Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for giving me the opportunity to review this book!
Book Details
Genre: Dystopia/sci-fi
Publisher: Eye Books
Publication date: March 30, 2020
Pages: 320
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Synopsis
The city of iRemember shimmers in the desert haze, watched over by the Bureau, a government agency that maintains control through memory surveillance and little pink pills made from the narcotic plant Tranquelle.
It looks like an oasis under its geodesic dome, but the city is under siege. ‘Off-Gridder’ insurgents are fighting to be forgotten.
Bureau Inspector Icara Swansong is on a mission to neutralise the threat. Her investigation leads her into iRemember’s secret underbelly, where she finds herself a fugitive from the very system she had vowed to protect. She has to learn new rules: trust no one. Behind every purple Tranquelle stalk lurk double-agents.
A sci-fi noir with a psychedelic twist, iRemember explores the power the past holds over us and the fragility of everything: what is, what once was, and what will be.
My Thoughts
You know the author has amazing talent when you’re reading even the Acknowledgements with great interest! I’m still recovering from the mind-bending, trippy experience that is iRemember.
Imagine a world where state surveillance follows your every thought because it is literally inside your head. Imagine being hunted down and punished if you have “Bad Memories.” Such is the world of iRemember, which is ruled by the ageing, iron-fisted, and autocratic Helena Frome. She presides over the Tranquelle-addled minds of the Citizens and foils innumerable assassination attempts by Off-Gridders, who live in the Sub-Urbs and the Desert Rings outside the City.
iRemember is a story of power-hungry and corrupt factions who will do anything to retain control of the City. It is the age-old tale of the rich getting richer on the backs of the poor, and the less fortunate secretly plotting to take over the establishment. It is a story of shifting loyalties and intrigue, where even familial ties are sacrificed to protect one’s power.
The setting is dystopian and futuristic. It is a world of artificial intelligence where memories can be harnessed and molded to suit one’s ends. Where paper, water, and minerals are scarce. Where agricultural practices have been lost, and plastic is pervasive.
I can best describe Bekvalac’s writing as mesmerizing. It makes you lose sense of time and space. She makes you perform mental calisthenics with her short sentences and psychedelic word images. I particularly liked the technique of changing the typography to denote different memories.
I’ll leave you with a thoughtful quote on memories from the book:
A memory is inconsequential. It is unimportant. It is everything that came before. Insubstantial. While you dwell on it, time passes and it’s gone. Memory is not.
Is it good to be remembered or forgotten? You decide.
About the Author
SV Bekvalac was born in 1987 in Croatia, in what was then Yugoslavia, but grew up in London.
She studied German and Russian at Oxford, and went to film school in Prague. After almost becoming a film-maker and then an academic, researching cities and films, she found herself writing fiction about cities instead. She started off with screenplays and short stories, but they got longer and longer. iRremember is her first novel.
She has lived in cities all over Europe. Now she lives in London, or in one of her own imaginary cities.
Social Media Links – Twitter @sandra_bek @EyeAndLightning
Blog Tour Schedule
Remember to watch out for all the other stops on this tour:
Purchase Links
Amazon UK —
For a limited time, iRemember will be available for only 99p
Amazon.com —
Amazon India — https://amzn.to/2WetEq7
Book Reviews by Satabdi 
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