Review: Last Memoria & Author Interview

Hello, book dragons! Today I’m bringing you a review of a very special book, Last Memoria, and an interview with the author! It is super important for bloggers and book reviewers to support self-published authors, especially in these scary times. Please consider checking this one out (links below)!

{You might also like – Review: Girls Made of Snow and Glass}

Title: Last Memoria

Author: Rachel Emma Shaw

Format: eARC

Publisher: Self Published

Date Published: Expected by 10 May 2020

Goodreads Description: A heartbreaking dark fantasy thriller about flawed people making flawed decisions. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Joe Abercrombie.

Sarilla has learnt one thing from stealing memories. Everybody lies.

There’s nothing Sarilla hates more than stealing memories, but the king forces her to take them to keep his subjects in line. She wants to escape to where nobody knows what she is or what she can do, but her plans go awry when she runs into Falon.

Falon has a six month void in his memories that he’s desperate to restore. He doesn’t know why they were taken or what they contained, nor why the man he loves is acting so cagily about what happened during that time. He hopes to use Sarilla to get back his stolen memories and doesn’t care what she wants or why she’s desperate to escape. She will help him get them back, whether she wants to or not.

I received a review copy from the author. All opinions are my own.

Story

The plot and concept of Last Memoria are genuinely unique and I enjoyed the story. I got some serious Witcher vibes from this book and I stan. The main recurring theme of “everyone lies” is so powerful and ties in so well with the multiple unreliable narrators we follow.

I do have a few issues with the worldbuilding. I would have liked some more cultural elements and a bit more time should have been spent on the geographical layout and the landscape. But it doesn’t detract from the overall story and message of the book.

Writing

The writing really pulled me into this book. Rachel is an amazing writer and I found myself reading Last Memoria long after my bedtime. Unfortunately, the story as a whole felt a bit disjointed. It felt like I opened the book in the middle and started reading. Some key characters traits and histories were missing, but it doesn’t detract from the overall writing style.

Characters

One of the best elements of the book was the characters and how a narrative is built through the memories that Sarilla stole. Sarilla’s story is heartbreaking and at a certain point in the book, I had to take a break. I don’t know how she can still function, but it makes her one of the strongest characters I know and I need more of her story.

Overall Last Memoria was a quick and enjoyable read, and I definitely recommend it to fans of The Witcher, Incendiary and Game of Thrones.

Links

iTunes | Spotify

Author Interview – Chatting with Rachel Emma Shaw

About the book:

1. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

One of the best parts about writing fantasy is how there isn’t much need for research. I don’t have to know in advance what type of cutlery people used in 12^th century France because there is no France in my books. 

Instead, I have the equally ginormous task of worldbuilding, which for me starts with imagining I’m standing in an empty grey space, then an idea sparks somewhere and I build the rest of the world out of that, always asking myself what each addition means for the rest of the society, slowly layering up the setting, magic system and so much more. It’s my favourite part and it can take many months to get it right. If there is something wrong then it makes it harder when I’m writing the story because a scene will jar with the rest, so then it’s back to worldbuilding to fix where I went wrong!

2. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to let your personality show in your stories. At the end of the day, that’s what will keep you from writing books that anyone else could have created.

Oh, and don’t listen to that English teacher who told you that you can’t write! Haters gonna hate.

3. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

By making me less afraid of missing out on perfection. When drafting my books, I see how they improve, so it’s hard to know when they’re done, especially for a self-published author who doesn’t have an agent or editor to weigh in with their opinion. Publishing taught me that books are never finished and never truly can be because stories reflect who the author was when they wrote them. If you never stop drafting, then the book will never be done.

4. What did you edit out of this book?

Sarilla originally had two younger brothers, Denon and Lucan, but they were axed in a later draft 🙁

5. How do you select the names of your characters?

With great difficulty! Each society I create has certain letters that are more or less commonly used, so I’ll use that as a rule when coming up with new names. Some come to me pretty quickly, but others can take months…

     6. What can we expect in the second book?

What to tell you without giving anything away… Well, it’s fast-paced, but not quite as much as the first. It explores places we’ve not yet seen but have heard a lot about and it delves into to some really cool aspects of memori culture. Best of all is the way the memory magic is used, but I daren’t say any more than that!

About the author:

1. What is your favourite childhood book?

Philosopher’s Stone. Has to be. It’s the first book that introduced me to escapism. Although sometimes I question if I ever truly found my way back 😀

2. Do you Google yourself?

Ha! No. Should I? Seems like a dangerous thing to do.

3. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

A bird that would sit on my shoulder singing along atmospherically to match the tone of the scene I’m writing! It would be so much fun and you would instantly know if the scene wasn’t landing as it should.

4. Who is your favourite author and why?

No surprises here, but it has to be J. K. Rowling. My dad taped an interview she gave back in the ’90s and I re-watched it so many times that I broke the tape, but I’ve never forgotten what she said, particularly about how she loves books where she knows the author knows everything about the world, they might not tell you everything, but they know it. Her offhand comment has stuck with me through twenty years and had a huge influence on the stories I create.

5. What are you reading now?

The Shadows Between Us. <3

6. What book is currently on your bedside table?

Bo Burnham’s Egghead. He is just hilarious.

7. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

Every book I read has some effect so I often have to be careful not to read anything new while I’m writing or editing my books as I often accidentally adopt the author’s quirks. I do that with people I hang around with too and I’ll suddenly start doing something different with my hands or pulling a new face, then spend ages wondering who did that come from?

Let me know your thoughts on Last Memoria.

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