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The Memory of Animals
From the award-winning author of Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange, and Unsettled Ground comes a beautiful and searing novel of memory, love, survival―and octopuses.
In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease’s devastating symptoms: sensory damage, memory loss, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted twenty-seven-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London―perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers―Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper―cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there.
As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past―a childhood bisected by divorce; a recent love affair; her obsessive research with octopuses and the one mistake that ended her career. The lines between past, present, and future begin to blur, and Neffy is left with defining questions: Who can she trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives?
The Memory of Animals is an ambitious, deeply imagined work of survival and suspense, grief and hope, consequences and connectedness, that asks what truly defines us―and the lengths we will go to rescue ourselves and those we love.
In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease’s devastating symptoms: sensory damage, memory loss, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted twenty-seven-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London―perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers―Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper―cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there.
As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past―a childhood bisected by divorce; a recent love affair; her obsessive research with octopuses and the one mistake that ended her career. The lines between past, present, and future begin to blur, and Neffy is left with defining questions: Who can she trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives?
The Memory of Animals is an ambitious, deeply imagined work of survival and suspense, grief and hope, consequences and connectedness, that asks what truly defines us―and the lengths we will go to rescue ourselves and those we love.
278 pages, Hardcover
First published April 20, 2023
233 people are currently reading
22.1k people want to read
About the author
Claire Fuller
11books2,413followersClaire Fuller is the author of five novels: The Memory of Animals published in the UK
and forthcoming (June 23) in the US and Canada. Her previous, Unsettled Ground, which won the Costa Novel Award 2021, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction; Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott prize; Swimming Lessons, shortlisted for the Encore Prize; and Bitter Orange longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
and forthcoming (June 23) in the US and Canada. Her previous, Unsettled Ground, which won the Costa Novel Award 2021, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction; Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott prize; Swimming Lessons, shortlisted for the Encore Prize; and Bitter Orange longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 970 reviews
December 12, 2022
4+
Neffy (Nefeli) decides to volunteer for Vaccine Biopharm on a clinical trial, a sink or swim experiment after exposure to ‘dropsy virus�. This pandemic which is sweeping all before it causes horrific symptoms. The volunteers are literally lab rats but it is a desperate race against time. As the danger outside intensifies, Neffy learns of a device from one of the volunteers via which it’s possible to revisit the past. This well written novel takes us on this journey interspersed with letters Neffy writes to ‘H� detailing her interest and love of octopus.
This is another multi layered, creative, different and original novel from one of my favourite authors. First of all, the raging pandemic is horrifying, it’s a dark, chaotic and terrifying backdrop which intensifies the situation with and for the vaccine volunteers highlighting the life and death nature of what they are doing. It is utterly dystopian with exterior events shocking to the core with the internal group dynamics often mirroring the outside affairs.
The letters to H and the storyline involving octopus are my favourite sections as they reveal the humanity of Neffy. It’s also a fusion (or is that confusion?) as the volunteers are as captive as are many animals, the humans here are in an experiment as are some unfortunate animals and so on, yet they have the desire for freedom in common.
The other excellent sections are when Neffy revisits her past which entails all the human experience of love, loss and grief with parts being very moving.
This is another very different novel, it’s imaginative but is inevitably dark and bleak as we are still in our own pandemic so it may not be for everyone. However, it is well worth reading in my opinion as Claire Fuller is such a talented writer.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin General for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
Neffy (Nefeli) decides to volunteer for Vaccine Biopharm on a clinical trial, a sink or swim experiment after exposure to ‘dropsy virus�. This pandemic which is sweeping all before it causes horrific symptoms. The volunteers are literally lab rats but it is a desperate race against time. As the danger outside intensifies, Neffy learns of a device from one of the volunteers via which it’s possible to revisit the past. This well written novel takes us on this journey interspersed with letters Neffy writes to ‘H� detailing her interest and love of octopus.
This is another multi layered, creative, different and original novel from one of my favourite authors. First of all, the raging pandemic is horrifying, it’s a dark, chaotic and terrifying backdrop which intensifies the situation with and for the vaccine volunteers highlighting the life and death nature of what they are doing. It is utterly dystopian with exterior events shocking to the core with the internal group dynamics often mirroring the outside affairs.
