 October 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Imprint: Blink
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

[tweetybugshouse]

Mansy has weaved a tale of gritty, dark world where memories can be stolen, bought and give away. A world with desperate people trying to survive under a power hungry ruler named simply Madame. She holds the lives of the citizen under her thrall and forces them to use their powers to control others. Your memories are your currency that you can only hope will keep you alive one more day as you are forced to sell them. She keeps our main character in check due to a cruel twist of fate that but her mother in coma so she wasting away in an asylum.

Etta is determined to live outside of this cruel world that has sprung up around her. She used to belong to a group called the shadows who are determined to change things. Off on a dangerous quest into another realm with another ruler who she been told her whole life is just as cruel as the one she trying to take down. Here where the excitement, plot twists, and a bit of romance and heart ache really explode. I throughly enjoyed this book and really wish it was a series to often we get one book and that it and it all about taking back the city i like to see more beyond just the rescue. Though this author does give us just a bit of what happens in the after math including the end result with the cruel ruler Madam.

Pick this one up or pre order it due out October 1, 2019.