(2) YA To the town of Whistler Beach, Maine, the Memory Eater--a creature confined to a cave who consumes people's unwanted memories--is big business. And that business depends on seventeen-year-old Alana Harlow. Like generations of Harlows before her, it's Alana's job to keep the Memory Eater in the cave and to make sure it feeds only on the memories clients offer. One day Alana makes a mistake that allows the monster to escape; starving, it attacks town residents, taking their memories without permission. (Alana knows the feeling: trying to recall a memory that the Memory Eater took is "like missing a stair. The swoop of air where solid ground should be. And then the drop.") With the help of her best friend and her ex-girlfriend (or, she'd prefer, not-so-ex-), Alana investigates the origins of the Memory Eater, uncovering a two-hundred-year-old family secret that connects them. It's a discovery that transforms her goal from subduing and controlling a monster to understanding it; in Mahoney's deliberate, evocative prose, the terror and guilt the character feels are slowly replaced by empathy and love. As in Laure's Remember Me (rev. 3/22), the fantasy element of removing a person's memories is intriguing but feels secondary--here, it is Alana's willingness to experience her emotions, to receive others' pain, and to lean on her community for support that stand out.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) YA Rose's visit to the parents of her best friend Gaby, who died a year earlier in a car accident, doesn't go as planned, and the distraught teen sets off alone into the desert, where her car breaks down and the story takes a series of fantastical twists and turns. Most improbable and disturbing is a nearby radio tower that broadcasts the last voicemail Rose ever received from Gaby. Rose's mission to repair her car and track down the radio station takes her to Lotus Valley, a tiny town that time forgot, where she finds herself at the center of a contentious prophecy that spells doom for the local residents. Rose, who is wracked with grief and has been diagnosed with PTSD, must face her losses as well as the "flood of memories" from the vividly drawn cast of townsfolk, which threatens to engulf the town; the Flood communicates directly with Rose. Mahoney keeps the tone lively and engaging while addressing some serious and weighty topics. She reveals much of Rose's story through flashbacks, anxiety triggers, and remembered conversations with her therapist. The narrative twists and surreal touches may confound some readers, but the storytelling is strong and cinematic, and well worth going along with for the ride.

Reviewer: Luann Toth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021