The letters to H and the storyline involving octopus are my favourite sections as they reveal the humanity of Neffy. It’s also a fusion (or is that confusion?) as the volunteers are as captive as are many animals, the humans here are in an experiment as are some unfortunate animals and so on, yet they have the desire for freedom in common.
The other excellent sections are when Neffy revisits her past which entails all the human experience of love, loss and grief with parts being very moving.
This is another very different novel, it’s imaginative but is inevitably dark and bleak as we are still in our own pandemic so it may not be for everyone. However, it is well worth reading in my opinion as Claire Fuller is such a talented writer.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin General for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
April 14, 2023
Probably inevitable that Claire Fuller’s dystopian novel of a world devastated by a plague and the few remaining survivors should carry so many echoes of earlier works from The Day of the Triffids to Survivors to The Hopkins Manuscript and Resident Evil. However, unlike these particular forerunners, and despite the range of familiar markers � deserted streets, roaming gangs - there’s something curiously flat about Fuller’s narrative, for me at least, it lacked urgency or any real sense of peril. Part of the problem may be that it’s more character centred than plot driven. Although the writing itself is decent, it’s very matter of fact and the story oddly sanitised, and I just didn’t find the characters terribly interesting or engaging. Nor is there any sense of a sustained, broader philosophical or pseudo-philosophical exploration underlying the surface. Although things do pick up at various points.
The lead character is Neffy (Nefeli) who’s enrolled in a drug trial, a disgraced, former marine biologist, she’s in it solely for the money. A new virus known as dropsy is sweeping the globe, the situation’s bad but not extinction-level bad. Then a new mutation emerges and it becomes catastrophic. Neffy’s trial involves a dose of an experimental vaccine followed by infection with the initial virus. But when she wakes up, fully recovered, there are only four other people left in her enclosed medical unit. All are members of the trial, everyone else has long since fled. In excruciating detail the narrative follows Neffy and her fellow survivors as they slowly run down their remaining supplies. Their stories are broken up by an encounter with a new piece of tech brought in by one of their number. The Revisitor rather implausibly transforms memory into virtual reality, allowing people to relive their past in glorious technicolour, these episodes allow Neffy to experience key events in her life history which range from poignant to preposterous. Also breaking up the text are a series of letters to H, who turns out to be an octopus Neffy once worked with. The link here attempts to set up an analogy between the “caged� survivors and animal experimentation but, since animals have no choice when it comes to exploitation and suffering inflicted by humans, I didn’t find the suggested parallels convincing. As a variation on post-pandemic lit this is reasonably inventive but as science fiction it verges on incoherent, although I appreciated the attempt to incorporate messages related to animal welfare.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Fig Tree for an ARC
The lead character is Neffy (Nefeli) who’s enrolled in a drug trial, a disgraced, former marine biologist, she’s in it solely for the money. A new virus known as dropsy is sweeping the globe, the situation’s bad but not extinction-level bad. Then a new mutation emerges and it becomes catastrophic. Neffy’s trial involves a dose of an experimental vaccine followed by infection with the initial virus. But when she wakes up, fully recovered, there are only four other people left in her enclosed medical unit. All are members of the trial, everyone else has long since fled. In excruciating detail the narrative follows Neffy and her fellow survivors as they slowly run down their remaining supplies. Their stories are broken up by an encounter with a new piece of tech brought in by one of their number. The Revisitor rather implausibly transforms memory into virtual reality, allowing people to relive their past in glorious technicolour, these episodes allow Neffy to experience key events in her life history which range from poignant to preposterous. Also breaking up the text are a series of letters to H, who turns out to be an octopus Neffy once worked with. The link here attempts to set up an analogy between the “caged� survivors and animal experimentation but, since animals have no choice when it comes to exploitation and suffering inflicted by humans, I didn’t find the suggested parallels convincing. As a variation on post-pandemic lit this is reasonably inventive but as science fiction it verges on incoherent, although I appreciated the attempt to incorporate messages related to animal welfare.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Fig Tree for an ARC
June 6, 2023
The world is experiencing a pandemic with traumatic symptoms such as memory loss, sensory damage, swelling, and death. The world is in desperate need of a vaccine. Neffy, a disgraced marine biologist, along with her fellow volunteers: Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper, agree to take part in a vaccine trial. Some will be infected with the virus while others are not. The stakes are high as this might just be the last chance to save the world! The danger and terror are mounting in the outside world as people try to get supplies, gather resources all while falling ill and chaos ensues.
