2024 the best of me book ending review
Price: $0.99
(as of Oct 21, 2024 16:31:15 UTC - Details)
Named a Best Science Fiction Book of 2022 by The New York Times
“Sharply, beautifully written.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Intriguing, frightening, witty, and humane.” —The Wall Street Journal
Black Mirror meets Severence in this thrilling speculative novel about a tech company that deletes unwanted memories, the consequences for those forced to deal with what they tried to forget, and the doctor who seeks to protect her patients from further harm.
What if you didn’t have to live with your worst memories?
Across the world, thousands of people are shocked by a notification that they once chose to have a memory removed. Now they are being given an opportunity to get that memory back. Four individuals are filled with new doubts, grappling with the unexpected question of whether to remember unknown events, or to leave them buried forever.
Finn, an Irish architect living in the Arizona desert, begins to suspect his charming wife of having an affair. Mei, a troubled grad school dropout in Kuala Lumpur, wonders why she remembers a city she has never visited. William, a former police inspector in England, struggles with PTSD, the breakdown of his marriage, and his own secret family history. Oscar, a handsome young man with almost no memories at all, travels the world in a constant state of fear.
Into these characters’ lives comes Noor, a psychologist working at the Nepenthe memory removal clinic in London. The process of reinstating patients’ memories begins to shake the moral foundations of her world. As she delves deeper into how the program works, she will have to risk everything to uncover the cost of this miraculous technology.
A provocative exploration of secrets, grief, and identity—of the stories we tell ourselves—Tell Me an Ending is “an intellectually and emotionally satisfying thriller” (Booklist).
Reviewer: Davinci
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The best book I've read this year.
Review: Harkin takes on a high level challenge with this book. Multiple timelines, multiple viewpoints, a science fiction scenario filled with philosophical musings, real world references, and a question at the heart of it all: If you could give up your most painful memories, would you? And if you did, would you still be the same person?I was hooked from the opening pages, as a cast of well written characters, each with their own flaws, beliefs, and traumas, search for the answers hidden in their pasts.I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a thought provoking story that will leave you with a new perspective on memory, pain, and the human psyche.
Reviewer: Melissa Anne Trew
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Thought-provoking and interesting
Review: âDo you want to know a secret? Itâs about you. It might make you happy, or it might be something unimaginably horrible. Once you know it, you canât unknow it..âA high-end medical company called Nepenthe has developed the technology to isolate and remove peopleâs unwanted memories. Sounds too good to be true,and so it must be. Former patients, unaware theyâve had the procedure, are suffering from âmemory traces,â and Noor, a patient-care psychologist at Nepenthe, begins to suspect that something sinister is going on, and that company executives are trying to hide the truth.âWhat if RASA is a code word for procedures that went wrong, somehow, and had to be covered up?âThis bookâs premise drew me in right off the bat, and I went in with high expectations, hoping for a combination of Recursion and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And I was absolutely hooked by the chapters dealing with Nepenthe, Noor, and the allegations of conspiracies and cover-ups happening within the company.âThere is no eternal sunshine; there is no spotless mind.âThere were other storylines woven in too, involving current and former Nepenthe patients and their family members, and how theyâd been impacted by the memory removal process. These chapters read more like short stories - isolated narratives with different characters, settings, and conflicts; sharing a repeating theme/pattern, but having little else in common. I wasnât as intrigued by these, and found myself wanting to skip ahead to âthe good parts.ââItâs all out of control. What is Noor a part of? Something doing damage, harm spreading out across the world, each harm dividing and multiplying.âAt times, the book was a little hard to follow. The narrative pattern would abruptly shift consciousness by jumping suddenly from present-day interactions to memory fragments, with little to no warning, and this was often confusing. Also, the author uses quotation marks to denote speech inconsistentlyâsometimes adding them, sometimes notâand that was also challenging for me. (Obviously thatâs not something that impacts the bookâs content, but for me, it does impact readability.)âWhat would you get rid of, if you had to get rid of a memory?âOverall, though, I really loved the premise and stayed interested throughout the novel, wanting to discover, along with Noor, what Nepenthe was really up to! And ultimately, the secondary charactersâ stories did become interesting in really meaningful ways. It took a while to get there, but Iâm glad I stuck it out - this book was absolutely worth the read, with its fascinating questions about morality and ethics, and will keep me thinking for a long time!âThe public doesnât hate us because we played God. Itâs because we werenât God. We got something wrong. Theyâve realized weâre humans. Theyâll never forgive us.âââThanks to Jo Harkin, Scribner, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Reviewer: Taylor
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Potential was there
Review: The potential was there for this book and I was really excited for kt. Just felt the author got bored
Reviewer: Fina
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Love this book!
