In the Hope of Memories starts without preamble dropping the reader straight into a story where grief and anger swirl and mix with (coincidentally?) hope.
Time won’t stop just because I beg it to, so I might as well spend it tangled up in Hope’s friends, instead of strung up alone with memories of everything I’ve ruined.
Hope (as in the noun and the verb) is the center of the story told via multiple PVO’s. The characters are eclectic, realistic, diverse and their different personalities clash as they race across town to complete a scavenger hunt. Of them all, Aiden is the one that I related to the most, although I can’t quite pinpoint why. His courage? His loyalty? His strength? Maybe all three…
His voice quivers like a plucked string on a broken guitar, and I get the feeling it’s the equivalent of me screaming at the top of my lungs.
Gitty, sad and unexpectedly humorous in the best kind of way and I love that the diversity is natural and never comes across as forced.
. . . it takes a full four seconds before he manages to get it off. Seconds we don’t have. Seconds that could kill. . .
Art forms a huge part of the story and I would have loved to see the art visually represented in the book.
I don’t really understand exactly what I am looking at, but it’s gorgeous. There’s a Chinese character inked to the front of the card, and it’s made up of a bunch of little ink feathers woven together, The entire thing is blood red, but the boldest splotches are the stars dotted over the feathers.
Title: In the Hope of Memories
Author: Olivia Rivers
Publication Date: 21 March 2016
Publisher: Red Sparrow Press
Source: Review copy
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Hope Jackson has lived her short life to the fullest, but her four closest friends are dangling on the brink of disaster. Right before dying of a rare heart condition, Hope sets up a scavenger hunt across New York City using her graffiti art. The directions she leaves her friends are simple: Solve the clues hidden in her art, and they’ll solve the problems haunting their lives.
Two days after her heart fails, Hope’s friends are thrown together:
Aiden, her best friend, whose plans to attend college have been scattered by his OCD.
Kali, her foster sister, whose last ties to sanity are as razor-thin as her anorexic waistline.
Erik, her high school crush, whose success as an athlete is based on a lie with no end in sight.
And Sam, her online pen-pal, whose perfect life exploded into chaos in the aftermath of a school bombing.
Together, the four teens take to the streets of New York to complete Hope’s scavenger hunt and fulfill her dying wishes. But in order to unravel the clues hidden in Hope’s graffiti, her friends will need to confront their personal demons head on. Hope is within reach. — Abstract from Goodreads.com
Jess@Fairday's Blog
What a beautiful cover! I think the premise is very intriguing. I am curious about the scavenger hunt and about Hope’s friends. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
crushingcinders
The cover really is gorgeous. Hope you get a chance to read it soon.
dabook.club
YAY! Glad you liked it, I loved how your reviews were short, and yet very informative. You don’t see that very much with book review websites anymore, Keep up the AMAZING work!
-Jared
crushingcinders
Thank you! You’ve just made my day ?