This book was enjoyable. Took me a while to get through it but I am thankful to have had a chance to read it.

First of all, let me just say that the friendship between Hope and Sam is so pure and I wish that they could have had more time together. In fact, Sam was the only thing that kept me reading through most of this. They were genuine and true to the cause from their introduction up until the last page and I love that for them.

Now for my full thoughts.

This book gave me 13 reasons why vibes and not in any way that I cared to read. While I appreciate that, at the time that this book came out it would have been sticking to the trend (if not at the top of the curve), it isn't where my reading tastes are at the current moment. I didn't like the dynamic of the group. They were awful to each other until some life/death or Hope driven event forced them to be nicer. However, the contents are what's been advertised on the can. These teens are troubled and on a trajectory that doesn't offer a positive future.

It wrapped up neatly, so there isn't anything that leaves you wondering if the scavenger hunt was worth it.

I would recommend this to anyone who was once a fan of 13RW or is interested in scavenger hunts/found family tropes.

TW: eating disorder, self-harm. CW: loss of sight, survivor's guilt, talk of the foster care system.

I didn’t think I would like this. After reading several chapters I decided I didn’t like any of the characters. They all seemed so self absorbed and kind of bratty. It’s a big deal breaker for me - I don’t usually finish a book if this is the case but the more I kept reading, the more I was understanding them. Glad I kept with it. Definitely a great read and so many lessons we need to be aware of.

WOW this book hit me hard in the feels. It’s exactly what it says it is- a scavenger hunt from a dead friend to her hurting friends. It had everything I could possibly want in a book. It read SO quickly that I thought it was a 200 page book. I just absolutely flew through it and I definitely recommend it for a sobby scavenger hunt about illness (physical and mental).
Unfortunately, the author seems to have kind of disappeared off the face of the planet, so hopefully she’s still writing? I’ll definitely check out her other published work.

I solely only requested this at the time because I saw that the other made Supernatural references in the story. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it and the references were a bonus!

Long over due as I just located my misplaced notes on the story (sorry). I am betting many YA's found this book an enjoyable read. This is one huge scavenger hunt and very intriguing. The characters were fascinating and will hold teens attention. Each have issues to be solved through the scavenger hunt - very insightful stuff here! Teens are going to eat it up.

Hello people of the internet!!! On today`s `Monday Memos` we have another book review of a young adult novel you might want to add to your TBR (to be read) pile. Today`s book is ‘In The Hope of Memories` by Olivia Rivers, which was provided for review by Red Sparrow Press. As always this will be a spoiler-free review, but I will add some trigger warnings that you should be aware of before reading this book. If the following topics will trigger you then please proceed with caution: anorexia, bulimia, self-harm, school violence, death, and domestic terrorism. So now let`s get to the review! Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!



`In The Hope of Memories` is about a high school senior named Hope who has recently died from a heart complication. Before Hope died she set up a scavenger hunt around New York City for her friends Erik, Kali, Aiden, & Sam, in order for them to meet each other. Each character has their own history with Hope, as well as their own individual issues they are facing. Throughout the book we get to see them face their personal demons, learn about each other, & maybe even start to see themselves the way Hope saw them.



I`m going to start by saying this is definitely a 5 smiley face book. It had an intriguing plot, interesting characters, & twists that will definitely keep you interested. Another thing that I really loved about this book was the various ethnic, gender, and sexual diversity that we see throughout this book. I enjoyed the fact that this book had a large amount of diversity, but it was weaved into the novel in an organic way that really added to the characters. Lastly, I absolutely loved how by the end of the book, you feel as if you know Hope even though she is already dead at the start of the book. The author does an incredible job of using the various characters` relationship with Hope, as well as her scavenger hunt to make us completely fall in love with the character. If your looking for a beautifully written, incredibly touching book to read this fall, then ‘In The Hope of Memories’ should top your list!

I enjoyed it, it it didn’t blow me a way. There was a bit of a disconnect with this story for me. I’d still like to read more by this author, though!

Loved the characters (so diverse) , the scavenger hunt was a great strategy of getting everyone "together" . The title fits with the book cover and what's amongst the pages. Steady and lovely read

“She gave me the same thing she’s always given me. Hope.”

I’m a little over the scavenger hunt trope in YA books, but I had some hope (pun intended) for this story. The scavenger hunt was a great way to bring together the lives/stories of such different people who were all suffering in their own way. It made sense to give them all a common goal to work towards, while each had to confront their own personal demons to get there. I just wasn’t a huge fan of how it was all executed.

In a sense, I really appreciated that each character had so much conflict going on in their lives. It’s chaotic… but it’s also realistic. That being said, it was a tad bit dramatic (and quite difficult) to read about several characters with chaotic lives. As an empath, this story was emotionally draining. I was feeling so much for each person’s plight, that there was nothing left of me to feel anything for the actual story. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

Regardless, I really love the author’s writing style. In fact, it’s quite similar to how I write my own stories, so I think that played a huge part in how much I enjoyed reading it. It was conversational, fast-paced, and did a good job of portraying the many different perspectives involved.

Like I said earlier, there was a lot going on but it was all very important. I won’t go into detail about each person (because wow, you might as well read the book yourself if you want to dig deeper into the drama) but I will talk about my favourites–namely Aiden and Sam. Aiden is a gem. He is honest, earnest, and so easy to care for. Sam, like Sam says, is just Sam. And I love them for that. You don’t come across non-binary characters often.

