The Memory Vampires

The memory vampires by Ryan Wolf.
Twins Adam and Adriana Carver couldn't be more different these days, but they are forced to spend time together on a family vacation in a remote New England village. Though the neighborhood looks charming, the locals are spacey and distant. They seem barely able to speak. Soon the twins' parents begin forgetting everyday things--the locations of keys and parked cars. This quickly escalates into something far more troubling. As the adults start losing their core memories, the twins must hunt down the nightmarish cause of this tragedy. But the monsters in this peaceful seaside community prove far darker and more threatening than anything they might have imagined.
I really enjoyed this short read. I loved the cover that's what drew me to this book. I couldn't put it down. I did like the twins Adriana and Adam. I liked the pictures in the book. I will definitely be looking at reading more of this author books. 4*.

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a quick, simple but interesting read. The writing style was different and poetic. The prose was short but got the job done. I think the story was definitely aimed at younger readers, but I still found the family dynamics and mystery interesting. It's the kind of book I would've really enjoyed when I was in elementary school.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Thank you so much to Rosen Publishing/ West 44 Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Twins Adam and Adrianna used to be close but now they are worlds apart, on a family trip the parents memories start disappearing, then soon Adams do too. Adrianna soon wakes up to the world around her to help save her family.

This was so interesting, I really liked this whole different style of vampire, they were so unique and creative, very creepy alien things but nonetheless creative and made the story fascinating. They took the memories from everyone and it left everyone catatonic and on a memory loss auto pilot, it is such a creative take and with the glowing blue, the swirly things on their heads, the bruises that start showing up on everyone’s head, it was really creative.

I felt so bad for Adam, he just wanted to have his sister back to his best friend, to spend some time with her like they did as kids in the Alley, but she was so absorbed in her phone she never had time for him or her parents. I was happy that we got to actually see that Adrianna changed back to the girl she once was, to the girl that played in the mud, I was so happy that she was the one to help her family, to have figured out what was going on with her family.

I really enjoyed this verse book, it was so different and really unique, though I don’t like aliens, these weird alien vampire things really caught my fascination, just with how unique and creative they were, with how they worked and what they did, it was so interesting. This was a strange but very interesting verse book read.

I do not usually read books written in verse, but I really enjoyed this book.

When you read the word "vampire" a certain image comes into your head, but in this book, it is not what you think. I loved reading about the family dynamic and yes, sibling rivalry.

What drew me to this book to begin with was the cover. It is beautifully illustrated, but the story kept me interested.

As a 6-12 school librarian, I can see my younger readers really enjoying this book. Not only is the cover beautiful, but it is a short read that will hold their interest.

This was based on the ARC provided by NetGalley.

I've always said these novels-in-verses are closer to short stories, when you factor out the formatting and typesetting. This is definitely a case in point, being something that could be a one-CD audiobook (ask your parents…). We have a lad and his crabby twin sister, going with their parents to a historical home-stay in a quaint Massachusetts seaside village, but something or someone must have got there first. It only is our hero that realises it, but there is something acting as a zombifying agent for everyone around. First his parents start talking like they have gained dementia overnight, but then he gets it. What is a narrative to do?

Switch focus, is the answer. And this allows the book to be even more overtly about family and keeping together, listening, trusting, sharing. You could be one of the titular horrors, this says, if you just block your family off, stick your head into the mince on your mobile phone or otherwise ignore the need to get along together. Apart from these themes we have a nicely primary-school-friendly horror, and while the actual poetic aspects of this story only flit about here and there ("like spirits on the water", indeed) the whole is pretty effective. It doesn't take nearly enough time to outstay its welcome, for one.

I thought this looked like a fun read - a sort of fun spooky story like Goosebumps or Shivers. This was a fun, cheerful read, but I didn't really understand the layout. I felt like I was reading a poem rather than a story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.