Customer Reviews

Persistence of Memory (Den of Shadows)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Persistence of Memory has a little: horror, paranormal romance and mystery. It shows tantalizing glimpses of a paranormal world that includes vampires and sorcerers and reminded me of L.L. Smith writing. The characters were interesting and I did enjoy meeting new ones. However, the only big problem I had was that the author tries to keep the reader in suspense until the very end. This is fine with a mystery or suspense book and that is probably what she is trying to do, but it backfires in this book because so much is withheld. I became frustrated; trying to understand what the heck was going on with the main character, Erin. She is confused, so was I. It would have been nice if more had been explained earlier and the author expanded the story from there.

In this book, the main character is in psychological torment throughout the book. I really liked Erin and wished the other characters would have revealed more sooner so she wouldn't think she was crazy. It was really uncomfortable for me to read her in so much pain and confusion. Her body wasted by prescribed drugs when the other characters could have just explained she wasn't mad and released her of her suffering! I have read Amelia Atwater-Rhodes books before and usually her books are straightforward but the tension in this book felt false, frustrating, and then just confusing and maddening. I think her readers will enjoy this book but for me I was disappointed.

Persistence of Memory is a novel about a teenage girl named Erin who has been through years of mental therapy because she has an 'alter' ego...a persona named Shavaun. Shavaun is a vampiress with a hunky witch for a boyfriend and two other vamps for best friends. Shavaun is also, unfortunately, as real as Erin. Shavaun figures out who Erin is and where she lives and she and her friends travel to confront Erin..to try to sever the connection between the two of them so they can lead their own lives.

The author obviously has a great imagination and this story sounds incredible. Sadly, it falls completely flat. The story hurts itself by being so short (an easy reading 212 pages). Shavaun and friends feel completely underdeveloped. The idea that they are paranormal could have been a thrilling subplot here, but if the story didn't specifically tell us what they were, I don't know that the reader would know. There is an obvious lack of detailing here. It also irrated me that there was a very intriguing premise involving Erin's best friend that seems to have completely dropped, as we never learned more about her and her special circumstances either. There is not much more to say about this book other than the fact that its another tremedously entertaining idea that simply fails upon follow through.

Erin has recently been released from a mental institution to attend a public school. Struggling to hold on to her sanity while trying to figure out why she is suffering from bizarre dreams about a vampire named Shevaun and her lover, Adjila. Talking various psychotic drugs to control her "schizophrenia", Erin struggles to decipher truth from fiction, with the help of a shape-shifting boyfriend, Sassy and shape-shifting friend, Marissa.

While this book held a lot of potential, it fell a little flat. Some of the storylines seemed to be hurried or rushed, and then the author, Atwater-Rhodes, tried to tie it all up in a neat bow, explaining everything in the last few pages. I felt cheated and there were a few things that I would have liked to know or have explained better, like the father, the hunters, and the great "Pandora", to name a few. However, I will say that the character of "Sassy" was one that I enjoyed and would want to see more of.

So, would reading this novel inspire me to read others by Ms. Atwater-Rhodes? No. So with that said, I give this read a 2!

WARNING! This review will contain some minor references which could be interpreted as spoilers. Read at your own risk!

When I first read this book, I was disappointed with it and I wrote a rather scathing review (which you can read below) in which I criticized just about everything that happens in the story. I recently bought Amelia's newest book and I wanted to reread the older books to get myself back in the mood. I debated whether or not to reread this book since I remembered hating it so much the first time, but I decided to go ahead and do it. Much to my utter surprise, I didn't hate it the second time through. In fact, I've radically changed my view on this book. I must have been in a bad mood or something when I wrote my first review (I've decided to leave it in so you can see just how scathing and negative it is). Anyway, my original review is below, followed by my new review.

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Old Review:

What happened? And I'm not talking about the plot, either. I'm wondering why this book is so much worse that all of Amelia's other books (of which I am a fan). Seriously, this is the worst book I've read by her so far, and it pains me to give it such a low rating since I really like Amelia as an author. I was excited to read this since it's her first vampire book after she finished her Shapeshifter series (the Kiesha'ra), and now I'm disappointed. So, what went wrong? Let's find out...

The premise of the book is that Erin, a human who believes herself to have a mental illness, in reality, is actually psychically linked with a vampire named Shevaun. Shevaun and her witch lover, Adjila, quickly find out what's going on and track down Erin to deal with this problem. They find her and fix the problem- the end. Seriously. You know, it's really difficult to put my finger on exactly why this book is so boring, but I'll try to shed some light.

