Yiming Ma’s These Memories Do Not Belong to Us is not your traditional novel, and that’s what makes it so haunting. There’s no singular protagonist, no neat, linear progression—just fragments of lives lived under an increasingly oppressive regime, where memories are recorded, rewritten, and erased.

Through a series of interconnected narratives spanning different time periods, economic backgrounds, and government structures, Ma crafts a chilling vision of a future that feels uncomfortably close to reality. The novel explores authoritarian control, media manipulation, and the slow, methodical erasure of personal and collective history. The most unsettling part? It doesn’t read like speculative fiction—it reads like a warning.

The structure forces the reader to engage deeply, piecing together the overarching story through different perspectives. Some struggle within educational restrictions, others live under the weight of a government rewriting their past, and all of them—regardless of their circumstances—grapple with the same question: How do you hold onto hope when the very fabric of your reality is being altered?

Ma doesn’t leave the reader entirely adrift in despair, though. The novel builds toward a type of resolution, offering a form of closure for those searching for meaning in the chaos. But the real power of These Memories Do Not Belong to Us isn’t in the answers it provides—it’s in the questions it forces us to ask about our own world.

This is a book that lingers. It’s disturbing, timely, and impossible to ignore. If you’re looking for something that will challenge you, unsettle you, and make you think about the fragility of truth, this is it.

3.75 stars

4⭐️

The premise that you can read these stories in any order instantly intrigued me - it’s such a rarity in stories and definitely made this a unique reading experience. I found myself crying multiple times during this book at the beauty of these stories and what they symbolized. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would love to reread it in a different order - it seems like a story you can revisit multiple times and get a new experience with each read-through. Thank you for the early copy!

“Because you’re my koala, and I’m your tree.” ❤️

A beautiful and powerful novel of how memories eventually become a commodity with a new invention of "Mindbanks" in this new dystopian society of Qin. We dive into several "Memory Epics" or short stories from a variety of perspectives, and how governmental surveillance and control come into play with each Epic.

A true thought provoking novel as we reflect on our current global state. <3

*These Memories Do Not Belong to Us" is a thought-provoking exploration of memory, identity, and human emotion. The book's structure—shifting between fragmented memories—keeps readers engaged, with powerful moments emerging in scenes like the sumo wrestler, chess game, and swimmer’s struggle. These emotional highlights truly resonate, offering a deeper connection to the characters.

The ending ties everything together beautifully, leaving a satisfying sense of closure. However, I found myself wishing for more emotional depth throughout the book. Still, the story cleverly challenges readers to reflect on our global state and future possibilities, making it a memorable and intellectually stimulating read.

An incredible dystopian collection of interconnected short stories, spanning three different time periods. Each chapter offers a unique perspective either before, during, or after the war. The protagonist lives in a world where memories have been turned into a commodity - editable, marketable, and easily corrupted. In this society, a single memory can determine one’s fate and jeopardize their freedom. I found the story to be incredibly immersive, drawing me into a world where personal memories challenge the controlled narrative of history.

When I was a boy, my mother used to tell me stories of a world before memories could be shared between strangers. Some of the Memory Epics from which she drew her stories must have been censored already by the Party. Any loyal patriot would have deleted these memories.

There’s a deep melancholy, accompanied by a quiet hope, in each story. At times it felt like a reality check, eerily similar to today’s world. The contrast between individualism and systematic control is striking. Making this not just a story of the past, but one that resonates with the present as well. It reminded me of Black Mirror, with its unsettling exploration of technology and control. Overall, it’s a thought provoking and beautifully written book that will linger with you long after the last page. I look forward to re-reading this in the future.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC!

“They want to use nature to remind us to be afraid, It’s their greatest source of power. Because they don’t want us to know what it’s like to live without fear.”

“In their wisdom, our leaders deemed it wiser to phase out the violent aftermath of the War, rather than delete the entire history at once.” 

