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This Is How You Remember It
You're nine when you get your first computer. Your favourite thing is a virtual pet website; you spend hours in the chatroom. You don't understand why some of your online friends don't use their real names.
It's not long before you discover porn. You don't know what you're watching, but you do know that you shouldn't tell anybody. Later, older, your first kiss is captured on camera and shared with everyone in your year. It feels like betrayal, but soon it feels normal. Part of the incessant cycle of posting, sharing and liking.
Now, you can't remember a time when you didn't feel hollow inside. Now, you know that something has to change.
Chilling, potent and intensely intimate, This is How You Remember It is at once a cautionary tale, a call to arms and a tender love story. It is about a life lived online, and about finding another way, when it's all you've ever known.
It's not long before you discover porn. You don't know what you're watching, but you do know that you shouldn't tell anybody. Later, older, your first kiss is captured on camera and shared with everyone in your year. It feels like betrayal, but soon it feels normal. Part of the incessant cycle of posting, sharing and liking.
Now, you can't remember a time when you didn't feel hollow inside. Now, you know that something has to change.
Chilling, potent and intensely intimate, This is How You Remember It is at once a cautionary tale, a call to arms and a tender love story. It is about a life lived online, and about finding another way, when it's all you've ever known.
288 pages, Paperback
Published September 9, 2025
67 people are currently reading
4181 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 267 reviews
March 2, 2024
This Is How You Remember It encapsulates the early phenomenon and magic of the internet as experienced through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl who started to use the internet to find photos of cute animals and later ingenuously develop pen-pal relationships with other’s on the internet. This quickly collapses into the young girl accessing disconcerting adult material which she is too young to comprehend. It becomes clear that the protagonist’s seemingly open and uncontrolled access to mature and pornographic material is moulding her interpretation of how her body should mature and how her adult relationships should resemble. The protagonist’s unregulated access to the internet understandably has a cataclysmic effect on her interpersonal relationships throughout her teenage years and early adulthood, and the degradation encountered at the hands of her bullying peers which is precipitated by their access to appliances that can both document and circulate even her most intimate moments.
This Is How You Remember It is an incredible read. I think the novel will resonate with a lot of people, particularly hitting hard for millennials and the older gen-z age bracket, like myself, who grew up around the evolvement of the internet. It felt nostalgic to read. I like how the novel is written in second-person, because it felt as though the novel was aimed at me. I’m certain that so many people will have shared similar experiences to the protagonist in a multitude of ways. I related a lot to the coming of age aspect and trying to navigate friendships and relationships. The novel conveys a reflection of what it’s like to be on the internet at that time, the burden that curating your own online image can have on your mental and emotional health, and the repercussions of the internet and how we perceive the world around us.
I enjoyed Prasfika’s writing style, which portrays in a raw and deep compassionate manner the uncertainty of growing up. I loved following the protagonist on her journey as she made mistakes and learned hard lessons. Her learning of shame and self was particularly powerful. I was rooting for her all the way through the novel and though it was quite a slow burn novel with an ending that I found to be somewhat platitude, I was satisfied with how the novel was wrapped up.
If I was to take anything away from the novel, it’s that the promise of the internet as something that can bring people together has really become the greatest isolator that has forced us all into our own individual phone-shaped prisons, not offering any escape or alternative, except for the ones that we make for ourselves.
* Thank you to NetGalley, CanonGate Books, and Catherine Prasfika for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for a honest review *
Publishing date: 2nd May 2024
This Is How You Remember It is an incredible read. I think the novel will resonate with a lot of people, particularly hitting hard for millennials and the older gen-z age bracket, like myself, who grew up around the evolvement of the internet. It felt nostalgic to read. I like how the novel is written in second-person, because it felt as though the novel was aimed at me. I’m certain that so many people will have shared similar experiences to the protagonist in a multitude of ways. I related a lot to the coming of age aspect and trying to navigate friendships and relationships. The novel conveys a reflection of what it’s like to be on the internet at that time, the burden that curating your own online image can have on your mental and emotional health, and the repercussions of the internet and how we perceive the world around us.
I enjoyed Prasfika’s writing style, which portrays in a raw and deep compassionate manner the uncertainty of growing up. I loved following the protagonist on her journey as she made mistakes and learned hard lessons. Her learning of shame and self was particularly powerful. I was rooting for her all the way through the novel and though it was quite a slow burn novel with an ending that I found to be somewhat platitude, I was satisfied with how the novel was wrapped up.
