Saturday, February 28, 2009

Review: Persistence of Memory

Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Being diagnosed with schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder at a young age, has landed Erin Mishrahe, in a ward for most of her childhood. But after being eighteen months free of her alter ego, Shevaun, Erin is enrolled into a public high school for the first time at the age of sixteen. For the time being everything seems to be going quite normal until she is transported to France in another person’s body, Shevaun.

Everything for Erin, gets even more puzzling when an old friend, makes a reappearance in her life and tries to explain to her that she really isn’t schizophrenic and that Shevaun, her alter ego, really is a vampire.

In the meantime Shevaun, now fully aware of the strange connection she and Erin shares, is determined to be rid of the connection between the two, even if it means killing Erin in the process.

So after reading a lot of negative reviews of The Persistence of Memory, I was wary about picking the book up. The plot seemed a little far-fetched and unusual so I no clue what to expect, only have read one Amelia Atwater-Rhodes book (Demon In My View) years ago.

But the book turned out to be really good with loads of surprised. I actually liked the main character Erin. I personally felt she was quite sensible, despite the fact she was a supposed schizophrenic with Disassociate Identity Disorder. She was skeptical about certain things, until she had concrete evidence that they were true.

But my favorite character had to be, Erin’s friend Sassy, diagnosed as a compulsive liar, he was always fun and interesting to read about. I loved the parts whenever he was mentioned. He was funny and protective of Erin, which I thought was so sweet, and he had a lot of charisma, which I was not anticipating. I would want to read a sequel just to read about him more.

My main problem with the book was that at times I got really confused and would have to back track to understand what I was reading, which got a little annoying. But other then that the book as a whole surprised me in more then one way and I was pretty satisfied at how things ended.

Although, I have very limited experience with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes book, I really liked this book more then Demon In My View. So I guess that accounts for something right?



224 pages
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
December 9, 2008

*Reviewed for BookDivas.com

2 comments:

  1. i just finished it and i thot it was great

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  2. My first dive into "gothic" or "vampire" books started with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I've read all of her books and to this day still find them enjoyable (not fantastic but a good read) I think that her spin on things is interesting and I was glade to find that she wrote another book. Your review was helpful. It had a fresh perspective.

    Thanks for reviewing it. I look at your blog to gauge what to read when I don't have the time to spend hours at library (b/c it's like a black hole for me- I get sucked in and I never return)

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