Firstly, the characters all feel a bit fake, or worse, uninteresting. Amelia's written such interesting vampire characters before, but Shevaun comes off as feeling a bit fake. I mean, she's hundreds of years old, she's supposedly killed lots of people, and then she suddenly feels bad enough to try to save one of her victims? She's not a complex character, she's just poorly defined. I never really believed that she was a vicious hundred-year-old vampire, but I never could believe that she was a vampire who felt sympathetic to her prey. Strangely, Amelia has written both vicious vampire characters before, and ones who were sympathetic, and made it believable, but she just doesn't pull it off here. Adjila is somewhat interesting, but ultimately undeveloped as a character. Marissa is barely even in this book, although it's not really about her, so I kind of understand why her past wasn't explored. Erin, is, unfortunately, not really very interesting either. Her character is believable, but is also boring and even somewhat annoying. Why doesn't she just believe them already? She already thinks she's crazy, and now she finally has some people who disagree with her "hallucinations" and actually think she is sane. If I were her, I'd be inclined to believe them. Lastly, we come to Sassy, who is at least graced with a personality. I was disinclined to like him though, since he has a serious hatred of SingleEarth. I'm rather fond of the organization from Amelia's previous books, and I couldn't understand why he hated them so much. Surely, there was a fascinating revelation to be made, but by the time it gets to it, it feels like a cop-out. So he hates their entire organization and all it stands for simply because of one bad experience? I just couldn't buy that excuse. I admit, what they did to him wasn't very nice, but he really seems to have taken a huge dislike of all their principles, which is a bit extreme. Of course, those who haven't read any of the other books won't really know what SingleEarth is about, so you won't have my complaints here. Other than that, though, he is an interesting character, and probably the most interesting character in this book.

Now that I've got the character complaints out of the way, my other complaint is the story itself. It's just boring. The books spends way too much time in talking about the mundane aspects of life-both Erin's and Shevaun's. The plot synopsis on the inside cover makes you think that this book will be full of mystery and suspense as you are kept guessing about exactly what's wrong with Erin, but that just doesn't happen. I pretty much guessed from the beginning what was happening (the book practically gives it away), so the rest of the time is spent reading about Erin's denial, which is just annoying. Amelia's other book "Demon in My View" is much better at keeping things suspenseful and interesting than this book is. By the time the ending rolled around and I learned the details of what was causing Erin's problems, I felt rather cheated at the simple explanation. Unlike the revelation in "Demon in My View", the revelation here fails to be exciting. The so-called "climax" of the book is also a letdown, since they fix up Erin and Shevaun rather quickly and then they're gone on their way. Normally, Amelia's books have endings which leave you hanging and wanting more, but I really don't know if a sequel to this one would be any better. In fact, I'm kind of sad; normally I love re-reading Amelia's books, but I don't think I'll be reading this one again. I just don't think it could hold my interest...

If you are already a fan of her books, then you'll have to read this for yourself to see if you'll like it or not. If you are new to her writing, then please pick up any other book besides this one, or you might be led to think she's a terrible author. Nobody's perfect, and even good authors have their duds every now and then, so I forgive her. I'm still looking forward to her next book, "Token of Darkness". I just hope it's better than this one.
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New Review:

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed re-reading this. I still think this book is Amelia's weakest entry in her vampire related books, but it's not nearly as bad as I'd originally made it out to be. I felt empathetic towards Erin, and I like Marissa. I even warmed up to Sassy, someone whom I originally disliked. I actually found myself more sympathetic towards his feelings and his situation than I did previously, and I actually like having this different perspective on the SingleEarth Organization from prior books. I wasn't even bored by the story this time around (something I complained about in my original review). My original complaint about Shevaun's character still stands though. I just couldn't buy the idea that she was simultaneously a vicious killer vampire who's slaughtered hundreds and yet is so guilty over harming one pregnant woman she doesn't even know (and by all rights it was out of life-threatening necessity anyway). I don't mind her being vicious OR sympathetic - but just pick one so that it makes sense! I was intrigued by Shevaun's little "family" though, and I enjoyed their whole dynamic. I feel like I'd like to get to know these people more.