If I was to take anything away from the novel, it’s that the promise of the internet as something that can bring people together has really become the greatest isolator that has forced us all into our own individual phone-shaped prisons, not offering any escape or alternative, except for the ones that we make for ourselves.
* Thank you to NetGalley, CanonGate Books, and Catherine Prasfika for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for a honest review *
Publishing date: 2nd May 2024
April 3, 2024
i am blown away by this novel. the writing was so raw and sharp. so much subtext and anxiety laden into each paragraph. my own experiences were seemingly violently reflected with the honest exposition and my own thoughts horribly mirrored that of the main character. the use of the second person was cleverly done and added to the uncomfortable reading experience, which was the intention of the author.
i liked how the book tackled how the early access to internet can change a person's perception of their own self and identity. as a psychology student, i've had my fair share of research into this topic and thought this novel depicted its long term impacts and effects very explicitly. from internet personas to performance to desensitization to privacy and consent to distorted self-perceptions, the book covered most of it. the growing use of social media can play a huge role in how we see ourselves if we let ourselves be so consumed by it. in addition to this, there were also themes on sexuality, loss, innocence, shame, guilt, and grief that i felt were incorporated very well into the narrative. our sense of self and identity as well as our relationships with the people and world around us can be affected greatly by social media— how it can mediate our relationships and how our identity can be a performance online that makes the act of living itself unreal. i especially liked how taking and posting pictures can remove you from the present because you think of experiencing the moment through the lens of the past or the future (there's an exact quote from the book). i can talk all about these implications with social psychology all day so i won't go too much into this, though i must emphasize that i really liked how the author wrote this; the writing style was also such a good fit to this. i also liked how the passage of time was indicated only by the progression of social media and what was deemed trendy, what technology or social media was new, and the various attitudes towards them. i liked that we do not know how old "you" exactly are because it lends to the atmosphere of being so absorbed to social media, where access is not heavily regulated by age and they can sometimes be muddled and even disregarded in some websites. i especially liked how we move through the real world and deduce what happened to the other characters like Lorcan, his parents, the main character's parents, the grandmother, and Evan. it's so rewarding to have something come out of what was implicitly said and especially made for a great reading experience. finally, i adored the recurring subjects in her life: the beach and Lorcan. it grounds the novel and gives it a narrative arc to center the character's journey and growth. i loved that the beach and Lorcan were constant over time and that in all the lives she's lived and all the versions of herself they've witnessed, they've remained continuous. her relationship with Lorcan, as much as i do not like comparing novels to each other, feels a lot like what Normal People by Sally Rooney had, too, which i deeply enjoyed.
altogether a brilliant and striking novel. i think it is very relevant that not only serves as a cautionary tale but can also present as a point of reflection for many others. i felt so intense and involved in this, heightened only by the second person narration, and it made me look inwards and consider my relationship with social media and how it has shaped me as a person and human being. so, a very well deserved and spectacular 4-star rating! this is why i love the Irish. they just know what's up!!!!
ARC received in exchange for an honest review
i liked how the book tackled how the early access to internet can change a person's perception of their own self and identity. as a psychology student, i've had my fair share of research into this topic and thought this novel depicted its long term impacts and effects very explicitly. from internet personas to performance to desensitization to privacy and consent to distorted self-perceptions, the book covered most of it. the growing use of social media can play a huge role in how we see ourselves if we let ourselves be so consumed by it. in addition to this, there were also themes on sexuality, loss, innocence, shame, guilt, and grief that i felt were incorporated very well into the narrative. our sense of self and identity as well as our relationships with the people and world around us can be affected greatly by social media— how it can mediate our relationships and how our identity can be a performance online that makes the act of living itself unreal. i especially liked how taking and posting pictures can remove you from the present because you think of experiencing the moment through the lens of the past or the future (there's an exact quote from the book). i can talk all about these implications with social psychology all day so i won't go too much into this, though i must emphasize that i really liked how the author wrote this; the writing style was also such a good fit to this. i also liked how the passage of time was indicated only by the progression of social media and what was deemed trendy, what technology or social media was new, and the various attitudes towards them. i liked that we do not know how old "you" exactly are because it lends to the atmosphere of being so absorbed to social media, where access is not heavily regulated by age and they can sometimes be muddled and even disregarded in some websites. i especially liked how we move through the real world and deduce what happened to the other characters like Lorcan, his parents, the main character's parents, the grandmother, and Evan. it's so rewarding to have something come out of what was implicitly said and especially made for a great reading experience. finally, i adored the recurring subjects in her life: the beach and Lorcan. it grounds the novel and gives it a narrative arc to center the character's journey and growth. i loved that the beach and Lorcan were constant over time and that in all the lives she's lived and all the versions of herself they've witnessed, they've remained continuous. her relationship with Lorcan, as much as i do not like comparing novels to each other, feels a lot like what Normal People by Sally Rooney had, too, which i deeply enjoyed.
