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Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin

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Tell Me an Ending is a dystopian novel that follows four characters and what they choose to remember or forget, forever. With technology that allows memories to be removed, what will they choose?

An architect in Arizona believes his wife is having an affair. A college dropout wonders why she can recall a city she's never visited. A former police inspector struggles with his marriage and PTSD. A young man with barely any memories travels the world in fear. Four individuals whose lives are changed by their memories and Noor, a psychologist at a memory removal clinic whose begun to suspect her boss of serious wrongdoing.

| Why Tell Me an Ending Is Not Worth Your Time

If you are a fan of my reviews, then you know how I feel about unconnected storylines. If there is one thing I hate most in novels - well, apart from unnecessary descriptions of clothing - it's unconnected or shallowly connected characters. Tell Me an Ending unfortunately has superficially connected characters with motives that do not make sense and is why I think this novel is not worth an hour of your time.

The premise indicates an in-depth sci-fi fictional read about how memories can be deleted and what the consequences of those actions are. If you are expecting a read revolving around that, you will receive it but superficially. There is brief insight into how these scientific elements exist and with such an interesting concept, I wish there had been more expansion upon how it came to be. Tell Me an Ending was not a novel worth my time and may not be worth an hour of yours. As always, that's one woman's opinion and it is up to you to determine if this novel is worth your time.

| Plot Progression

The plot is superficial. It is told from five POV's and somehow, none of the characters ever connect and the few instances where they share scenes, it's improbable and awkward. The plot required more flow and connection between the characters and potentially could have excelled as a short story with a general premise instead of connecting together.

Tell Me an Ending I think would work really well as a short story compilation with memory removal as the theme because the concept is intense but the intensity was lost because the characters never connected. Maybe removing that connection would have enhanced the read? The plot was solid and had certain sections of strong and engaging writing but the lack of connection removed any intensity for me and may for you too.

| Characters

With five leading characters, I think three could have been eliminated completely with one of those three almost on the cusp of being important. With 2 out of 5 or 3 out of 5 characters bringing nothing to the story, a lot of the novel was a slog for me. I wish the characters had had more depth but most importantly, connected to one another!

I do think Oscar was a great character and hands down my favourite out of the five. His storyline is the most interesting in how it intertwines with the memory loss, the clinic, and the impact removing them has but one character cannot make up for my disengagement with the other four. These characters are polarising and dependent on what you want from this read, may or may not be up your alley.

| Ending

A predictable ending to a novel where everything was expected. Tell Me an Ending lacked depth and connection; it could have been more enticing and that's that. Is it worth an hour? I think there are stronger sci-fi / dystopian novels out there, consider Dark Matter or Recursion by Blake Crouch or Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons (similar vibes to this novel), but it's up to you to determine if this novel is worth your time.

Main Genre | Science Fiction

Year Published | 2022

Rating | 4 / 10

Worth Your Time? No.

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| My Thoughts

WARNING: Skip My Thoughts for a spoiler free review.

What a boring novel. This was such a slog to read and the only reason this wasn't a dnf was because I was in a stubborn mood when I read it. I think I refused to put it down because with each page flip, I expected the storylines to connect and as soon as they connected, I knew it would all come together. But it never connected, even if the characters "connected", it was arbitrary and felt forced. I mean, witnessing William's death doesn't equate to being part of his family's life afterwards - how did this happen? We were told but not shown and that, like most of the novel felt forced.

I wanted so much more depth from this novel and for there to be a connection between the characters. Finn was useless, easily could be removed from the storyline with no change. William was useless, remove. Mei, she is the only I am on the fence about because even her direct connection to a leader of the memory removal program felt shallow. Her story had no arc and zero correlation to the downfall of the program. If she had spoken publicly about her mother coercing her into having her memory wiped, that would've been powerful and made her necessary to the downfall of the memory clinic. But it also was for the downfall of only one, not all so what was the point?

Only Noor and Oscar had applicable and interesting storylines and still, Noor was so boring to read. I wish the novel had been only about Oscar. He had a great storyline and the intertwinement of his past and present allowed you as a reader to never land on why all of his memories were removed. His anonymity provided the story with depth and as that is something I value in a story, I wish it had spread to the other characters. Tell Me an Ending was not a novel I enjoyed and those are my thoughts.

| Your Thoughts

Did you decide that Tell Me an Ending is worth a read? If so, let me know what you thought of the novel below! And check out My Thoughts once finished for guess what, my thoughts on this literary adventure!

Are you looking for something else? Check out these sci-fi novels instead!

Was this worth an hour of your time? Because it was not worth an hour of mine.

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