While at the trial headquarters, Neffy writes letters to 'dearesT H' about her love of Octopuses and her experience working with them. When not writing and engaging with the other volunteers, she is introduced by Leon to a device that allows her go back and revisit scenes from her past. This device does not work on everyone, but it works on her.
Hats off to Claire Fuller for always writing original, creative, and well written books. I always get excited when I see she has a new one coming out. I was instantly drawn into the plot and wondered how things would turn out. I found this book to be gripping and hard to put down. The characters are interesting and there were some I liked, and some that were unlikeable, some who grated on my nerves.
This is about survival and human nature. I saw this playing out like a movie in my mind. Claire Fuller has delivered once again. She is a gifted writer, and I am always drawn in by her prose and plotlines. I enjoyed the tension in the book as Neffy questioned who she would trust while trying to survive. I also loved the sections where Neffy was writing to "H" about Octopuses. This worked very nicely in the story.
Well written, thought provoking, and tense.
*This book may hit too close to home for some as it is about a pandemic.
#TheMemoryofAnimals #NetGalley #ClaireFuller
Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at
While at the trial headquarters, Neffy writes letters to 'dearesT H' about her love of Octopuses and her experience working with them. When not writing and engaging with the other volunteers, she is introduced by Leon to a device that allows her go back and revisit scenes from her past. This device does not work on everyone, but it works on her.
Hats off to Claire Fuller for always writing original, creative, and well written books. I always get excited when I see she has a new one coming out. I was instantly drawn into the plot and wondered how things would turn out. I found this book to be gripping and hard to put down. The characters are interesting and there were some I liked, and some that were unlikeable, some who grated on my nerves.
This is about survival and human nature. I saw this playing out like a movie in my mind. Claire Fuller has delivered once again. She is a gifted writer, and I am always drawn in by her prose and plotlines. I enjoyed the tension in the book as Neffy questioned who she would trust while trying to survive. I also loved the sections where Neffy was writing to "H" about Octopuses. This worked very nicely in the story.
Well written, thought provoking, and tense.
*This book may hit too close to home for some as it is about a pandemic.
#TheMemoryofAnimals #NetGalley #ClaireFuller
Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at
February 25, 2023
FROM THE EDITOR:
“Working with Claire Fuller is one of the great joys of my career. With each book, I learn something new, visit, a unique world, meet unforgettable characters, and I am always left, wanting to share Claire‘s work with everyone I know. The Memory of Animals, our fifth book together, is no exception. Claire has delivered a tight and steering novel set in the near future about a woman who� motivated by secrets and mistakes and her past� joins and experimental drug trial that might be humanity’s last hope to cure a new devastating disease. When I first encounter the story, I shared with Claire, but it was like anything I had ever read.� but if pressed, it would require a mashup: Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark meets The Breakfast Club meets My Octopus Teacher�.
…�*part* of the editor’s notes�(there is more)� and as a reader, I appreciate the way we are set up to begin this story!
� thank you, Masie Cochran
I’m a long time passionate fan of Claire Fuller. She is literally one of my favorite authors.
I want to drop everything to read what she writes.
Other books I read by Claire:
�.Endless Numbered Days
�.Swimming Lessons
�.Bitter Orange
�.Unsettled Ground
and a 15 minute free discussion audiobook about ‘Swimming Lessons�.
I was sooo excited to begin ‘Memory of Animals.
And�..I ENJOYED IT!
It was so visual for me - I was already casting the characters for the Netflix series.
It begins with a letter �..
“dearesT h.
“Is it possible to fall in love at
twelve? With an octopus? I met him in the Ionian Sea when I was snorkeling at the beach, for my father had his hotel. I’d like to think he loved me back as you maybe did too. I wonder often where you are and how you’re doing. Are you dead or alive? Was it wrong, what I did? And is it better to live a small life, contained an enclosed where everything is provided, and the unexpected rarely happens? As a safe flight. Or one where you swim out into the unknown and risk everything. I chose for you, since the choice wasn’t yours to make. But, I wanted to write to apologize and ask your forgiveness to explain myself�
�-Աڴڲ
Neffy is no longer twelve years old. I wondered ‘for awhile�, though as to how old she was - and what she was asking forgiveness for.
We learn right away that she has volunteered for an experimental vaccine study that had never once been tried on humans. She would be in a hospital� isolated in her room —for three weeks.
