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Memory of Water

Emmi Itäranta

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What Members Thought

Apr 15, 2023 Tony rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, translated-fiction, novels, setting-europe, teen

Been checking out some Finnish writing lately, especially what I can find in the speculative or supernatural space. This short post-apocalyptic book drew me in right away, with its teenage protagonist Noria working for her father as an apprentice tea master. It seems that following a long war over the final dregs of oil, the world moved into steeper climate change, resulting in flooding across much of the world. At the same time, freshwater supplies have become scarce, and water is the key resou ...more

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May 15, 2017 Madeleine rated it liked it

Shelves: hey-it-was-free, speculative-fiction, scandinavia

The ending confused me, which maybe is the point.

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Jun 19, 2018 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: authors-i-don-t-ever-want-to-read-a, fantasy-and-sci-fi, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic

In those days a silence wavered between my parents, dense with stirring, well-hidden fear and nameless, unspoken things. It was like a calm surface of water, extreme and unnatural: a single word dropped on it, a single shifting stone at the bottom would change it, create a circle and yet another circle, until the reflection was warped, unrecognisable with the force of the movement.

The writing is good, and there are some thought provoking dichotomies, but overall the dystopian world that Itar

In those days a silence wavered between my parents, dense with stirring, well-hidden fear and nameless, unspoken things. It was like a calm surface of water, extreme and unnatural: a single word dropped on it, a single shifting stone at the bottom would change it, create a circle and yet another circle, until the reflection was warped, unrecognisable with the force of the movement.

The writing is good, and there are some thought provoking dichotomies, but overall the dystopian world that Itaranta created doesn't make sense. She can turn a nice phrase, but she doesn't tell much of a story. Clearly she had a message that she wanted to drive home.

I had a hard time staying focused, I found myself easily distracted, and I regretted reading this. I wanted to finish it, I hoped it would get better, or the ending would make the book worthwhile. Unfortunately, the ending didn't do much for me. This book never really loads the trunk and starts driving.

The first two-thirds of this book is just background. The story, what there is of it, doesn't really start until page 169 (in my edition of 266 pages).

Things that don't make sense:
* the whole archaic tea ceremony. Just, why??? Rigidly ritualized ceremonies tend to be present in superstitious societies, but Itaranta makes it clear that this is a society with inventories an scientists, not superstitions.
* the amount of time Sanja and Noria waste trying to figure out the people who lived before them. How much time do YOU spend wandering garbage dumps and unearthing treasures that will shed light on past generations? Personally, I spend ZERO time on this activity. So it really felt artificial, the author forced all that in there so that the modern day reader can get a few chuckles about old TDK tape cassettes, and compare our lifestyle to Noria's. You know, for The Message.
* the amount of time Noria wastes wondering what winter felt like. i spend approximately 0.01% of my time wondering what life was like in past epochs (the ice age for example). Why is Noria obsessed with snow? And why does she waste a full bucket of water and ice just to see what "cold" feels like? Aren't these people living on water rations??? The only reason for this is to hammer home The Message.
* what are these blaze flies that everyone uses to power lanterns? If you've ever tried to catch fireflies in a jar, you know how little light they give off once captured. A massive mutation would be needed to create insects that actually light up the rooms.
* why can the tea peeps see Death? The only way that works is if this is a fantasy rather than a realistic dystopian.
* CD players don't play the words in reverse when you rewind, they are silent (except for any mechanical sounds of the disc player itself).

‘Could you play that last bit again?’ I asked. Sanja pressed the button with two arrowheads pointing to the left on the past-tech machine. My wrist was aching from writing. I shook my hand while reversed words chirruped in the loudspeakers.

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