The Memory Thief

By: Lauren Mansy

Narrated by: Lora Brown

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

In the realms of The Memory Thief, memories are currency that can be traded for goods, services, skills, and experiences. A group of people—the Gifted—can steal and redistribute memories. Etta is secretly one of them, but she hasn’t used her Gifted abilities since she left the rebel Shadows following her mother’s accident two years ago. But when her mother is again in danger, Etta has no choice but to return to the underground group in order to complete her greatest heist and save her mother’s life. 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?

"Readers, like Etta and her fellow citizens, will be challenged to contemplate the nature of truth.... 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)

The Memory Thief:

• Is perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Victoria Aveyard
• Brings listeners on an unforgettable journey during which Etta must learn—often the hard way—just what it will take to save her city and her mother
• Is a clean, coming-of-age YA fantasy, with unexpected romance by up-and-coming author Lauren Mansy

©2019 Lauren Mansy (P)2019 Blink

Critic reviews

"A thought-provoking and unique YA fantasy, The Memory Thief is a engrossing and lovely story. Twists and turns keep the reader guessing as they follow Etta on her physical and mental journey."—YA and Kids Books Central

"As evidenced by The Memory Thief, author Lauren Mansy has a genuine talent for narrative storytelling and an authentic flair for originality. A riveting great read with more plot twists and turns than a Disney Land roller coaster, The Memory Thief'will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to school and community library YA Fiction and amp; Fantasy Fiction collections."—Midwest Book Review

Great Story Book/Poor Performance

Great story fir young adults. Decent writing, enjoyable fast read.

The performance of the audible version though was not so good. The narrator lacked the ability to change her voice enough for different characters that often I had trouble discerning which character was speaking. There was little inflection in her voice so the story telling wasn’t captivating.

Very well written

It wasnt long or had too many unnecessary details. perfect! just the way I like it. great read.

Overall good story

Great unique concepts but I had trouble understanding many of them. There were also a lot of characters, which I found difficult to keep up with. Overall, I love the originality of the story.

Meh

I wasn’t a fan of the author’s writing style. Lots of repetitive phrases.
The main character was bland and an unexceptional character. Typical hero with powers beyond explanation who doesn’t believe in herself.
The magic system was complicated to understand and felt overly convenient like it offered an easy explanation for too many things.
There were so many terms that needed defining so the author had to work in some info dumps early on and even then I was kind of confused from time to time.
The plot felt very juvenile to me. Etta had very few setbacks. Everything seemed to go her way. Even the ending felt like a “well, I guess someone has to die” sort of thing.
The audio narrator was average. Not a great deal of variation in tone or voices. Pleasant voice to listen to but not particularly energized.

Unique story

it seems like there could be a benefit from more details. Overall, I really enjoyed the listen.

Interesting but already done

I like the concept of the book overall. Commoditizing memories is an interesting idea. However I feel like the dystopian quadrant/sector society has already been done better by other series like the Hunger Games and the Divergent series. Also wish the performance of the audio book was more energetic and not monotone or flat.

starts slow but picks up and doesn't slow down.

starts slow but picks up and doesn't slow down. I enjoyed the twist that came about around chapter 11 or 12

Incredibly boring

Perhaps it’s because this is a YA book (which I didn’t realize when buying) and I’m far from a YA, but this just wasn’t good.

Overall boring story. Forgettable characters. Unconvincingly heroic and increasingly annoying main character. One-dimensional villain. Unnecessary love interest.

There are other, much better books centering around memory. I’ve read at least one in the past month.

I would have quit this an hour in, but I promised myself that I would finish every book I started under 10 hours this year.