This story follows a narrator that has inherited the memories from his mother’s Mindbank, the devise that records all memories and interactions for an individual. The narrator discovers that several of these memories are considered criminal and puts them at risk of arrest and criminal sentencing. The narrator makes these memories available to the general public to see before they are erased from the public space.

I loved this story. The idea that there was a war in which China has taken over the world and has mandated that everyone have a Mindbank placed so that they can monitor everyone’s interactions and memories for events that could be considered “dissident”. The book flows through the narrators inherited memories and you get to see how Qin (China) implemented their control. The story has three sections where the memories gradually increase in how critical or dissident they are. There are memories from before during and after the war so the reader gets to see how society has changed. I also greatly enjoyed that the stories connect to each other through the whole book. Whether it is a descendent from an earlier story or a new character interacting with a previous character.

For those who do not like books with multiple points of view, I don’t think they will like this as there is a different pov every chapter.

These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma is a beautifully written book that explores the power of memory, government totality, and hope. Each chapter feels like a small glimpse into different lives, but together, they give us a view into a dystopian world.

Two of my favorite chapters were First Viral Memory: Chankonabe and After the Bloom. Even though we don’t spend a lot of time with each character, I still found it easy to connect with them, which isn’t always the case in books with so many different perspectives.

One thing I wish had been done differently was the "Map of Memories." The book jumps around in time, which mostly works (usually my personal preference is against it), but I think it would have been helpful to have the years or simple labels like “Before,” “During,” or “After the War” on each chapter rather than having to refer back to the Map of Memories. Most of the time, I could figure out where I was in the timeline after reading a little, but clearer markers would have made it easier to follow.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and hope the future it contains never comes to fruition.

These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma is a series of interconnected short stories that tell the story of a near future full of censorship, governmental violence, obfuscation of the truth, deadly diseases... oh wait, maybe it's not the near future, maybe it's our present moment. So often science-fiction/speculative fiction feels like it is holding up a mirror to our society and showing us a reflection of our current moment. TMDNBTU is a series of memories that ask us- who do our stories belong to? Do they belong to our government? Do they belong to our culture? Or do they belong to us? Joan Didion once said "we tell ourselves stories in order to live." What will we do when our stories are co-opted by authoritarian governments intent on their version of truth being recorded in the history books?

I loved the questions that this book brought up for me, I deeply connected to the characters who felt forced to watch the end of the world through their apartment windows with little to no power to stop it- until that moment where they realize there is nothing to lose if everything has already been taken away from you. The structure was a beautiful puzzle of how the stories connect and relate to each other as you read through them. I'm looking forward to holding a physical copy in my hands so I can read through the book again.

I cannot thank Mariner Books and NetGalley enough for the opportunity to review such an incredible book. I only recently have discovered my love for sci-fi/ dystopian books, however, I think I've made quite a dent in my brain-bank with all of the catching up I've been doing. This is hands-down the best sci-fi/dystopian book I have ever read. From the plot, to the characters, to the story-telling. You name it, it was amazing. I am so grateful that I was able to read and review this book. Mind-blown.

Wow - I'm blown away by These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, and I'm astonished to learn it's a debut.

The concept is compelling and almost disconcertingly timely, and I thought the writing and structure really did it justice. The interstitial setup, through which we occasionally hear from the narrator - the son who's received banned memories from his mother after her death, and is increasingly aware that his freedom is limited - helped orient and link her constellation of memories into a powerful overarching story. Structurally and conceptually, it reminds me of Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark - a high compliment! - with tonal elements of Rumaan Alam. I'll be eager to recommend this to anyone who likes near-in science fiction, dystopian literature, or just comes in asking for a really good book.

