Ended up buying a print copy the same night that I saw Janelle in concert! Thanks for the review copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Thought provoking collection of short fiction, at times presenting classic scifi tropes with a new perspective.

I already loved Dirty computer, so I was excited to enter the ideas and concepts further. Janelle has created a vast, thought provoking world that makes you think of how you express yourself in the world. I wanted to read more and was sad when it ended! I will definitely be recommending this to patrons.

Janelle Monáe is a very talented musician and actor so it's not a surprise that they would also be a talented writer as well. Written as a companion piece to their album Dirty Computer, The Memory Librarian is a collection of short stories that inspired or were inspired by the album. Each of these stories are sci-fi based and further expand on Monáe's ideas of memory and conformity. For me the underlying theme throughout the stories is how you cope with a world that desires conformity and uniformity when you don't fit into the desired categories. These stories focus on women, whether cis, non-binary, trans or other and how the new world of New Delta treats them and being outside the norms forces them to move off the grid or supress who they are. Written with multiple other authors, this collection is a wonderful set of short stories and I highly recommend them.

This book left me wanting to know more about the world it was set in, and one thing I enjoyed about it was that it takes place almost entirely on the outskirts of a 1984-esque mega-city where people are not individuals & any thought or memory deemed unclean is erased from its citizens brains. If you enjoyed the Dirty Computer album in 2018, this is a fun literary follow up with a nice cadre of authors' takes.

This book was SO queer, and SO dark (at times), and SO wonderful. Some of the stories grabbed me a little more than the others, but all in all, to be perfectly honest, it had me at Janelle Monáe. <3

I've loved everything Janelle Monae has done to date, and this collection of short fiction is no exception. It is beautifully written and laden with thoughtful insights about technology, surveillance, and personal freedom. Something I really love about Janelle is the unity across all her work- she is incredibly consistent in the themes, visuals, and emotions she explores, and it is fascinating to watch her thoughts and expression develop over time. I really hope we see more writing like this from her.

This book was a really beautiful read. I came to this one as a fan of Janelle Monae's music and I'm very glad I did! I started listening to her when the Archandroid album came out, so I recognized and was thrilled by the subjects of the various short stories. The prose might take a little getting used to, but this was a thrilling dive into Black speculative fiction. I'm really excited to re-read this one and to read more from her.

DNF. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book, but sadly I could not finish. I absolutely love Janelle Monae and the world they are trying to birth simply by being who they are on this earth, but I struggle with sci-fi & speculative fiction. The writing was dense, but I am sure if that's your genre you'd love it.

This was a really good read. I admit I was a fan of Monae beforehand and was aware of her afrofuturist vision via her music, so it was fun seeing that expanded on in this book.

I love Janelle Monae and Dirty Computer is one of my all-time favorite albums. I was so excited for this book. Unfortunately it reads more like a movie script to me, and that is a writing style that I can't stand.

The short stories in this book are set in the same world but have different characters. The stories inform one another, forming a brilliant and disturbing picture of the future and its future. These are stories about finding hope in a dark world. It is critical to be yourself while also accepting others.

These stories appear to be part of a larger project, with language and references assumed to be familiar even when introduced for the first time in the text.

I like Janelle Monáe's music but don't know her lyrics by heart (I saw her perform for a small private audience at a tech sector party in SF), but I'm sure there will be echoes and references to her songs throughout this book.

Highly recommended as a powerful piece of collaborative art and a collection of ideas for a better future that we might be able to build together if we can maintain optimism, hope, and our distinct real selves.

Really loved this book from Monae and hope to see more work from her in the future! Definitely will recommend to any sci-fi fans

This book is not what I thought it was about, however, I did enjoy it. Being somewhat of a reluctant reader I found some parts very long with no breaks but still I was enjoying it enough that I kept going and was glad I did. I love anthologies as it gives me a chance to experience many authors and find some I would never have read before. I found these stories interesting but kind of scary, as we could easily say that would never happen, but in this ever-changing world we live in right now I don’t think that of anything. These authors found worlds to create their futures and what they see will make you think.

The Memory Librarian was an absolute delight to journey through. Janelle Monae collects a great amalgamation of stories to bring forth this book, for which I am grateful to have the privilege to have read.

Inspired by their most recent album and emotion picture, Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe and some amazing collaborators brought us The Memory Librarian and other Stories of Dirty Computer. It’s a science fiction afrofuturistic book of short stories that all ponder the future of tech, class, love, gender, and liberation. All of the main characters are nonbinary and/or transgender and Black or BIPOC.

I love that each story also has a setting or concept that was shown in the Dirty Computer emotion picture like the Pynk Motel. Thanks to this cohesion, I was able to have an easier time picturing the world within this book. My favorite stories are Nevermind and Timebox Altar[ed]. I don’t wanna spoil the book for y’all so I recommend you watch the emotion picture and then read this book.

As an audiobook girlie, I had to listen to it! I mean, Janelle and Bahni Turpin are the narrators!! Janelle’s voice is probably the most soothing narration I’ve ever heard (aside from Toni Morrison’s!)

Absolutely 5 out of 5 stars!

Content Warnings: TERFs, Transphobia, State Violence, Burnout

I'm not really a science fiction person so maybe this book just wasn't meant for me. I love Janelle Monae and was excited to read her book and it was great to read about afrofuturism and queer characters. I'll still dive into whatever Janelle Monae produces next for sure.

Yo. Janelle Monáe is the enbee royal we do not deserve. From amazing music to queer icon and now amazing sci-fi writer, there’s nothing they cannot do, and I love them.

In collaboration with some other incredible writers, Monáe has penned a collection of longer short stories that tie in with their album, Dirty Computer. This collection is unapologetically black and queer, and it’s the kind of afrofuturistic writing I need in my life. Don’t we all? In the tradition of Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor, these stories explore what it’s like to live under totaliarianism and what it takes to break free.

It’s out now, and bonus, the audio is narrated in part by one of my favorite ladies, Bahni Turpin. Get it wherever you procure your books.

A few of these stories were absolutely captivating, and then a few others were so unmemorable that I won’t need Nevermind to forget them :(