The Memory Hunters is deeply ambitious in the themes it seeks to explore, including a dystopian world; the role of museums; trauma; and faith. At the same time, it seeks to tell a romantic story between the two leads, and move forward with a plot that involves tension between the museum and the church. Unfortunately, I really felt like this was being pulled in too many directions, and so it never really got to explore any of the themes, world, or characters fully. The worldbuilding was scant, really more of a sketch that never allowed me to feel immersed into the story. That's fine, maybe the world isn't the focus, the characters are - except the characters never felt fully built out either. The motivations of the two main characters seemed abrupt and clunky, and the romance was never believable for me. Okay, so the world and the characters are just a vehicle to explore the themes - except there are too many themes, so none of them go into detail, and many of the themes really need the characters or the world to drive home the point, and they just don't do that.

I think this has the framework of something good, and I didn't hate reading it or anything. But it just didn't feel ready. The ideas are good, the concepts are good, I just really wanted more than I got.

This is a sapphic, slow burn, romantic fantasy with politics, academic intrigue, and a post-apocalyptic world with special mushrooms and secrets
Vale was such a standout character, I loved her intensity, and the yearning in the sapphic romance was so well done. The romance isn’t central, but the tension is there, simmering beneath every interaction.

The worldbuilding is lacking but unique, I’ll be honest some of the memory diving and magic system was confusing at times. Still, the dark vibe and the unraveling mystery kept me hooked.

Not a light or easy read, but if you love layered worldbuilding, morally complex characters, and a romance that makes you ache, this one is worth picking up.

The description of Inception meets Indiana Jones had my attention. And the queer Last Of Us style sci-fantasy kept my interest. Add in a storyline similar to Dumbledore's pensieve and you've a unique story. While I don't agree with this story being similar to The Fifth Season, it is impactful, complex and unique in the storytelling, themes, and characters.

This is a 2.5 generously rounded up to a 3 stars. I did almost DNF several times.

I was very drawn in by the dark academia vibes, the unique world with trippy mushrooms and the badass bodyguard promises. The world is quite unique, set in a kind of future dystopia ravaged by climate change and many generations that have passed since things went south. Some people can, through mushrooms and blood, access these types of memories of ancestors of a place or a person, depending on what the source is. Such an interesting concept!

However, I found the world building to be lacking. I didn’t understand why certain things were a no no, why the rules were set as they were. It’s teased in the book, and I guess will be explored further in future books in the series. The main characters were quite unlikeable, and the side characters relatively flat. The most interesting characters who had something to hide were painted to be one dimensional baddies and there is little exploring why someone might choose the path they choose. This made the plot veer between romance between characters I couldn’t connect with, some overarching story that needed to be unpacked further and a society that keeps rules that were hard to understand. All could easily have been picked out to carry the story but instead I’m not sure what it’s trying to be. Is it a romance, a dystopia or an action book? Not clear.

I’m not exactly sure who to recommend this to, maybe those who are interested in sapphic romance primarily.

Many thanks to Erewhon/Kensington books and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.

Fantasy novel set in what I suspect is a future Earth after it has been ravaged by climate change. Some reviewers - are saying they get Appalachian vibes, I can’t confirm, and may not actually have guessed North America as the setting but it does reinforce my guess that it is a future Earth. This book has a really interesting premise; some people train to take hallucinogens that allow them to travel into dead people’s memories, and Key is a standout because of the number of generations she can travel back.

Each chapter starts with an excerpt from a book or academic article that contributes significantly to the worldbuilding and verisimilitude. I love stories that dole out information about the world piecemeal; drop me in a story and let me figure it out and I’ll sing its praises. That said, after a rollicking start there wasn’t much plot between the bits and pieces of history. There’s some pining though, which I’m here for - Valerian pines for Key, and Valerian’s boyfriend pines for Key’s boyfriend, for whom he performs the same role Valerian does for Key.

All that said, this was ultimately a DNF for me. The story came to a screeching halt a few chapters in, and I pushed through to 60% but couldn’t finish. That’s not to say I don’t recommend the book, there’s definitely an audience for it, it’s just not me.

As a fan of fungi and weirdscififantasy and lesbians I was really looking forward to this one! I enjoyed it a lot!!!

