THE MEMORY THIEF

Narrator Lora Brown reads with little vocal modulation and creates scant difference in characters. In a world in which memories are a cunningly traded commodity and some citizens are "gifted" with an ability to retrieve and transfer them, 17-year-old Etta is an apparent enemy of Madame, the realm's brutal leader. Because power is derived from the use and abuse of memories, flashbacks are frequent and tedious. Brown forces listeners to maintain close attention to glean the clues that explain why Etta is disguised as an "ungifted" citizen and why her mother languishes in an asylum. To save her mother's life, Etta battles with ghosts, minders, shadows, hunters—and ultimately Madame. However, scenes that are fraught with peril, or budding romance, often fall flat due to a lackluster delivery. L.T. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2020]