Review: My Name Is Memory By Ann Brashares

"I have fallen in love, and she is the one who endures. I killed her once and died for her many times and I still have nothing to show for it. I always search for her; I always remember her. I carry the hope that someday she will remember me."

OK, how is that for powerful?! Seeing that quote on the cover, together with the fact that it was written by Ann Brashares, author of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series which I love, was enough to make me want to read My Name is Memory without even knowing what it was about. Then when I did learn what it was about - a boy whose soul remembers every life he's lived, and the one girl he's loved through them all - I got even more excited.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It was a super-fast, easy read - I got through it in one sitting - and enjoyable enough, but both character and plot development were on the thin side. Daniel and Lucy, our star-crossed lovers, are defined by their love for each other, to the point where there's not much else to them. Daniel has thousands of years worth of memories, but the only important ones to him - and so the only ones we're really told about - are those that involve Lucy (or Sophia, as he knows her best). Still, due to their history - and especially the way they first met (it's a doozy) - his feelings for her are quite complex, meaning that his character, as defined by those feelings, is not wholly one-dimensional. But Lucy? From the first sentence she's all about her love for Daniel; we meet her character obsessing over him, and she stays obsessing over him for the next 300-odd pages. She wasn't totally annoying, but I like my characters with a bit more meat on their bones, if you know what I'm sayin'.

Similarly, the plot is quite sparse for the majority of the book. I enjoyed the flashbacks to Daniel's past lives, but they slowed the present-day action down considerably. When things finally got going in the last third of the book, it was a lot more fun. But before that I found the way Daniel and Lucy spent so long mooning over each other from afar rather than, oh, I don't know, trying a simple "hey, how's it going?" quite frustrating. I would have also liked to see more development of the villain and his motivations - although maybe that will be explored in the inevitable sequel. Which I'll inevitably read. Coz while there were a few things missing in this book that, had they been there, would have taken it from fun to OMGADDICTIVE, I'm still keen to read on - even if I don't need it, like, now.

Rating: 3/5

Eye Candy
In my head, Daniel looked like Paul Wesley, coz he's got the whole tall/handsome/brooding thing down, while Lucy looked like Lily Collins. Coz I just love her.

Fine Print
Genre: Apparently this is classified as Adult Fiction, though it definitely felt more Young Adult to me. There's a sex scene in it, but it's not explicit, and nothing you wouldn't find in any other YA romance, in my opinion.
Published: 2010
Publisher: Penguin
Get It: Book Depository

Related
I'm not really one to watch book trailers, but this one is kinda dreamy, and captures the mood of the book pretty well.