altogether a brilliant and striking novel. i think it is very relevant that not only serves as a cautionary tale but can also present as a point of reflection for many others. i felt so intense and involved in this, heightened only by the second person narration, and it made me look inwards and consider my relationship with social media and how it has shaped me as a person and human being. so, a very well deserved and spectacular 4-star rating! this is why i love the Irish. they just know what's up!!!!
ARC received in exchange for an honest review
July 30, 2024
Wow, I really gobbled this one up. I can’t quite describe how this book made me feel, but it really did make me feel a whole different range of emotions. The writing is so raw, which I loved - I loved all of this book. I guess this is the exact world I grew up in, internet & social media becoming all consuming, and how it weaves into all aspects of our lives. How can something be so helpful yet so incredibly damaging? It did instil some sense of fear and worry about the future of my own baby, and future babies. Alas, I’ll do all in my power to foster a bright world for my daughter (and future children).
January 14, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an ARC to review
4.75 but rounding that up to a 5!!
I just finished this and spent the last 5 minutes crying. I related SO much to this, and it hit me hard with how this was written and the metaphor within it with the hole. I am honestly just at a loss of words on how to review this other that it hit me and wow. I am SO damn happy to have read this. It really felt like things I had thought of myself, about life, etc, were picked and just given to me to read. The .75 is purely for my lack of patience and wanting people to just talk things out, haha
Wow.
4.75 but rounding that up to a 5!!
I just finished this and spent the last 5 minutes crying. I related SO much to this, and it hit me hard with how this was written and the metaphor within it with the hole. I am honestly just at a loss of words on how to review this other that it hit me and wow. I am SO damn happy to have read this. It really felt like things I had thought of myself, about life, etc, were picked and just given to me to read. The .75 is purely for my lack of patience and wanting people to just talk things out, haha
Wow.
February 20, 2024
This book fell into an odd place for me. On one hand I was quite taken with the first half of the book, especially the chapters that take place during the narrator's early childhood. I raced through it and found it nostalgic and weirdly cathartic to read. Especially the first chapter of this novel, which was so incredibly evocative that it left me wanting to go back to that era of my life. The use of a second person narrative here was also a great choice by the author and I doubt I would have felt so connected without it. However, as the narrator grows older (which is done through time skips that I admittedly felt were confusing and at points left me grasping to figure out how old she was) the book seems to stray away from what it was advertised as, or what I perceived it to be going into it. Yes, IN THE BEGINNING this is a book about growing up online and the good and bad of it. But it then seems to spiral into a commercial fiction novel that leans more into romance than I would have preferred, thus sort of straying away from it's original intention. Yes there are still technological repercussions that follow the narrator, but by the time she gets to college it's almost just a story of the aftermath of sexual assault. There's an odd shallowness to the book, where you feel the moral is to spend your time-as a teenager especially-in the 'real world' rather than online. It also may just be me but: (spoilers to do with Evan) Overall, I do think this is a good book, and I'd recommend it to people, especially if you're a fan of the author's last book. Just don't go into it expecting a commentary on social media or using technology as a child, it's more of a generic fiction novel with a hint of that. To really hammer that idea home there should have been more explicit elements of it. I did enjoy the novel though and it's a nice easy read, it just left some expectations unmet.
Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for an ARC for review
Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for an ARC for review
July 31, 2024
BLOODY HELL.
My heart was RACING reading some of the chapters in this book. God, it felt all too familiar.
I actually felt like I was having an out of body experience at some points and watching over my past
self—enamoured with exciting new technologies, but equally petrified of their power.
Amazing book. I second Mia, everyone *MUST* read.
My heart was RACING reading some of the chapters in this book. God, it felt all too familiar.
I actually felt like I was having an out of body experience at some points and watching over my past
self—enamoured with exciting new technologies, but equally petrified of their power.
Amazing book. I second Mia, everyone *MUST* read.
