Remembering Loves From Lives Before

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

So after many years of searching and pining over finding a book club, I have finally found one. I have had friends in other cities talk about their book clubs and I have always been a little jealous because that is so up my alley. I went to my first book club meeting on May 20th and guess what? I didn’t even finish the book. They graciously let me stay in the club, but I gave my word that I would do better next time.

My Name is Memory was the first book I was charged to read in the “Olive Books, book club” and I finished it just a few hours shy of the deadline. I am glad that I took the time to finish it before I charged on to the next read.

Daniel moved to Lucy’s school when they were both juniors in high school. Even though they didn’t share but a few words during the duration of their high school career, Lucy was drawn to him. She spent those two years dwelling on how he would react to all of the different things she did, from the clothes she wore, to the food she ate, she would fantasize about how Daniel would react to her daily decisions. On the evening of their senior party, Daniel actually talks to her, but to her surprise, she doesn’t like what he has to say. He explains that he is a special boy, he is just like the rest of the human race in the fact that all souls are reincarnated and brought back to earth many times to fulfill each soul’s purpose. But he is special in the sense that he can remember each life no matter how long or short. In his first life he was a soldier and the audience went along with his older brother and a few others to burn down a village that had been hiding their tribe’s enemies. He burned down a few huts and came to another and could not get it to start. He met the eyes of a girl that would haunt him the rest of his lives. He burnt the hut down and watched her die. Throughout the centuries to follow he would find this soul even though she would look different, his soul was destined to find hers. His older brother from his first life was also in and out of Daniel’s life. He had darkness about him that Daniel could always recognize and evil precedes him in all of his different lives.

Let’s start with the dislikes, I found myself confused during the first few chapters because I could never figure out where the story was taking place. There was a header that would say a city and a date, but not a lot of further explanation was given after that. After a while I got used to it or I just gave it a little more thought, either way it became less confusing as the book progressed.

I also found some of the “surprises” not surprising. A better way of stating that, is there wasn’t much that was introduced that took me by surprise. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail with that because I’m just not in the mood to give spoilers. All that to say, you probably won’t be sitting on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what’s going on, pretty self explanatory.

Now for what I enjoyed; there is a suspense that comes with reading a book that the audience knows all the different sides of the story and the other characters do not. I personally write in first person and often gravitate to books written in the first person, but it was a nice change of pace to read a third person piece.

One tiny detail that I just had to bring up is the fact that Daniel actually facebook stalked her. He not only stalked her in the story, which has become this romantic notion in young adult literature, but he checked up on her status changes, which cracked me up.

The last idea that I wanted to talk about was the whole remembering idea. I first of all do not believe in reincarnation and so this became a fantasy novel for me from the beginning. But I did enjoy that Constance, one of Lucy’s former selves made her remember. She felt so passionate about Daniel that she not only left herself a letter, but made Lucy remember through dreams and visions. I like the idea of that kind of love that goes beyond time and space. Even when you can’t remember, love makes you remember. It’s a neat concept.

So, what did you think, did you read My Name is Memory? Did you enjoy it? Who was your favorite character?