I have been a fan of Ann Brashares for years now, so I was extremely happy to read her first book meant for an adult readers. I was a little skeptical about "My Name is Memory" at first as it seemed a lot like Andrew Davidson's "The Gargoyle" (as one reviewer has already noted). There are some similarities with the premise of the book, but the two separate themselves quickly.
The beginning started off slow, and I found it difficult at first to bond with the main characters, as Lucy (aka Sophia) seems childish and obsessive, while Daniel was a little creepy and unconvincing. I have to admit, I warmed to Lucy, but I'm still not overly fond of Daniel. Daniel is the one that tells us of his past with Sophia, and the hundreds of years in between their first encounter and his meeting with Lucy. He tells of how, as a young man, he fearlessly joined the military, ready to give his life for a cause. The story of Sophia finds him risking his life to save her. Daniel continues to tell tales about how he risked it all for the love of his life. And then we come to present day Daniel, who I found weak. It was easy to like the Daniel from the past, but far more difficult to bond with the contemporary version of him.
The middle of the book is by far the strongest part in terms of story line and character development. Lucy gets a personaility, and we begin to understand their background better. All the improvements from this section quickly shatter when Lucy falls for a simple trick created by the books villain (which I'm pretty sure shouldn't have fooled anyone over the age of five). From here, the book comes to a fairly quick and awkward end.
I'm glad that there will be a sequel, because I definitely enjoyed aspects of this book enough to want to continue on with Daniel and Lucy's story. I hope that Brashares will work to create a better bond between contemporary Lucy and Daniel, and stop having the two question the other's desires and notions. They've known each other to some extent for 1300 years or so, so I'd like to see a more mature relationship develop. Overall, it's worth a read as I'm sure aspects of the book that bothered me will not be noticed by everyone. I'm also positive that the next book will have much more action and we'll see more tension rise between the villain and the stories protagonists. I'm also hopeful that some of the minor characters like Marnie and Ben will become involved and we'll get to understand more about the connection between souls.
