The Mechanics of Memory is a tantalizing, mysterious, frightening, and above all, tender book.

In the first chapter, we meet Hope and her partner, Luke, and Charlotte, Luke’s daughter from a previous marriage. Everything seems quite normal. Until.

In the next chapter, Hope is suddenly in a memory recalibration facility, for lack of a better word. A fancy prison? A fancy asylum? It’s certainly not clear, but the residents have been told that they did something terrible which they have forgotten and the goal is to recover that memory so they can move on. It’s as though everyone (except the celebrities in rehab for their addiction of choice, who are the cash cows that keep this elaborate facility afloat) has suffered a terrible trauma and now have such severe PTSD that they can’t remember what happened.

If only it were that simple. As the story unwinds, we learn that this place is literally an experiment in memory creation. And Hope and her friends are collateral put up by memory scientists, or more likely, mad scientists, in order to further their own memory research.

That’s it in a nutshell (no pun intended). I can’t begin to explain how Hope unravels the web she’s in. What I will say is that I loved this book, but it’s definitely not for everyone. It’s a fabulous read but it’s by no means light. The reader has to enter a world they can’t understand, literally becoming one with the characters who are in a world they don’t understand. The writing is superb, as is the character portrayal and the scene setting. I could not put it down.

Highly recommended.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I'm obsessed with this book. This was one of the top novels I was looking forward to reading in 2024, and it lived up to all the hype...and then some. Mechanics of Memory follows Hope Nakano into Wilder, a California mental institute specializing in memory, where Hope is trying to recover a year that is missing from her life. Searching for the truth about her past and the man she loves leads her to more questions: namely, what is really going on at Wilder? Spellbinding writing with wry, witty, and beautiful observations, Audrey Lee spins a mind-bending psychological thriller with a twist you won't see coming. Think: Blake Crouch caliber, literary execution. This book will suck you in, keep you up past your bed-time, and have you thinking about it long after the last page is turned. HIGHLY recommend.