Praiseworthy Pages

Reader Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (3/5 stars)

I grabbed this book off the shelf because the cover looked interesting, and the premise seemed promising. Set in a world almost like a doppelgänger to the one we know, but one that never evolved past the 1980s, people are plagued by a disease that eats their memories away. To combat this epidemic, people must watch tape recordings of their memories to ensure that even the most mundane memories remain fresh in one’s mind.

While the setting sounds fascinating, the actual execution of the plot fell a little flat. Characters felt cliché, and the solving of what felt like the main mystery of this series’ first installment was underwhelming. I didn’t mind the read, but it’s not a book I’m eager to pick up again, nor an overall plot I would go out of my way to pursue further.

Language: 10/10 (No swearing).
Sex: 9.5/10 (Sex mentioned briefly and rarely).
Violence and gore: 9/10 (Minimal violence and gore).

Plot: 6/10 (Fell a little flat, but it did have some of those stereotypical plot turns that kept me reading! The story didn’t retain my interest enough for me to find book two, but it wasn’t boring).
Characters: 6/10 (The cast of characters were pretty much exactly what you’d expect of a group of high schoolers in a dystopian world. Nothing really set any of the characters apart from other dystopian novels in my mind. Very run-of-the-mill, but they were still compelling! The tropes exist because they tend to do their job fairly well).
Writing style: 6/10 (I liked that the author wrote about Tennessee, which is where I’m living now. I also liked that the author added a soundtrack to the story that, I’m sure, would make a lot 80s-music-loving readers excited. However, the specific songs listed pulled me out of the story and made me struggle to reconcile the world I know with this fictional one Vaca tried to create).

Genre: Young adult literature, science fiction, dystopian fiction, romance
Potential triggers: Loss of loved ones, miscarriage, memory loss, domestic violence, etc.
Is this book part of a series? Yes.
I would recommend this book to readers 12+.