This might be an unpopular opinion but Hope was my least favourite character (even though she’s dead and all). I just couldn’t understand the purpose of her character being put on such a high pedestal. In the first couple of pages we learn that she was incredibly talented, incredibly beautiful, incredibly kind, destined for great things… it was like she was this omnipresent golden child that ruled all of their lives–even more so through this scavenger hunt. Apparently there was nothing wrong with her except for the fact that she was burdened with an incurable illness that eventually took her life at a devastatingly young age. It was so extra. Something about that didn’t sit right with me. But like I said, I’m sure it’s an unpopular opinion.

All in all, I know many readers will enjoy this book. The writing is great, the premise has a lot of potential, and the character development is spot on. However, the teen angst was too much. I felt like I was watching every single episode of a teen drama in one sitting. Imagine five seasons worth of drama crammed into one episode. That’s the best way I can describe it. Anyway, I love me some angst, but this was just too many sad stories wrapped up into one. I hope you love it more than I did.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I guess this book just wasn't for. The writing was beautiful and the concept was really intriguing and the story sucked me in , but the characters never really felt real. Instead they remained collections of stereotypes and mental health issues. They never felt like real people but instead remained concepts.

Considering that the whole story revolved around the four protagonists growing together, this was a really big flaw to get over. Hope was an especially tiresome character in that everybody portrays her a saint and the best person ever, but the thing she made her friends do just seemed mean, even bordering on cruel, at times.

The best part of the novel were the last couple of chapters because they showed how the characters grew over the course of the book, but the scavenger hunt alone and Hope's meddling don't really seem enough to create such an impact.

Overall, this was an okay read with an interesting premise but flat characters.

I enjoyed the book, but it was very slow and it caused my interest to wane quite a bit. I also feel as though the author threw in a bunch of different disorders (anorexia, OCD, autism) and it became too much. There is nothing wrong with writing about these issues, but there is a point where it seems that the author just wanted to experiment with them.

The ending was merely okay as well. I felt as though the scavenger hunt, while intriguing, was lacking. I wasn't able to go " oh it was that" for the art pieces, but I was unable to picture them.

3/5 stars. It was okay, but nowhere near where I expected it to be.

I am not going to be reviewing this book, but thank you for the approval.

I really enjoyed reading In Yhe Hope Of Memories, the characters were lovably quirky with harrowing make you cry problems. Definitely a thought provoking book.

A really great book about everybody. It was moving and thoughtful. Very enjoyable.

I received this novel from NetGalley.

This novel is enjoyable, and for me that is really all I can say, it is well written and I can see where the book is meant to go, but for me, it just doesn't reach the climax set out for it.
Yes there is some pretty incredible character growth and coming-of-age type stuff that goes on and amazing friendships created, but for me, the story didn't really go anywhere.

A good read, that tackles so, so many issues and controversial topics.

"Friendship that Hope portray in here is beautiful that hardly to find, nowadays"

There are just too many emotions that I have feel throughout this book. Each of the characters has their own struggles in their life that they couldn't careless to care about it, and there is Hope Jackson, a girl, who has a critical heart condition make a plan on to making a scavenger hunt using her amazing graffiti art around New York City, which all of them need to be together to solve all the hidden message they have received from Hope's letter that scatter around New York City.

It is truly an amazing idea of what Hope made, which she has successfully in making all of her friends, who never met each other in their life, they team up together to solve the scavenger hunt and from that they acquire a lot of lesson about life and try to improve it for the better of their own selves.

The storyline is amazing, it is easy for us to understand. It start slowly to an incredible journey that make us, as a reader feel so excited to know more, to know what will happen, to know what's the hidden message after one letter to another. It feel like me is the one, who finding those hidden message in each of the letter. I totally amazed by this amazing writer. She's done a great job on making the reader following their adventure.

Hope is a normal everyday teenager with a heart terminal disease. She has four amazing friends whom she loves and cares for and wants better for them even if they do not want better for themselves. She dies in the beginning of the novel. All that we as the reader knows about her is that she has touched many people with her kindness and love of life and people in general. She creates a scavenger hunt for her friends because she needs for them to complete goals in order to be able to step up to the plate in their lives.

Aiden has autism. He has a hard time in life adapting to many general circumstances. He also has OCD. During the novel his tics and counting are very prevalent.

Eric is a jock who is losing his sight. Not many people know this about him. He is afraid of what the future holds and is afraid to dare to dream of the possibility of his life as he becomes blind.

Kali is Hope’s adoptive sister. She is not actually adoptive by the same people, but they grew up in foster care together and Hope has taken her under her wing. Kali has anorexia and has been to rehab for her condition several times over. Actually, she is on her way to rehab yet again because she cannot seem to conquer her condition.

Sam is an androgenous character. They are described as neither male nor female. They have been involved in an explosion that took away her father, their ability to walk, has caused visible and internal scarring , and left them with the hope of completing their fathers dream.

Hope knows all of these things about these people, and has created this scavenger hunt to get this group of people together. She wants them together so that they have to be held accountable to each other and to her and have to complete the tasks of finding all of her clues and finishing what she started. In the end, she gives them hope that though their current situations may be bleary, they can still make it to a bright future.

In the beginning, these individuals only have a small understanding of certain characters, but they learn to work together as a team and have a journey and a story together that they never would have had apart.

In The Hope Of Memories is one of the best books I've read in so long. To be honest it was very unexpected and I love it when a book takes you by complete surprise and you fall in love.

The storyline is based around four of the most diverse characters I've ever read about, with one thing linking them all. Their love of their best friend Hope. Hope sends her friends on a scavenger hunt around NYC leaving clues and tasks for the four to complete in order to move on and better their lives.

Each chapter takes you on a new rollercoaster making you laugh or cry - sometimes both at once.

100% 5 stars. Go and purchase this book right now!