I’m going to be a good-girl here and not over describe this book �.
It’s sooooo tempting for me �.
ܳ�.
I’ll only share a few things �.then shut my trap.
There’s the pandemic�.people were dying. The virus [Dropsy virus] was spreading everywhere; people were terrified.
Dropsy caused a range of symptoms�.including swelling of some organs, nerve damage, and sensory damage.
�.
�.the first human challenge trail took healthy volunteers between the ages of eighteen and thirty. They would be exposed to the virus in a safe controlled environment at a secret location while doctors monitored their health around the clock�.
�..
“Sorry, something has gone wrong�
Besides Neffy�..we meet the other volunteers: Leon, Yahiko, Rachel, and Piper.
There ‘is� a “Breakfast Club� feeling in this novel�.
and so much more > to explore & contemplate…�(about humanity, evolution, morality, survival, freedom, and love) �..while revisiting of past memories�..
plus�. the wonderful inserts about octopuses, ocean creatures that are most famous for having eight arms and bulbous heads.
I loved the book �..I’m simply in heaven when reading Claire Fuller’s books�..(each one so different)�.yet each one has elements of mystery, controversy, and suspense without being overly dramatic.
Claire always taps deeply into my cerebral brain and my emotional heart.
I didn’t see the ending coming�.Left me with thoughts�..and it will others!
I suppose it’s best said that the ending is bittersweet
And most�.I really loved reading “The Memory of Animals�
Congrats Claire!!! Beautifully written and ambitious novel.
Thank you Netgalley and Tin House
“Working with Claire Fuller is one of the great joys of my career. With each book, I learn something new, visit, a unique world, meet unforgettable characters, and I am always left, wanting to share Claire‘s work with everyone I know. The Memory of Animals, our fifth book together, is no exception. Claire has delivered a tight and steering novel set in the near future about a woman who� motivated by secrets and mistakes and her past� joins and experimental drug trial that might be humanity’s last hope to cure a new devastating disease. When I first encounter the story, I shared with Claire, but it was like anything I had ever read.� but if pressed, it would require a mashup: Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark meets The Breakfast Club meets My Octopus Teacher�.
…�*part* of the editor’s notes�(there is more)� and as a reader, I appreciate the way we are set up to begin this story!
� thank you, Masie Cochran
I’m a long time passionate fan of Claire Fuller. She is literally one of my favorite authors.
I want to drop everything to read what she writes.
Other books I read by Claire:
�.Endless Numbered Days
�.Swimming Lessons
�.Bitter Orange
�.Unsettled Ground
and a 15 minute free discussion audiobook about ‘Swimming Lessons�.
I was sooo excited to begin ‘Memory of Animals.
And�..I ENJOYED IT!
It was so visual for me - I was already casting the characters for the Netflix series.
It begins with a letter �..
“dearesT h.
“Is it possible to fall in love at
twelve? With an octopus? I met him in the Ionian Sea when I was snorkeling at the beach, for my father had his hotel. I’d like to think he loved me back as you maybe did too. I wonder often where you are and how you’re doing. Are you dead or alive? Was it wrong, what I did? And is it better to live a small life, contained an enclosed where everything is provided, and the unexpected rarely happens? As a safe flight. Or one where you swim out into the unknown and risk everything. I chose for you, since the choice wasn’t yours to make. But, I wanted to write to apologize and ask your forgiveness to explain myself�
�-Աڴڲ
Neffy is no longer twelve years old. I wondered ‘for awhile�, though as to how old she was - and what she was asking forgiveness for.
We learn right away that she has volunteered for an experimental vaccine study that had never once been tried on humans. She would be in a hospital� isolated in her room —for three weeks.
I’m going to be a good-girl here and not over describe this book �.
It’s sooooo tempting for me �.
ܳ�.
I’ll only share a few things �.then shut my trap.
There’s the pandemic�.people were dying. The virus [Dropsy virus] was spreading everywhere; people were terrified.
Dropsy caused a range of symptoms�.including swelling of some organs, nerve damage, and sensory damage.
�.
�.the first human challenge trail took healthy volunteers between the ages of eighteen and thirty. They would be exposed to the virus in a safe controlled environment at a secret location while doctors monitored their health around the clock�.
�..