Review: I'm at least half way through the book and loving every word. What a great premise: selective memory removal. I don't usually read this genre but I will definitely follow this author and look for other books in literary sci-fi.
Reviewer: Sierra
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Book Club Book - Defines 'Speculative Fiction' genre
Review: ðððð ðð ð¸ð ð¼ððððð by ðð âðð£ðððâðð¥ððð: 4 âï¸ /5ð¾ððð£ð: Sci-Fi, Speculative Fictionâðð§ððð¨:I'm glad Austin Book Babes chose this as the May read because it is 100% a book club book. It brought lots of thoughts, introspection, and discussion on many subtle and not-so-subtle points.It was hard to get through because of the heaviness of the topics, and wasn't necessarily enjoyable because of that as well, but really defined the genre of 'speculative fiction', almost dystopian as well.It was almost entirely sad, even with multiple POVs, but I still liked the book in its entirety because it kept surprising me and stayed interesting throughout. There were lots of good quotes about personality, self, and living, as well as constant questions (which is why it's such a good book club book)I'm giving it 4 âï¸ out of 5 because the ease of reading was lower, but it still moved me and I like the way it made me think about life and self.So excited to chat with the ladies tonight about this one! ðð¹ð ð ð ðððð¤: introspective, sci-fi, sad, standalone, mental health, multi-POVâð ð¤ð¤ðððð ðð£ððððð£ð¤: suicidal ideation, drugs, depression, cheating
Reviewer: Antonio Rodriguez
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: fantastic premise, great start but the story drags
Review: I loved the premise of this book from the start. The writing is excellent. But the story drags at the 50% mark and does not regain steam. And in addition, a few of the many characters you have to follow donât end up being relevant in the end.
Reviewer: Misery
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I read this in a curiosity that I'd get a better explanation than the story held. I didn't understand the connection to each character until I had hit the 70% mark. The fact it took that long has me baffled and I wonder: was it me and it went over my head or did those story have poor explanation.I've had this book on my list for MONTHS. I started it after Christmas I believe and just..managed to finish now. It was hard to stay interested and I did feel like giving up.and letting it go but I was determined to see it through as there were two characters that I was curious about. I was not happy with Noor and Louise's characters. I felt like a lot of noor's narration was just filling a gap. Maybe it's just me, and this is not my type of book. I'm content in letting this one go.
Reviewer: Mig Bardsley
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I enjoyed this novel a lot, partly because of the beautifully spare and crisp writing and partly because of the slow and careful way the characters were developed.The premise was good too - if you had a deeply distressing memory would you want it removed. And if you were later offered it back, would you want that? This novel suggests ways in which people might be affected and how it might be handled by a tech corporation which leads to a degree of suspense - after all you don't expect companies making money from new and suddenly suspect technology to be squeaky clean do you?A subtle and fresh approach to sci fi with wonderfully human characters and, amazingly and delightfully, not a cliche in sight. Brilliant.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: What a wonderful book, so lovely to read and I loved the twists and turns. Hope Jo writes some more novels as Iâll be there for them!
Reviewer: Imported Racoon
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Had a new year resolution to ensure I read at least a book a month. Read 2 a month from Jan to Mar. Started reading this in March and still could not finish the book in May.I love the dystopian genre and the storyline sounded really interesting. Agree with another comment that this would make a great hour episode for Black Mirror. However the book dragged out too long and characters were not engaging. I have given up and moved on.Could someone tell me the ending?
Reviewer: NIGEL LIPPARD
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Very enjoyable read , It created a lot of personal reflection and self analysis on how past experiences can dramatically affect the person you are today.