My Name Is Memory discussion

uhhm, is this like some sort of knock off or copycat of the books Fallen by Lauren Kate? I'm pretty sure the ides were stolen from her..same character names and plot and everything! WTF?!

I thought so at first and then I decide to read it. It is similar in many ways but it's completely different and you should read it.

I haven't read Fallen, but I like My Name Is Memory. I actually thought Fallen was about Vampires and Werewolves and stuff.

No Fallen is about angels. My name is memory is better written and more adult/mature in my opinion.

Oh okay then.

This book is about a boy, Daniel, who has the strange ability of remembering each and every one of his past lifes. And there have been many.
In the first pages we see him, in his first life. Some wrong has been done to his village, and he, his brother, among many other's decide to burn another village. He has just set fire to a house, when a young women appears at the door. And she sees what he has done, and the destruction that surrounds her, and instead of trying to run away, she closes the door and dies. This will haunt him forever.
As will the girl.
So from time to time, they meet. He remembers her, he recognizes her, even when she's no more than a child.
He has the "memory", she doesn't.
It's not a typical romance.
Daniel is a very sad, and lonely person. Someone who doesn't give value to his life. The only thing that motivates him is trying to find someone, who doesn't even know who is.
So they keep meeting each other in very diferent parts of their lives. One time, he's just a boy, and she's and old lady.
And that's when he does something really stupid.
I'm not going to give any more spoilers on this book, im just going to finnish by saying that i really liked to read it. I just had to start with the idea that some souls recognize each other, instead of the notion of love at first sight, that for me it's just a way of not developing the characters.
In this case, i wouldn't even mind a sequel.

I thought so as well, but there's not that many similarities after you start reading it, or at least that's what I found

Did you know that two different comic strips, both about trouble-making little boys, both called Dennis the Menace debuted just days apart in March 1951, in two different countries?

It is uncanny that the characters in Memory are named Daniel and Lucy in a story with reincarnation and starcrossed lovers, but it is nothing like Fallen and it is not a ripoff.

For one thing, if Ann Brashares, an author who was already published and established, had even had movies made of her books, doesn't need to steal an idea from another book, but if she did, don't you think she would have changed the names? The names are merely a strange coincidence.

Second, reincarnation and soulmates across different lives is not a new or original idea. I wrote short story once for a creative writing class about starcrossed lovers and reincarnation. This was some years ago, before either of these books were published. I'm also 100% sure I wasn't the first to think of it either. It's just not that original to combine a classic favorite like a star-crossed love story with a common life/death/afterlife theory like reincarnation.

I know different people have written about how many (or rather, how few) different stories truly exist. But they hold some truth. The outlines and concepts really aren't original but what writers do with them make them worthwhile, and can make a reader think of something they hadn't before.

Oh and once you get past the concept of mischief making and the same names, the 2 Dennis the Menace characters and strips are actually quite different. Just like Fallen and My Name is Memory are very different from each other.

I actually thought my name is memory came out first?

Several reviews and comments on reviews said it seemed like it was a ripoff of Fallen, and so I assumed Fallen came out significantly before My Name is Memory. I should have checked first.

Since you mention it, I looked it up. Turns out Fallen was published Dec. 2009, and My Name is Memory was published June 2010 (one place on goodreads, it says Jan 2010, but I don't see that anywhere else. I wonder if that was when the ARC was available or maybe a typo?)

So the authors were probably both writing their respective novels at the same time. (more proof that neither author was copying)


I'd also add, my comment before was not meant to be insulting to Lauren Kate or Fallen. I only pointed out Brashares' success because I don't think an author who has already found her own voice, and success with that voice, would lazily copy another author. Objectively, I feel My Name is Memory is a stronger novel, but I actually enjoyed reading both. They are just 2 very different books.

Yer I liked my name is memory and I like called and torment but passion just ruined it. It was like she was trying to go back though time o make up for what was missed in the first book where as my name is memory successfully tied it all together in one.
I also emailed Ann who wrote back and said she's hoping to release a sequel

Well, if the sequel do comes out, i am definitely going to buy it. :)

Yer so will I...no date yet though :(

Hannah wrote: "I also emailed Ann who wrote back and said she's hoping to release a sequel "

Oooh. Did you get the response recently? I know early things said it was the first in a planned trilogy but I hadn't seen anything recent. I'll be super excited if she said recently that it's still in the works. Even if we have to wait.

thought it was an interesting story.. never read fallen.. but plan to read other books by this author.

Shelley wrote: "Hannah wrote: "I also emailed Ann who wrote back and said she's hoping to release a sequel "

Oooh. Did you get the response recently? I know early things said it was the first in a planned trilogy..."

It took her ages like months to wb but she just said shes hoping to not that she was actually working on it yet :(

message 4: by Tina (new) - rated it 5 stars Jan 23, 2012 12:54am
No Fallen is about angels. My name is memory is better written and more adult/mature in my opinion


i agree....i did read fallen frist but, conpared to My Name Is Memory. id say My name is Memory is waaaaaaaay better!!