The Ball Washer

     The Memory Box - Eva Lasko Natiello 2/5 stars
                                           

        

     There are a lot of books on my tablet. Way, way too many and the Memory Box was a book I had stumbled upon, but just never read. It seemed promising, so I began to read it, and then I began to question my judgment. Caroline is sucked into Googling herself, and finds that there are only three hits, but then she Googles her maiden name and that's where the fun begins. Things quickly unravel, and she finds out that she's forgotten some very important parts of her life. These are things no one should forget. I instantly wanted to stop reading because I didn't like Caroline all that much. As a character, she's weak, and boring. It's the way she reacts to things that annoyed the hell out of me. She volunteers at her children's school and is faced with questions, so instead of just excusing herself she trips, and pulls the fire alarm and makes her escape. It's shit like this that irritated me, and I knew that I should just stop reading, but now I was invested. Why in the hell can't this woman remember key events in her life. Was she hit in the head? Given her grace, she could have fallen and hit her head. Caroline does that a lot.

     It's a highly implausible novel that begins strong but eventually you begin to shake your head, and wonder why this woman is still hitting Google for information. There's a dark undercurrent flowing here, and we begin to wonder who Caroline really is. If Eva wants us to like Caroline, she's failed. If she wants to grab our attention by giving us a tightly paced thriller, she's kind of succeeded. The Memory Box is full of holes though, I mean a lot of holes. It's the why that kept me reading. I may not have liked Caroline, but I wanted to find out why this is happening. There are moments that pull you in, but as the story progresses Caroline's behavior becomes more erratic and she becomes a cunt. If you're an author, you want readers to sympathize with your main character, but in The Memory Box, that's not even possible.

     No one notices that Caroline is slowly losing her shit either. You would think that when someone you care about is sleeping more, chopping off her hair, and acting really odd, someone would notice. It doesn't happen, and don’t even get me started on Andy. Jesus, this guy is an idiot. So the book is a mess that makes you wonder what the fuck is going on. It has so much potential, but when you're main character is a cunt, the story begins to lose its momentum. Seeing Caroline morph is really what the novel's about, and as the books winds down we need to give this woman a cape and name her Super Cunt because the end of the book is really where Eva shines. We finally get the answers we seek, and that my friends is what you call a plot twist. If the entire novel had been like those last few pages I wouldn't have been so pissed off, but it wasn't, and I can't get any of the moments back that I spent reading this novel.

     It's not terrible, but it could have been better. It may have just been my dislike of Caroline that kept me from enjoying this. As a thriller, it's just okay but not something you want to buy. Get a copy from the library, or borrow it from a friend. If you want mindless entertainment, you’ve come to the right place. This is a book that will frustrate you to no end. I wonder if Eva will write another book, and if she does will it be better than the Memory Box? She's not a bad writer, and she had a lot of great ideas here, but they just didn't pan out. I give her at least two stars for effort. Just don't turn your main character into a cunt.