Thank you NegGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read an ARC of These Memories Do Not Belong to Us. This is a dystopian novel of a future in which memories can be uploaded and shared among people via devices that have been implanted into their brains, and memories become a form of currency. The novel is composed of loosely related short stories that take place either before, during, or after a war that resulted in the whole world being ruled by the Chinese, who have renamed themselves as Qin. Each short story is a memory that was passed down to the narrator by his mother and there are “interstitial” chapters throughout the book that give some context to the stories in this larger overarching plot. The memories are all considered forbidden by the government due to their content and the narrator is trying to disseminate these memories to as many people as he can before he is caught and the are gone forever. The memories circle around themes of freedom, government censorship, family and filial piety, and friendship. They are beautifully written and engaging and it was fun to find easter eggs within later stories of events/characters etc from earlier stories. I found this novel to be reminiscent of some of my most favorite novels, The Overstory by Richard Powers and North Woods by Daniel Mason, and I look forward to picking up a finished copy of this upon the release date. I feel that a reread will be even more rewarding than reading it for the first time.

This book was a starkly beautiful and extremely prescient series of interconnected stories set in the same universe, revealing mundane, everyday life and small acts of resistance in a totalitarian state of the future.

In this world China is now Qin and has developed a technology called Mindbanks, which records our memories as we experience them, the ultimate form of control and the next level of data surveillance. The protagonist's mother has collected memories from different people that could be dangerous in the Party's eyes and unexpectedly radicalize her son. Qin is an aggressive colonial power that has taken over America.

There's a story of an armless Swimmer from a small town; a stuffy diplomat's son who falls in love with a white American woman who teaches him chess and English; a writer who apprentices to a watchmaker and learns platonic love; a man who fears losing his girlfriend to activism; and a pair of brothers who share illicit poetry penned by a foreigner at night.

The writing style could at times be slow to read but that could just be the translation. I had a pit of dread in my stomach the whole time while reading this but also admired the courage of people who still tried to find beauty and love when their lives were so thoroughly controlled by the government. Reading this really made me think; it was challenging at times but it will definitely stay with me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Over the past few weeks, I had the pleasure to read Yiming Ma’s (debut?) short story collection. In this collection we are transported to a future (and sometimes a past) where a person’s memories are recorded on Mind Banks. The sum total of a person’s memories can be recorded and played in the mind’s eye.

The collection with the narrator having recently inherited his mother’s memories. However, the Mind Banks aren’t the only thing new in this future. China has become an authoritarian, global empire spreading across most of America and Asia. Several of the memories the narrator inherits are critical of the powers of this empire, and will most likely lead to some good-old fashioned “re-education” by censorship officials.

Using the framing device of the narrator going through these inherited memories, Ma tells several compelling stories spanning several themes. We get a range of stories from two people driven apart due to their place in society, and a swimmer bringing pride and patriotism to home village, all the way to a story about a wife looking through her husband’s Mind Bank.

Ma masterfully uses this dystopian future setting to apply some additional pressure to our everyday world. This allows him to investigate the main themes of government surveillance and overreach, societal pressure, and even some comments on the downfalls of patriotism.

Not only are the setting and frame narrative expertly done, Ma’s prose is masterful. There is profound melancholy, sadness, and a fair bit of hope in his writing. This level of emotion helps the reader connect with each character, even if they will only be with them for a few pages.

Who is this book for? This book is for people who like near future science fiction, authors who use the setting to tell as much of a story as the plot, and people who love wonderful prose.

This is great for readers who like Ed Park’s “An Oral History of Atlantis” as well as near future science fiction.

The narrative structure of the novel takes such a beautiful form and placed me right beside the narrator and deep into each of the Memory Epics. The narrator’s bravery is palpable and their commentary is lent directly to the reader as a personal guide across time. Through each vignette and story woven together by circumstance and memory and culture and trauma and place and generational experience, I felt the weight of the government’s control as a heavy shadow in every characters’ story.

Reading this as an American several weeks into the second Trump administration, it’s difficult to avoid parallels with a world where truth and history have been distorted and made unreliable. The alteration of truth and the weaponization of misinformation and fear to subdue the working class are painfully relevant topics. This quote, toward the end, stuck with me:

“Is it so strange that we no longer remember how to resist? Especially as they expand their control to include everything we are allowed to recall?”

The narrator goes on to say:

“Still, I hope you can find the courage to tell your own truth. Even if your resistance begins as small as a bedtime story to your child; there is no need to risk everything you hold dear.”