June 11, 2024
3.5 stars. This is the authors second novel and I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first but I found the subject matter really interesting.
The book focuses a lot on growing up in the internet era and being a child/teenager when social media and the internet was just growing into something that we use everyday. It was a read a found quite difficult because a lot of the damaging things which happened to the main character concerning the internet also happened in some form to me, so it brought back some memories which were hard to think about which is why I think this book was personally not as enjoyable as her debut.
But I do like books which have a strong sense of time and place and the nostalgia for the 00s something really popular in fiction at the moment and Prasifka captures this perfectly. I flew through the book because it was a super easy read and would really recommend it if you enjoy contemporary Irish fiction with a coming of age plot in it that does touch on a lot of darker and more traumatic themes regarding the internet age.
The book focuses a lot on growing up in the internet era and being a child/teenager when social media and the internet was just growing into something that we use everyday. It was a read a found quite difficult because a lot of the damaging things which happened to the main character concerning the internet also happened in some form to me, so it brought back some memories which were hard to think about which is why I think this book was personally not as enjoyable as her debut.
But I do like books which have a strong sense of time and place and the nostalgia for the 00s something really popular in fiction at the moment and Prasifka captures this perfectly. I flew through the book because it was a super easy read and would really recommend it if you enjoy contemporary Irish fiction with a coming of age plot in it that does touch on a lot of darker and more traumatic themes regarding the internet age.
April 21, 2024
It’s rare I get to read a book in one sitting, but a recent long-ish overnight flight with two small children asleep on me provided the perfect opportunity. Irish writer Catherine Prasifka’s second novel proved to be an absorbing, compelling read perfect for the occasion.
Prasifka’s first novel None of this is Serious (which I didn’t love) was a novel about being too online with a sci-fi element (a hole in the sky). This novel is also very much about a life led online but it’s a coming of age novel, written from the perspective of a young woman, entirely in the second person present tense.
Second person narratives don’t always work but Prasifka carries it off here with aplomb. It lends a chilling quality to the story and an urgency to the writing.
This is a cautionary tale really, about a generation allowed unfettered access to the internet by their well-meaning if naive parents who had no clue what was on there. I mean, we still allow children a lot of access today but we know more now than they did in the early 00s and we have better (if still inadequate) safeguards.
There a palpable sense of anxiety throughout the book, and a sadness for innocence lost too early, with seminal childhood experiences and teenage rites of passage (Irish college, first kiss, first sexual experience) compromised by the ever-present threat of it being posted online, not to mention the expectations of teenage boys raised on a diet of pornography.
I haven’t stopped thinking about this one since I finished it. An excellent read that deserves to be a big seller and will provoke further conversation around the need by all of us, young and old, to disconnect a lot more. 4.5-5/5⭐️
*This is How You Remember It will be published on 2 May. Many thanks to the author, publisher @canongatebooks and @netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Prasifka’s first novel None of this is Serious (which I didn’t love) was a novel about being too online with a sci-fi element (a hole in the sky). This novel is also very much about a life led online but it’s a coming of age novel, written from the perspective of a young woman, entirely in the second person present tense.
Second person narratives don’t always work but Prasifka carries it off here with aplomb. It lends a chilling quality to the story and an urgency to the writing.
This is a cautionary tale really, about a generation allowed unfettered access to the internet by their well-meaning if naive parents who had no clue what was on there. I mean, we still allow children a lot of access today but we know more now than they did in the early 00s and we have better (if still inadequate) safeguards.
There a palpable sense of anxiety throughout the book, and a sadness for innocence lost too early, with seminal childhood experiences and teenage rites of passage (Irish college, first kiss, first sexual experience) compromised by the ever-present threat of it being posted online, not to mention the expectations of teenage boys raised on a diet of pornography.
I haven’t stopped thinking about this one since I finished it. An excellent read that deserves to be a big seller and will provoke further conversation around the need by all of us, young and old, to disconnect a lot more. 4.5-5/5⭐️
*This is How You Remember It will be published on 2 May. Many thanks to the author, publisher @canongatebooks and @netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 5, 2024
two words people - BLOWN AWAY. I have never felt the urge to email an author after finishing a book but I genuinely want to after reading this. HOW did you write this and have you been spying on ME???? I thought this book was so good… I think it is definitely more for the gen who grew up using MySpace/Facebook at a young age. It was chilling, painfully raw and so honest. I loved it I loved it i loved it.
