Review of These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma

I'm drawn to stories that explore issues around memory. In Ma's science fiction novel, China is the sole global superpower, and citizens' memories are valuable, dangerous, manipulated, and mined. Recollections serve as currency and as fodder for a government seeking to prosecute any subversive citizens.

In a future land ruled by the Qin Empire, citizens all wear MindBanks, contraptions that record, monitor, and transfer memories and thoughts. Memories can be manipulated, unacceptable memories can be used as evidence of traitorous intent, and in a squirrelly example of "everything is for sale," those with enough money (Mind Capital) can buy others' memories and own strangers' vivid experiences for themselves.

Our unnamed narrator inherits his mother's banned memories, and he enters into her saved collection while realizing he is in extreme danger for merely possessing them. We dip in and out of his perspective and are immersed with him in each of his mother's curated memories. The questioning, human connection, and stubborn hope shown in the recollections feel increasingly subversive and provocative; they collectively take the shape of resistance.

The elimination of privacy, the eagerness to prosecute perceived treachery based upon seized memories, the twisting of truth to suit powerful entities' motives, and the government's control over the minds of its people are all chilling prospects.

The novel illustrates the bravery of unassuming mothers, the way stories offer hope, and how sharing stories can save us all.

I received an audiobook version of this title courtesy of Mariner Books and Libro.fm.

More Books about Memory

This is Yiming Ma's first book.

For other Bossy reviews of books about memory, check out the titles at this link.