Questions and concepts raised in the novel that I wish I had a book club to discuss with include, but are certainly not limited to:
- the idea of “purchase and lived histories”
- ownership and commodification of story
- memory as capital
- whether our consciousness is our own or how much it is a collective, generational experience
- how to resist in the face of fascism

The use of “Mindbank” brain-computer interface technology is especially fascinating. It is used as a means of advanced communication (mainly for the elite class) and, interestingly, implies that the latency and choice inherent in spoken language causes a loss of meaning when communicating verbally. Its principal use, however, is for the archival and harvesting and rewatching of lived experiences (something you learn in the initial “interstitial”).

I’m so grateful to be given the chance to read this early as an ARC! It was my first opportunity to read an ARC and I am so happy it was this novel. I’m very excited to read more of Yiming Ma’s work! He is a phenomenal storyteller.

In the spirit of the book's structure, I think it makes sense to give my thoughts before having delved deep into the book, during, and after having read.

Before -
The premise of this book was what drew me in; I thought this was a fresh take on an authoritarian society and looking at it through the lens of others' stories. The prologue sets you up nicely for what to expect, while managing to keep you in suspense of what could possibly be to come. I was hooked pretty immediately.

During -
This book made me think, and I love that. I was constantly asking questions of both the book and of my society, trying to apply what was occurring in the story to real life events happening around me now. There were multiple times I thought that the ability of the author to have separate, yet intertwined stories that captivated me each time was incredibly impressive.

After -
This is a story of freedom, a story of hardship, and a story of love. The final message made everything feel so much more real, and I have never felt more in awe of the beauty of communication and storytelling as I have at the end of this book. Truly I feel this could be a modern classic - the questions it raises about our society are thought-provoking in a way that doesn't sacrifice hope while still showing the pain and fear of real life. One of the many reasons I love to read is to live through others', and this story rewards you greatly for your empathy.


I am honored to have been provided an ARC of this book - thank you to Yiming Ma, Mariner Books, and NetGalley for providing me with this opportunity. And a second thank you to Yiming Ma, for reminding me to both fight and love through the hard times.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

This book was more spooky and eerie than I thought it would be, and it is so so good, but I want to let myself have this experience in a phyiscal book format.

This book is very well written, I heavily enjoyed the writing style. The cover is also quite interesting and very cool. And the concept is both fascination, well-executed, and relevant. I am grateful I was able to sample this read.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ebook for free! I am leaving this feedback voluntarily.

"Devastation occurs whether we’re paying attention or not."

In a world where humanity's very memories are regulated, our protagonist shares with us through a series of contraband moments, intertwined into a story of government control, escalation, resistance, passion, and ultimately what it means to be free.

tropes & story components:
this is a hard book to boil down. Its a series of short stories that wind together in some unexpected ways. There is more of an overarching theme than there is an overarching plot.
- dystopian future
- corrupt, controlling government
- resistance

content warnings:
As with most novels of dystopian futures, this isn't a happy book.
- death
- war
- oppression
- racism
- sexism

what I liked:
this is one of the most impactful novels I've ever read. Honestly, I struggle to know what to say and how to describe it. This is a powerful, deep piece of art. I cannot recommend this book enough.

these quotes get honorable mentions:

"...they don’t want us to know what it’s like to live without fear."

"...the Party has been in power for far longer than you or I have existed. Is it so strange if we no longer remember how to resist?"

other notes:
I disagree with other reviewers who say it needs editing. I think perceived flaws were a stylistic choice. I noticed nothing objectively wrong.
What it needs is patience on the part of the reader. some of the points made are slow to build and some of the stories told are slow to interweave. its worth it. keep reading.


Thank you to netgalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a good book! I think it was unique and well written. I enjoyed the way the book went over the past of the parents and how things are so different to them now. I enjoy the story!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This book made me think of Cloud Atlas and Man in The High Castle. The information that is being shared, yet controlled and disruption when memories that were inherited shed light on the histories and world views. Thought-provoking unique read