March 21, 2024
sorry this was such a banger, so clever and astute, im so impressed
August 18, 2024
Loved this even if it was basically just reliving my teenage years.
4.5 because it was tied up a little too nicely at the end
4.5 because it was tied up a little too nicely at the end
May 12, 2024
This stunning novel centers around an unnamed protagonist - a nine year old girl who lives in Dublin. She spends her summers with her parents and younger brother by the sea, with friends of her parents who have a slightly older son, Lorcan. Her life changes dramatically when her father buys a desktop computer. Over the next few years, she plays cute kids games and chats with virtual predators. As she grows, she discovers online porn, something she's definitely not ready to handle. Later on, social media is born and her life changes again. Predatory relationships and online bullying are common. She tends to abandon friends on a frequent basis. Sex comes into play and online posting of graphic videos and images throws her life into a tailspin. In the background is her difficult friendship with Lorcan. He's the only person she's aware of who's not on social media, is authentic and the only one she can truly trust. The ugly effects of online life and the complications that arise are destructive to a young girl who morphs into a teen and a young woman. Haunting and authentic storytelling that's impossible to put down.
August 9, 2025
A novel about how growing up with the internet (particularly as a woman, but explored from the male perspective also) influences your perception of relationships, friendships, sex, consent, and desire. We meet the narrator at age seven (ourselves - the narrative is in second person) and follow her through to her mid-late 20s, seeing how the internet’s influence changes over time as our identity, priorities, and relationships shift.
After reading this it feels wrong to pour out my thoughts online - so I won’t, except to say that the story Prasifka is telling feels so natural and necessary that if she hadn’t written it, someone else would have. Emphatically recommend to anyone who grew up with the internet. Will carry this story with me always.
After reading this it feels wrong to pour out my thoughts online - so I won’t, except to say that the story Prasifka is telling feels so natural and necessary that if she hadn’t written it, someone else would have. Emphatically recommend to anyone who grew up with the internet. Will carry this story with me always.
July 10, 2024
A beautiful book, raw. A must-read if you were a teenage girl in the 00's.
September 15, 2024
What a raw, heavy, and thought-provoking book. The Internet scarred a lot of us curious tweens and to have read what the protagonist went through, and the similarities was eye opening to a lot of the trauma I still carry to this day with me. The fact that Prasifka wrote this in the second person perspective really made you feel as if you were going through everything that this young innocent girl was experiencing. I really enjoyed this book even though it brought up a lot of bittersweet memories and feelings that I had buried deep down and had to put it down a couple of times because of the way it made me feel about my own childhood. The feeling of emptiness was executed so well and I hope that anyone who was affected by the Internet and social media in their teenage years can reconcile with themselves and look back on how far they have come from that dark place.
May 17, 2024
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this but I was quite taken aback by this book. It took a few chapters to get used to the second person and the authors style of writing but once I had, I was absorbed. It is such a poignant commentary on the way in which our generation was raised intertwined with and ultimately shaped by the evolution of the internet and social media. Just so relatable and quite depressing. The ending was interesting and perhaps not what I wanted for the character but taking a step back, the book ends in the middle of her story so I suspect there is more to come in terms of her growth and perception of her relationship with Lorcan.
January 8, 2024
Book of the year much
May 26, 2024
Staring at the wall after finishing this one gals
September 22, 2024
what 👏🏼 a 👏🏼 read 👏🏼 …iiiiii immediately want to contact the author like NOW!!
this book was like nothing i’ve ever read before and i’m so glad it exists. it’s such an important reflection of what it’s like growing up with the internet and it truly made me want to throw my phone out the window multiple times.
it’s exposing, it’s raw, it’s nuanced and the author perfectly puts into words all the difficult thoughts, feelings and experiences which you probably think are unique to you. plot twist: THEY’RE NOT!!
also rip.ie gets a shoutout. my mum would be chuffed.
i borrowed mia’s hardback but if it was a kindle ting then i’d have been highlighting allllll over the gaff.
this book was like nothing i’ve ever read before and i’m so glad it exists. it’s such an important reflection of what it’s like growing up with the internet and it truly made me want to throw my phone out the window multiple times.
it’s exposing, it’s raw, it’s nuanced and the author perfectly puts into words all the difficult thoughts, feelings and experiences which you probably think are unique to you. plot twist: THEY’RE NOT!!
also rip.ie gets a shoutout. my mum would be chuffed.
i borrowed mia’s hardback but if it was a kindle ting then i’d have been highlighting allllll over the gaff.
