Remember Me Gone

January 1, 2022

Gr 8 Up-In the dry-as-dust town of Tumble Tree, TX, Lucy Miller's father practices a mysterious family trade: removing memories from grief-stricken travelers. As Lucy begins to learn the business of taking memories, flashes of guilt and frightening recollections start to haunt her and her friends. Why doesn't Lucy remember her mother's death? Or anything at all about Marco, a boy she has known all her life? As memory turns to mystery, the citizens of Tumble Tree face a reckoning. Fans of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not will recognize the theme of lost memories found and the power of memories have over the soul. This YA thriller is an excellent introduction to speculative fiction. Stokes breaks down complex emotions, such as grief and guilt, and makes them accessible to young adult readers. The author is on shakier ground, however, when exploring mental illness as a consequence of altered memories; those passages should be taken with a grain of salt. VERDICT The narrative is compelling and plot-driven. Avid readers may find themselves staying up late to finish the story.-Jennifer Townes

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January 15, 2022
Tumble Tree, Texas, would be an unremarkable place to grow up but for the Memory House and the Miller family's ability to erase from memory the worst moments of a person's life. All Lucy Miller, 16, has ever wanted is to follow in her father's footsteps and learn the unburdening trade. Grieving the loss of her beloved Mama, the chance to help ease people's pain motivates her through her own. But something strange is afoot: Marco Warman, the mayor's nephew, is acting like he knows her although they're near strangers. People are returning from the local mines different than they went in. And Lucy's father is keeping secrets from her for the first time. Lucy, Marco, and Manuela, Marco's girlfriend, discover a conspiracy deeper than simple dishonesty and are forced to confront the sinister underside and dubious ethics of memory-taking, which hit closer to home than anyone in town realizes. Moving at an impressive clip, depth of characterization is forgone in favor of the next twist of the mystery. As a result, character and emotional texture arrive too late--a side effect of Lucy's point of view being compromised by lost memories, a trick that's not handled as deftly as it could be. But Tumble Tree's oppressive desert beauty is a strong setting, the mystery often compels, and many twists stick the landing. Main characters default to White; Manuela is cued as Latina. A fun and page-turning, if uneven, thriller. (Fabulism. 12-18)

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