Some fascinating worldbuilding with the weird mushroom science and religion and the climate devastated world that’s slowly revealed over the course of the book. I liked the emphasis on culture, and depictions of class differences. Some really great complicated characters and parent/mentor relationships. It has a wild beginning but is actually quite slow paced with a lot of flashbacks and such for most of the middle of the book. I would have liked a bit more on the science side of things, as well as more about the broader world. Hopefully in the sequel?

Also love the comprehensive reference guide to books AND music at the end! more books should have those!

THE MEMORY HUNTERS imagines a dystopian future in which certain people are gifted with the ability of “diving”, that is, to access the memories of those before them if they drink from the mushrooms that grow at an excavation site, at the risk of those memories taking over their own lives. The past always threatens to overwhelm the present, and the Museum works to shape the stories of the past into neat narratives that fit into the mythos of the present day—a justification for inequalities, of only certain people or institutions being privileged to hold the truths of the lower classes and put them up on display.

Being the first book in a series, it sets up a promising premise for what is to come—the character relationships are compelling, there’s a very minor subplot of sapphic yearning and romance along the lines of the princess and her knight trope, there is the timeless debate about museums as sites of preservation and authorities on what gets to be shared with the population and what gets gatekept, there’s the glimpse of the people outside institutions keeping their histories and cultures alive through folksongs only they know, just to name a few. I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to finding out what comes next, and my main critique would be that because it’s the first book, it left me with a lot of questions that don’t go answered at all—what illness is eating away at Kiana’s mother, what are the implications of the truth behind the temple’s founding and origins, and what could all of that mean for society at large? Who will oppose the Museum? And what exactly is the tension between the Museum and the temple if their people perform similar functions with the blood chalices, even if for different ends? It was in leaving me with all these questions that the ending fell a little flat, but I’ll forgive it because the story isn’t over yet.

This sadly ended up being a DNF for me. It is a very cool idea, but the world was lacking in detail so much I was unable to care of about the plot. It does have a certain vibe of distopia that is interesting but it fell flat on really taking advantage of it.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I quite enjoyed this unique fantasy with some interesting commentary on museums and the way they interact with different cultures.

While it's marketed as science fantasy, there's not actually that much science happening, though the process behind memory retrieval could be considered scientific. I think this aspect of the world building could have been explored more, and at times I was a little confused about how it all worked. That said, I found the concept of storing memories in blood chalice mushrooms after examining them a really good concept.

The story is about Key and Vale, a memory hunter/guardian duo. When Key uncovers a memory that seems inconsistent with everything she learnt about their history, she delves deeper while her mentor tries as much as she can to stop her.

I like the characters, and both have a POV in the book. Key is the child of rich, important parents and she is the strongest memory hunter alive, and can go farther back in time than anyone else. She believes this is due to her family lineage, and due to being blessed by the saints, and can be pretty arrogant about her capabilities. I liked how she was clearly written as a flawed character with some flawed views of the world. Vale, on the other hand, is a woman from a poor family of a cultural minority group (I am not super clear on what cultural groups live in this world, but the concept of memory preservation touches on this), and she became a guardian largely to send money back to her family. She's tough, and initially largely believes in the memory hunting too, but she's more concerned with supporting her family.

There's a main sapphic romance, but it's very slow burn, and Vale actually has a boyfriend for much of the book. I found Jing interesting as a character, but it's so painfully clear these two are not meant to be. Their interactions are so awkward, and Jing has much better chemistry with his best friend and guardian Cal (Jing is a memory hunter too). Vale kind of feels like a third wheel when hanging out with Jing because Cal's also there, but she does have better chemistry with Key. I think this was actually well done, and you can see why Vale stays in this relationship even though everyone can see it isn't really working. This does slow down the development of Vale and Key's romance, but Vale's relationship is not the only reason. Key's privileged position also complicates their relationship, because she just doesn't understand certain things, and has a very colonial leaning view on the world that she needs to unlearn. I think the slow burn works well here, they clearly care for each other and already know each other at the start, but there's still much standing in their way. I'd say the romance is really a subplot overall.

There's a big reveal about halfway in about how memory hunting really works, but I must say I found it underwhelming. It didn't seem as big of a deal as some characters made it out to be, and I don't think this is supposed to be the main criticism of the practice either.
What I found much more interesting was the colonialism allegory within the museum practices. Many memories are archived somewhere inaccessible to the public, and both Key and her mentor believe only the museums can properly preserve memories. This includes memories that relate to the history of cultural minority groups, and some of the conflict is about this, and I think this is very good allegory for how western museums believe only they are capable of properly caring for artefacts they stole when they colonized certain countries. I think this was among the best aspects of the book.

