The Memory Book by Lara Avery

362 Pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Poppy
Release Date: July 5, 2016

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Memory Issues

Samantha McCoy is a senior valedictorian in high school. She keeps a journal of her thoughts and memories. She has a rare genetic disease, Niemann-Pick disease type C. After graduation, she is going to a party but gets lost. By. The time her friend Cooper finds her, she is very distraught. He takes her home and her parents take her to the hospital. Sammie has a life altering disease. You see who her friends are as the disease progresses.

The book had a fast pace, developed characters, and was written in the first-person point of view like a journal. This was a heart wrenching book. Anyone who has a friend or family member with memory issues will understand what Samantha is going through. Great read.

It has been quite some time since I read The Memory Book, but really enjoyed it when I read it. It was a unique story, with a relevant take on teenage trauma. I recommended it to many of my students and purchased it for my high school library.

I must have read The Memory Book by Lara Avery at exactly the right perfect time in my life. I mean, I would probably love it no matter what. However, I just connected SO hard with the audiobook. (Also interesting to note, this book was released on my birthday in 2016). Anyways, sometimes I feel a little guilt for not immediately getting to a review copy. So, I end up listening to the audiobook of whichever review book. It's always a toss up how that will go.

In the case of The Memory Book, audio was completely the right way to go for me. The narrator, Casey Holloway just nails the main character Sammie McCoy so well. To give you all context, this book is about a girl who has NPC which is a degenerative brain disease. The expectation is that her body will lose functioning and then she will also forget things and well, eventually die. With that kind of prognosis, you probably would expect this book to be melodramatic and cliche. It isn't. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is a celebration of life and living.

Sammie has this amazing family - her mom, dad, and three younger siblings who she helps take care of. Then she has a friend, Maddie, who she lets close but never completely in. Meanwhile, she's also interested in two boys - Cooper, her neighbor and childhood best friend turned pothead and Stuart Shah, a boy two grades above her if I remember right who is this amazing writer. So, she's figuring all these parts of adolescence out while also knowing that she has an expiration date, so to speak.

Anyways, this book is just so beautifully written. It's so easy to connect with Sammie and really care about her - flaws and all. And y'all, I sobbed at the very end of this audiobook. I've not had that kind of emotion reading in a very, very long time. AND IT WAS THE SECOND book to make me cry in one day (I also was finishing up Ruin & Rising which made me tear up too but NOT like this book). I 100% think you need to get your hands on the audiobook and read ASAP.

Need a tearjerker that will leave you a sobbing mess for hours? Then I highly recommend The Memory Book. Told in journal entry form, I was a little uncertain at first if this format would work for me. But the novel was incredibly well done. Every emotion that Sammie felt jumped off the page for me. At parts, she dealt with her diagnosis with denial, fear, despair and hope. Losing her memory and becoming physically impaired throughout the novel really showed the different sides to her character and in surprising ways. Book was five stars, but I hated the love triangle (and this from a girl who usually likes love triangles). I just thought that more time should’ve been spent on the one romantic relationship and the trials/triumphs of their relationship as her disease progressed. YA readers plan for a major book hangover with this one.

Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

As with Lara Avery's previous novel, this book pulls on the heartstrings and makes you fall in love with the characters. The story itself is highly enjoyable and quite emotional, and it really makes you want to read even more of this talented author's wonderful words.