February 24, 2024
Not quite sure what to make of this one, coming of age in the digital era. Perfectly fine but nothing too compelling, alas. Glad it was quite short, had quite enough.
July 4, 2024
I really enjoyed the first half of this book especially, I just thought the characters lacked depth and the musings on social media were just constantly getting thrown in even where they didn’t fit in a way that read like a leaving cert personal essay a little.
July 25, 2024
A book for girls who grew up online, left to deal with all its implications on their own. I’ve been waiting for a book like this.
July 11, 2024
This was really good but also an uncomfortable read. The author really accurately depicted what it was like growing up in Ireland as social media exploded and how it affected our brains and worldview. Felt a bit eerie reading
July 22, 2025
This started off so good, but after 1/3 my enjoyment of the book gradually started to dissipate.
While this had such interesting aspects of growing up with the internet, the overwhelming possibilities and impact it can have on us growing up I did find it a bit exaggerated and over the top. For the reason of shock value or to show the extent to how intense the influence of social media can be, I don’t know. But especially the ending is what left me feeling very unsatisfied.
So overall, some very strong points that made me sit and reevaluate my relationship to online spaces but on the other hand some parts that left me rolling my eyes or annoyed.
While this had such interesting aspects of growing up with the internet, the overwhelming possibilities and impact it can have on us growing up I did find it a bit exaggerated and over the top. For the reason of shock value or to show the extent to how intense the influence of social media can be, I don’t know. But especially the ending is what left me feeling very unsatisfied.
So overall, some very strong points that made me sit and reevaluate my relationship to online spaces but on the other hand some parts that left me rolling my eyes or annoyed.
July 10, 2025
so awful bc its so familiar. kept involuntarily thinking of different people different aspects apply to. and some parts are so relatable its painful
January 9, 2024
I don't often write reviews so please bare with me!!!
I truly feel blown away by this book.
Some background - I read and wasn't the biggest fan of Prasifka's last offering (but luckily lots of people were!!!), None of This is Serious. I didn't dislike it, I just thought it was okay. Often having read a book from an author it can bias my opinion going into their next book, if I read one.
Also, interestingly, at the time I finished this book, the book was still on 0 reviews on goodreads. no average rating to subconsciously influence my review. And it's particularly poignant when you take into account the actual subject matter of the book, how the internet has crept into our lives and shaped it forever.
I went into this book with my eyes wide open, and was immediately engulfed in something like nostalgia. A lot of what the main character experiences in the first section of the book mirrored my own - getting the first family computer, getting broadband, locking myself away in my parents bedroom where the computer was kept, IM'ing people on MSN, making a forbidden social media account, etc. etc. We were too young, however it was impossible to avoid its lure, especially when so shiny and new.
Fast forward to the end of the teenage years, where everything ends in a full facebook album of photos from digital cameras. Every aspect of this book, in a way mirrored something from my own life. The main character wasn't always the nicest person, she was naive, but she was likeable because she was me.
I think that sentiment will sit with a lot of people that read this book, particularly those that are reaching or are in their early 30s.
This is excellent. A cautionary tale of the impact of our digital footprint, of bullying, of love, of family. I loved that I felt like I could have written this - not for my literary skills, but for our shared experiences. The endless relatability of this book will definitely impact a lot of people that read this and I am excited to see the reviews.
I truly feel blown away by this book.
Some background - I read and wasn't the biggest fan of Prasifka's last offering (but luckily lots of people were!!!), None of This is Serious. I didn't dislike it, I just thought it was okay. Often having read a book from an author it can bias my opinion going into their next book, if I read one.
Also, interestingly, at the time I finished this book, the book was still on 0 reviews on goodreads. no average rating to subconsciously influence my review. And it's particularly poignant when you take into account the actual subject matter of the book, how the internet has crept into our lives and shaped it forever.
I went into this book with my eyes wide open, and was immediately engulfed in something like nostalgia. A lot of what the main character experiences in the first section of the book mirrored my own - getting the first family computer, getting broadband, locking myself away in my parents bedroom where the computer was kept, IM'ing people on MSN, making a forbidden social media account, etc. etc. We were too young, however it was impossible to avoid its lure, especially when so shiny and new.
Fast forward to the end of the teenage years, where everything ends in a full facebook album of photos from digital cameras. Every aspect of this book, in a way mirrored something from my own life. The main character wasn't always the nicest person, she was naive, but she was likeable because she was me.