The book is decently paced, and really picks up towards the end, though the middle was a little slower. Overall, I really enjoyed it, though I would have liked if some aspects of the world building had been fleshed out a bit more.

Would recommend to fans of fantasy books with strong commentary on the colonialism such as Blood over Bright Haven and the Dawnhounds

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of The Memory Hunters.

***Review Summary***
The Memory Hunters is a sapphic romance novel set in a future, queer-normative, climate-apocalypse version of Appalachia where a lot of technology has been lost but the elite have gained the power to relive and retain the memories of the dead.

My biggest issue with The Memory Hunters is that it felt like three different books were cut up and sewn back together badly. There was the academia-adjacent romance where a character has to choose between her boyfriend and the girl she's secretly in love with. There was the science-fantasy dystopia with chilling and powerful points to make. And there was the martial-arts-mafia plot line featuring unbelievably good fighters (one runs so fast that she blurs), kidnappings, secret lairs and more.

It's a shame because the book had so many brilliant concepts. There were sections (mainly the dystopia ones) where I was enthralled. I also enjoyed the queer-normative and diverse world where our two lovers are women of colour. But, the romance and the criminals with their martial arts didn't work for me at all. And, I also felt the book was let down by poor logic and the main characters treating other people really badly.

***In More Detail: The Romance***
The romance was definitely given the biggest focus in the book. In fact, the dystopia plotline stalls for 150 pages (33% of the book's content) so we can see our two main characters yearn for each other in silence and/or feel discontent with their existing relationship. During this time, the characters prepare for dinner parties, discuss laundry and cooking responsibilities with other people, have meetings, and share backstory, some of which felt more appropriate to a contemporary rom-com. As I said, the plot stalls.

There is a lot to like about the romance, but it leads the two main characters to treat other people terribly. One cheats on her boyfriend and yet still plans to move in with him to save money. The other learns that her mother has <spoiler>a terminal illness</spoiler> only to never think about it again.

There's also a big power imbalance between the two characters, and there was one scene that was meant to be full of romantic tension but felt borderline like one of them was negging the other's appearance.

***In More Detail: The Dystopia***
This dystopia had so much to say! The book touched on social class and nepotism, wealth privilege, the relationship between religion and power, consent, identity, museum ethics and the theft of cultural heritage, the politics of who museums listen to about a culture/people, the politics of what museums choose to record and what they choose to let be forgotten... And it did so in a way that was poignant and powerful, and with a unique magic system to boot. I could write pages and pages about all these themes in the book.

That said, it didn't feel like the world was completely fleshed out. World-building is so important for dystopias, but things didn't really make sense. For example, this is a world with trains, electric cars, radio, alarm systems, laboratories, etc., but people don't know how guns work and use swords and axes instead. Even if that knowledge had been lost, there's no way that they couldn't have re-invented guns.

I also felt that the big secret alluded to in the book's description was, sure, uncomfortable, but certainly not damning enough to cause our main characters' reactions. <Spoiler>Consuming human blood for ritual purpose is fine, but the fact that 240 years ago, their ancestors' consumed — with the recent dead's consent — human brains would bring down the entire power system? I just don't believe it. They're already engaging in borderline cannibalism.</spoiler>

All the same, I would have loved to have read a version of this book where the dystopia took centre-stage instead of the romance.

***In More Detail: The Criminal Gang Using Martial Arts***
This element of the book felt like vibes over plot. It was the main focus in the last 25% of the book (~110 pages). But, logically, at every point, there were better options for our characters than the ones they took. It was unnecessary.

The amount of violence was also astonishing and unbelievable. Human bodies do not recover quickly enough for them to get injured that many times in quick succession and be not only able to keep fighting but also mostly unaffected by their injuries when moving. And because they just kept recovering and beating people up and killing them, I found I didn't actually feel any tension or concern during this part of the book.

Even before this plotline became the focal point, one of our main characters also displayed a fair amount of toxic masculinity (because yes, women can display toxic masculinity) in the way she kept choosing to beat people up instead of processing emotions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC!

Key, a memory hunter, and Vale, her guardian work for the Museum in Human Memory in a dystopian world that has been ravaged by climate change. During an unsanctioned detour on a research trip, Key dives back into a memory and finds that the official history as it's been taught may not be totally accurate.

