False Memory by Dan Krokos (and ARC giveaway)

So, I just got a finished copy of this in the mail for review…and I just finished reading the ARC this morning. I think I also have a digital copy…And I’m actually pretty psyched to have so many copies because it was such a fantastic suspense story! However, if you keep scrolling down, you can enter to win my slightly used ARC copy. (Slightly used means, I took it with me to Leaky Con to have a book to read while standing in line, and it’s been loved a little).

I’ve been excited for this one since I first saw it on Net Galley (thank you Disney Hyperion!). The brief synopsis about memory loss, secret abilities, and genetically altered teenagers made me go, “want!” Plus I kind of love the boy acceptable cover and the scientific looking diamond of symbols on it. I’m not sure what that has to do with the story. If you figured it out, let me know? But, all the same, I love the cover.

Much like another YA book I adore (The Maze Runner…I’m in the middle of the prequel as I speak), the main character of this one wakes up with no memories of herself except for her first name: Miranda. While venturing into a mall to get the essentials, she decides that asking a security guard for help would be the best thing she could do. Unfortunately for her, the security guard doesn’t believe that she has no memories and in an attempt to get her to go away, angers Miranda enough to subconsciously let loose her secret ability. She has the ability to make everyone around her completely terrified. She breathes a certain way, and people are running out of the mall, screaming for their lives. Some people even die in terror, falling off of high surfaces

But, lucky for Miranda, Peter is there for her. He calls her a rose and tells her he knows about what she can do and where she came from. She goes with him to their old home. When there, Miranda learns that her boyfriend altered her medicine intake, which prevents people like her from loosing their memories. Her boyfriend is still missing with their other friend, Olive. And after all of Miranda’s abilities and training and life is explained to her more thoroughly, she leaves on a mission with Peter to go find the other two members of their “family.”

There’s so much romantic tension between Peter and Miranda even though Miranda supposedly has a boyfriend. When the other teens are found, it’s Miranda’s first reaction to hurt her boyfriend, Noah, as much as she can. And while she begins to get certain memories back, some romantic in nature, she can’t help but feel completely betrayed and pissed at Noah for deciding for her to take away her memories. Granted, he did everything to protect her, but still. The Love triangle is awesome! Oh, and Olive is in love with Noah; she followed him because she loves him despite the fact that he’s been dating Miranda for a long time.

And why did Noah and Olive run away and take Miranda’s memories away without telling Peter (their trained teen leader)? Noah overheard their father/boss having a video conference with his boss about selling the kids as weapons, and using them to take down an entire major US city. He tried to tell Peter about it, but he didn’t listen. And Noah wanted to go find the rogue he heard rumors about and see if he could help them get rid of the project that involved freaking out an entire city.

The kids decide to go back home for answers before doing anything else too drastic, but unfortunately the people who want to use them as weapons got to their home first. It’s pretty much burnt to a crisp and their “dad” is found dying in the forest.

There’s a lot of fighting, fires, bombs, guns, memory shots, escape scenes, spying, and action in this one! There’s also terrifying secret powers, clones, tattoos used to control kids, missions to destroy entire cities, death, explosions, and love squares (think A Midsummer Night’s Dream). And every time Miranda thinks she has something figured out, she’s wrong. I feel like this would make an awesome movie!

I loved Miranda! I loved that she didn’t forgive her boyfriend for being stupid! I loved how brave she was, and how willing she was to fight for her friends that she doesn’t even really remember. I loved the rogue character. I loved the clones and how they had to fight each other. The mission they went on, pretending to have lost their memories, was so awesome, I was literally biting my nails, waiting to see what would happen.

The romance bits could use a little work. The same make-out scene was described for each of Miranda’s love interests; I really don’t think both boys would kiss her in exactly the same places in exactly the same way. However, I loved all the romantic tension and how believable that triangle was.

I also loved the suspense! Yes, I pretty much guessed most of what happened ahead of time. However, the author did use a lot of foreshadow, and I have a trained eye. But even so, I was on the edge of my seat hoping for these kids to kick some serious butt. I read this super fast and it is so hard to put down! I give it a 9/10, and I highly recommend this one to fans of The Maze Runner and Maximum Ride.

This contest is only open to US followers because I am shipping this one myself. (I do promise to open an international giveaway soon though.) And you have 48 hours to respond to my email with your shipping address or I will choose a different winner.

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