Some people have complained that this book feels rushed or not fully developed. I think what potential readers of this book need to keep in mind, though, is that I have read all the other books in Amelia's repertoire. They aren't necessarily chronologically related, but they all take place within the same world (with the exception of the Kiesha'ra series) and she sometimes spends more time explaining certain things in previous books, whereas she only glosses over them here. For example, she explains the powers of vampires, witches, and shapeshifters more thoroughly in previous books. Now, I know this is a drawback of this author (and I'm not excusing this problem), but this might explain why some reviewers felt like information was missing from this book. Technically, you can read any of her vampire-related books without reading the previous ones, but it's better if you consider them to be a series. With my past experience with her other books though, this novel was like a nice glimpse into a different angle of her fictional world. I can understand, though, why new readers wouldn't like this book.

Overall, I'm really shocked by how much my opinion on this one turned around. I really don't know why, either. Oh well, I still don't think it's her best book (but not bad). For new readers, I'd actually suggest you start out with "In the Forests of the Night" and then read the rest in order of release date.

The concept is interesting: a young woman is diagnosed as schizophrenic when she's actually living another person's life, only she doesn't know it. The telling of the story lacked, skipping too much between too many characters. Pared down, it would have maintained suspense better.

I was really enjoying it, but my enjoyment decreased as I came closer and closer to the end. I really felt as if the book was just beginning, and then that there was no possible way it could come to a complete end in its 200 pages. Still, the story remained strong and kept me interested until the very end; except I believe that the scene fixing Erin's "condition" was too rushed and not detailed enough.

Again, I felt as if Erin's story was just beginning, but instead of continuing to share with me her adventures after her "condition" was sorted out, I was left with the tiniest epilogue and the rest is up to my imagination.

Generally, I don't mind it being left up to my imagination, if I have something to chew on! But Amelia left me with nothing this time. Not my most favorite book by her, but it was still worth a read.

Sixteen-year-old Erin Misrahe just wants to be like everyone else in her new school. But Erin has more to worry about than passing AP Chemistry or making friends. In times of stress, she has always been overcome by her alter ego, Shevaun, whose violent behavior wreaks havoc on those around her. Erin can never remember anything about these episodes, and she's grateful to have been spared them for a while.

But when a protective friend comes back into Erin's life, he insists that Shevaun is a vampire who actually exists apart from Erin. Shevaun has dangerous allies, like the handsome witch Adjila--and they're determined to sever Shevaun's connection to Erin once and for all.

I liked the basic ideas of the story, but certainly not as much as some of her previous stuff. Something about it just didn't feel right as I was reading it...just didn't click. The story progressed too quickly and the coincidences in the story were far fetched and a bit annoying.

Persistence of Memory was too short in my opinion. If it had been longer, there would have been better world building and more background information.

The book started off really slow but then went by too fast, another problem because of the shortness of the book. If you were to compare this book to her earlier books, this one would fall short. It just wasn't as good as her previous novels.

Erin was a very boring character.She just felt flat. I didn't care for her at all; she just bored me. Nothing about her stood out. I only thought her to be interesting when she went into one of her psychotic states or when we learned about her connection with Shevaun.

Amelia's writing has improved from her first novel -- a lot. What I like about her novels is that she has built a great world in her novels; the only bad thing is that she doesn't show it to us, she just tells us. Her descriptions and writing was pretty good as well. It impressed me.

If this book had been about Shevaun, it would have been loads better. She was a really interesting vampire and I really want to know more about her now. I also want to know more about her lover/partner, Adjila. It was hard to believe that a tough, centuries-old vampire would feel for a 16 yr. old, and go lose control for a period of time, especially considering the fact that her witch lover didn't notice any difference at all.

There's not much I can say about this book. I already stated the things that stood out. Everything else was just average--boring. This book would be towards the bottom of my recommendation list. It was more of a disappointment than anything else.I was expecting much more from Amelia. This book just didn't deliver.

Carol
[...]

I've read everything Amelia Atwater-Rhodes has written. From her first In the Forests of the Night to her latest- this book. There is no doubt that Atwater-Rhodes is a talented writer, as her debut was published when she was only thirteen.

I have to admit though that this one may be my least favorite of everything she has written. I admit to liking her early vampire novels more than her Kiesha'ra novels (starting with Hawksong), because her vampire/human interaction is so well done. That said, her Kiesha'ra novels are also very good mostly because she has the ability to write such interesting characters.

My problem with this story is that Atwater-Rhodes went back to her vampire beginnings, but made the vampire part of the story such a minor part of them. I'm not sure whether Atwater-Rhodes has gone back to her vampires in an effort to capitalize on the success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, which is entirely possible. (In any case, her vampire novels have recently all gotten fresh covers.) In this story, I just felt like the vampires weren't getting enough "face time" and the story was weaker for it.

I'd still recommend this book if you liked Atwater-Rhodes' other books, but stress that her earlier ones are much better.