I really really wanted to like this because the concept is great, but it just fell a little flat for me. The pacing was strange and the exposition about how Key dives into memories and why she is considered so special (beyond being essentially a nepo baby) took a long time coming. I didn't really feel a connection to either Key or Vale and felt they were a little bit one dimensional. While it maybe wasn't for me, readers who enjoy climate dystopian novels or dark academia should give this a try!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

While I find the entire concept & world building intriguing, the two main characters sadly did not grow on me. I found both of them slightly annoying which marred my reading experience because this book is as much character driven as it is story driven. Maybe it also had to do with Netgalley forcing me to read it on my phone via the app where you cannot change text size etc, so it was quite exhausting. I think the author has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to whatever she's going to write next.

Mia Tsai's newest fantasy drops readers into an intense, dangerous world where people can walk through memories through the aid of certain mushrooms, but at great risk. Key can dive further into ancestral memories than anyone she knows, and she uses her skills to discover new mysteries to unravel for the Museum of Human Memory, choosing to be an academic rather than serving at the temple her family believes she's destined to lead. She and her bodyguard, Valerian, are out in the field when Key dives back 250 years, finding a clue that may hint at a great discovery--but they're in danger from rogue hunters, and have to escape before she can fully be immersed. But the memory she's uncovered lingers, affecting Key long after they leave, drawing her back to it and its potentially dangerous secrets.

The story is a slow burn indeed, both in terms of the romance and the plot, and it took me some time to tease apart the complex world and the story of Key and Valerian. It was fascinating, and I look forward to reading more in the series (because, I discovered, the story definitely isn't done at the end of the book!) There's a lot of danger and intrigue, and some fairly gruesome scenes, which would be good to know heading into the story. I'll be recommending The Memory Hunters to fantasy readers at our library who are looking for a rich world to explore full of secrets waiting to be unraveled.

I had a hard time getting theough this one. The pacing was all over the place, but mostly boring. The characters felt one-dimensional and the relationships between them were boring.

This one was awesome! Such a richly imagined world with a little bit of post-apocalyptic dystopia, a little bit of fantasy, and a grounding in world-specific science gives THE MEMORY HUNTERS a really vivid backdrop to build our characters with. And what characters they are: we have Kiana the golden child from a powerful family with uniquely strong “magical” talent and Valerian her tiny-ball-of-rage sworn sword who came from nothing and is too proud to accept help. Of course they’re both harboring buried (?) feelings for each other.

What also really stuck out for me was the conflict between the museum, the temple, the black market, and folk traditions. When you consider that this book’s “tangible memories” are a metaphor for cultural artifacts and history, the whole thing reeks of how historians stole and trampled on indigenous cultures in order to craft their own narrative; how organized religion does pretty much the same thing but in a different light; how simply enacting revenge on those institutions can’t bring back what was lost unless you do the work of dismantling them and providing reparations and rebuilding; and how indigenous cultures have preserved their histories and stories without (and often in direct opposition to) colonizer intervention.

I read this book while traveling and it kept me thoroughly engaged (despite a delayed flight and being on a plane way past my usual bedtime) up until the last act. I think the final section suffers a bit from Vale needing to sort of do the same thing over and over, particularly since she does most of the POV lifting in that section.

I did really like how things ended, though, with a lot of interesting threads to pick up in book two!

I really struggled with this book. It had some really great ideas and the premise sounds fantastic -- Inception meets Indiana Jones -- but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. In the end, I had to force myself to finish.

Inception may be my favorite Christopher Nolan movie and Indiana Jones is so beloved, I convinced myself for years that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was actually good. Both of those properties, however, have a rich and expansive world that feels limitless. The characters are likeable and have depth. I see the comparison to them based on the opening chapter, but that’s about where it ends.

It seems like about 90 percent of the book takes place in one city and most of the first half of the book is people in rooms talking. There was a small amount of action in the first chapter, but after that, I was waiting for something to happen. Even the world itself was confusing -- it seemed as though it’s dystopian, set years in the future after this world has collapsed, but then the entire macguffin of memory extraction felt like a fantasy element, even with the fungal “science” tie-in.

The main characters are Key and Vale -- a memory hunter and her guardian. I’ll note here that both are female, but I was confused often because Vale had many masculine characteristics so I often thought of her as a man. The two are co-workers? Boss and subordinate? Friends? Lovers? …basically all of those things at some point in the book. Their relationship escalates from the beginning of the book until the end, but the path it takes is herky jerky and I often didn’t understand either of their motivations, especially when it came to their feelings for each other.