I think that sentiment will sit with a lot of people that read this book, particularly those that are reaching or are in their early 30s.
This is excellent. A cautionary tale of the impact of our digital footprint, of bullying, of love, of family. I loved that I felt like I could have written this - not for my literary skills, but for our shared experiences. The endless relatability of this book will definitely impact a lot of people that read this and I am excited to see the reviews.
January 30, 2024
3.5*
You’re struck by the transience of things, by the way that people walk in and out of your life, and who you are while they’re in it.
I’m amazed by how this book gnawed at a familiar feeling inside of me. I can remember how much anxiety (and FOMO at the same time) the internet provides me, most especially that I’m a minor and I stay back from sharing too much personal informations on the internet because of how scarily impactful the result or consequences could be when I look back at it when I’m older.
This thinking that people on my screen could define my worth and that self-sabotaging was good made me reflect upon reading this book. It’s rare for a book to capture the essence of truly being inside an experience, and This Is How You Remember It made me feel as though I was going through what the protagonist was going through (it’s also in 2nd POV so that contributed too). I think we think too much about what these people on our screen think of us—are we daunting in their own perspectives? Good? Kind? We spend so much time musing about these things that we forget what’s actually important, and that’s ultimately trying to be the better version of ourselves. People will come and go, so while they’re still coming, let’s show them that we can be better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for the ARC :))
You’re struck by the transience of things, by the way that people walk in and out of your life, and who you are while they’re in it.
I’m amazed by how this book gnawed at a familiar feeling inside of me. I can remember how much anxiety (and FOMO at the same time) the internet provides me, most especially that I’m a minor and I stay back from sharing too much personal informations on the internet because of how scarily impactful the result or consequences could be when I look back at it when I’m older.
This thinking that people on my screen could define my worth and that self-sabotaging was good made me reflect upon reading this book. It’s rare for a book to capture the essence of truly being inside an experience, and This Is How You Remember It made me feel as though I was going through what the protagonist was going through (it’s also in 2nd POV so that contributed too). I think we think too much about what these people on our screen think of us—are we daunting in their own perspectives? Good? Kind? We spend so much time musing about these things that we forget what’s actually important, and that’s ultimately trying to be the better version of ourselves. People will come and go, so while they’re still coming, let’s show them that we can be better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for the ARC :))
September 8, 2025
Oh I loved every page of this book! There were so many lines in this book that resonated with me.
‘You understand, maybe for the first time, the value in being made whole by other people.’
There’s a nostalgia to seeing the character grow with the technology you have and the way that’s shaped herself. With that comes many a painful truth about the effects social media and how too often we all live through the lens of our phones and how we want to be perceived. I really enjoyed how snappy the writing was, but gave you enough fragmented looks into her life to get a good view of her.
I think if you are a person who is anxious, can spiral or gets stuck in the past, this is a book you’ll enjoy.
I just think this was an excellent book tbh.
‘You understand, maybe for the first time, the value in being made whole by other people.’
There’s a nostalgia to seeing the character grow with the technology you have and the way that’s shaped herself. With that comes many a painful truth about the effects social media and how too often we all live through the lens of our phones and how we want to be perceived. I really enjoyed how snappy the writing was, but gave you enough fragmented looks into her life to get a good view of her.
I think if you are a person who is anxious, can spiral or gets stuck in the past, this is a book you’ll enjoy.
I just think this was an excellent book tbh.
September 26, 2024
This was a fucking fantastic book. Affronting, sickening and heartwarming in equal measure. I ordered this knowing nothing about it because I loved Prasifka’s debut, and when I realised it was an interenty/social media book, I instantly had a big eye roll and struggled to get into it, because of my own feelings about millennials (barring eliza clark) erring on the side of cringe when it comes to writing about tech. But Prasifka did it in a way that was a) real b) sickening and c) flawless. A book that I didn’t expect to love, but I’m so glad I did.
July 14, 2025
As a millennial, more over, someone who was once just a girl, I initially couldn’t decide the method of assault this novel used against me — if it threw a brick in my face, outright stabbed me, or just showed me a mirror reflecting youth and the pains of growing into yourself. As it turns out, this was a brutal stabbing — but with deft fingers and genuinely tender intentions, Prasifka wove cathartic, sturdy stitches into the wound, rendering me whole again in the end.
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