Ashleigh Paige

I'm a full-time college sophomore pursuing my B.A. in English with hopes of one day working as an editor. Cats, musicals, documentaries about cults/disasters/tragedies, and curse words are just a few of my favorite things. Also, check out our blog or I WILL FIND YOU.

The Meme Plague (Memento Nora, #3) - Angie Smibert See more of my reviews on Birth of a New Witch! My copy was an ARC I received from the publisher for review via NetGalley.It's entirely possible I've used this joke before and forgot, but despite being centered on memory and the government's control of it, this is a very forgettable series. It's got the setting and societal critiques down and paints a vivid picture of what may be only of the only realistic dystopias in YA, but it's so weak in terms of characters and plotting that this almost gets erased. Despite the short length, The Meme Plague is a difficult book to get through.Smibert writes a thorough critique of how dependent we are on technology and it's not entirely unbelievable that people would want certain memories removed--or that others would take advantage of that to keep making money. YA has a lot of pseudo-dystopians that say nothing about society and lack teeth, but this trilogy isn't one of them. If there's a dystopian fan out there that hasn't tried at least the first book, I am SHOCKED. And will tell them to start this series right now.Beyond that, there are pop culture references to things from our time that actually work, like to Forrest Gump (Lieutenant Dan!) and the Matrix trilogy of movies. Not gonna lie, I got a little giddy when one tech setup was described as "so 2012" and Jacksonville, Florida got a mention. Mentions of my city do that to me.The narration is part of where the problem begins. We've got five narrators sharing this story and they all start to blend together after a while. Velvet's sections and every ridiculous piece of advice she spouts from her Book of Velvet (her rulebook for life) makes me want to shake her until she stops talking for the rest of forever. Also annoying is Nora and her endless use of the word "glossy" to describe things. Trendy saying of the near-future or not, it's annoying. Micah's story and its resolution are great, but they're not strong enough to outweigh his more annoying co-narrators.Combine all this with a poorly written open ending for this trilogy and you have a wholly unsatisfying book. To keep it vague, the government is only going to pass the office on to the next, likely corporate-sponsored candidate once it realizes the person who got elected to several positions cross several states can't ever hold office and nothing at all will change. Gah! I might read more from Smibert if she publishes more, but here's hoping it will be stronger all-around.