There’s a plot to the book, but it gets lost and bogged down by the lack of world building (like there’s this whole religion that’s tied into retrieving memories, but it also seems like it’s the “official history” as well, but it didn’t make a lot of sense how any of it actually worked or the religion’s tenets or anything really). In the end, it set it up so basically Key and Vale were the only two on the right side and everyone else was bad and wrong. Some characters were set up to have some nuance, but it was hard to find in the end.

Like I said, I struggled with this one. There are some amazing ideas to build a book off of, but it felt like some of the backstory of those ideas was left on the cutting room floor or in the author’s mind.

Thank you to Erewhon Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

My thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an advance copy of this fantasy book that looks at how people remember things, how people miss things, how people omit things, and the power of love and well mushrooms.

I have always been fascinated at how humans remember history. My grandfather could tell me stories about being a lumberjack in Canada, like he was reading it from his diary, and yet he couldn't remember anything about my father's childhood. We build monuments to memorialize events, and lie to people about what they are about. Fake news is used to control memories of what was just seen and heard, for to control the narrative is a way of controlling history. And of course control, always control. Control over what is known, what is thought, and even how people can feel for each other. Truth wills out is a common saying, but many don't want the truth, for it makes them face thoughts they don't want to have, or want to admit. The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai is a fantasy that is very much about the present day, about memory, the past, control, power, and of course love.

Kiana Strade is a researcher and academic who could be a high member of the temple that rules her world, but instead Key, as she calls herself likes to be out in the field, getting muddy, messing with mushrooms and their powers, and looking for memories. Key can find lost memories, deep ones that not many can find, nor understand, something that many envy, many wish to control, and many wish to stop. Valerian, also known as Vale, is Key's bodyguard, watching over Key to keep her safe, not only from enemies, but from Key's own impulsiveness. Usually this is an easy job, one that Vale enjoys for many reasons, including the feelings she has for Key, and the money that helps her family, but things have become complicated. Key has tapped into a memory that seems to contradict much of what the world believes, something that could change things, and not for the better. Key's mentor ignores Key, and Key's own mother, a powerful person has demanded that Key halt her work, or risk the consequences. The consequences that might not only be physical, for Key is starting to miss time, and things are starting to get worse.

A book of fantasy, mushrooms, love, blood, family, and a lot more current events than one would expect. The book is very well written, with a rich world, that has a lot going on, great ideas, and a nice sense of pace. The characters are well developed, though Key was, well abrasive in many ways for a part of the book. As the book progresses, Key grews into herself, and her power and knowledge, which really made for a more interesting character. The relationship is real between the two, with lots of misreads, miscommunications, and finally lots of trust. The book is a duology, and I admit that I am excited to see where this book is going.

Fans of this kind of fantasy will enjoy it. Role players can learn quite a lot from this book, how to treat characters, how to treat museums and places of learning, and and some interesting new ideas on how to treat memory, blood and food as magical creations. Lots of fun, with a lot of ideas about the state of our current world to contemplate.

If you're looking to be transported to a unique and immersive world, The Memory Hunters is a must-read. The author crafts an intriguing setting that combines academia, botany, cli-fi, and fantasy in a fresh and exciting way, with a set-up I have never encountered before! The story follows Kay, one of the few who can see into the past, and heir apparent to the two institutions dedicated to this rare ability. As Kay faces tough decisions, she must come to terms with the true nature of these institutions and their role in shaping history.
Her protector and close friend, Vale, is more cynical, having experienced firsthand the struggles within their society. Together, somewhat unknowingly, they embark on a journey that raises important questions about representation, memory preservation, and the right to one’s own culture. All of this unfolds in a fast-paced, academic-fantasy adventure.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story, even though a few passages felt slightly slow or overcomplicated at times. Still, who could resist the tension and complexity of a friends-to-knight dynamic that’s as tumultuous as it is compelling?

I am so bummed! The Memory Hunters sucked me in from the beginning with it's Inception vibes, but as the story progressed it lost me.

This book ended up not quite as I expected.... the beginning kind of draws you in, very heavy inception vibes... but then it kind of falls flat.
Main character Key is spoiled, and unlikable. Vale is better, but still not really relatable.
It seemed like a fresh idea, but it kind of falls flat. More about history and finding items for museum while uncovering other mysteries. It just didn't keep my interest.