“Sorry, something has gone wrong�
Besides Neffy�..we meet the other volunteers: Leon, Yahiko, Rachel, and Piper.
There ‘is� a “Breakfast Club� feeling in this novel�.
and so much more > to explore & contemplate…�(about humanity, evolution, morality, survival, freedom, and love) �..while revisiting of past memories�..
plus�. the wonderful inserts about octopuses, ocean creatures that are most famous for having eight arms and bulbous heads.
I loved the book �..I’m simply in heaven when reading Claire Fuller’s books�..(each one so different)�.yet each one has elements of mystery, controversy, and suspense without being overly dramatic.
Claire always taps deeply into my cerebral brain and my emotional heart.
I didn’t see the ending coming�.Left me with thoughts�..and it will others!
I suppose it’s best said that the ending is bittersweet
And most�.I really loved reading “The Memory of Animals�
Congrats Claire!!! Beautifully written and ambitious novel.
Thank you Netgalley and Tin House
January 16, 2023
Despite having finished this in less than 48 hours - a definite record for me lately - this one fell far short of my somewhat high hopes. While the premise was certainly interesting and Fuller's way with words made it immensely readable, I ultimately felt the payoff wasn't really worth the investment. This is perhaps due to pandemic exhaustion. I've always been a fan of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction, but now that we've actually lived through it, to a degree, I expect a bit more from my fiction, if that makes sense.
It's not so much that the pandemic was unbelievable, it was that it seemed a vehicle for the character drama more than anything else. That's not a problem really, but I'd have dumped all the in favor of more development in this area. That being said, even the characters seemed somewhat poorly sketched, a blurry composite rather than a finely drawn, completed work.
I didn't hate it - again, I'd have stopped early on if I had - but the whole thing just felt extremely underwhelming and ultimately unmemorable. I almost feel like it could have been a short story rather than a novel, that's how much of its content I felt was unnecessary. I think a lot of people will really love this one, but it ultimately wasn't really for me.
Thanks as always to NetGalley for the opportunity to read!
It's not so much that the pandemic was unbelievable, it was that it seemed a vehicle for the character drama more than anything else. That's not a problem really, but I'd have dumped all the in favor of more development in this area. That being said, even the characters seemed somewhat poorly sketched, a blurry composite rather than a finely drawn, completed work.
I didn't hate it - again, I'd have stopped early on if I had - but the whole thing just felt extremely underwhelming and ultimately unmemorable. I almost feel like it could have been a short story rather than a novel, that's how much of its content I felt was unnecessary. I think a lot of people will really love this one, but it ultimately wasn't really for me.
Thanks as always to NetGalley for the opportunity to read!
August 28, 2023
1.5 STARS
I hate when you finish a book and say, “Well that’s x amount of hours of my life that I won’t get back.� 😅 I really thought this would be interesting based on the first chapter. Neffy arrived to a medical laboratory, Vaccine Bio-Pharm, to partake in an experimental vaccine trial during a global pandemic. The rest of the book really went off the rails, though. Instead of just focusing on the present timeline and the strangers holed up in the lab, the author decided to include Neffy’s random ass letters addressed to an octopus. That’s not all! Neffy also used a device to “Revisit� her memories, and I unfortunately had to read through those, too. The book was two storylines too many, as Neffy’s letters and memories did not contribute to the overall plot at all. And the ending? So terrible it’s not even funny—entirely abrupt and rushed. I would like to know who reviewed this woman’s outline and thought it was cohesive? 😅
I hate when you finish a book and say, “Well that’s x amount of hours of my life that I won’t get back.� 😅 I really thought this would be interesting based on the first chapter. Neffy arrived to a medical laboratory, Vaccine Bio-Pharm, to partake in an experimental vaccine trial during a global pandemic. The rest of the book really went off the rails, though. Instead of just focusing on the present timeline and the strangers holed up in the lab, the author decided to include Neffy’s random ass letters addressed to an octopus. That’s not all! Neffy also used a device to “Revisit� her memories, and I unfortunately had to read through those, too. The book was two storylines too many, as Neffy’s letters and memories did not contribute to the overall plot at all. And the ending? So terrible it’s not even funny—entirely abrupt and rushed. I would like to know who reviewed this woman’s outline and thought it was cohesive? 😅
January 23, 2023
I think of the conversation I had with Rachel about the space station and the zoos. Maybe some of the animals might have got out, but I know that most, if not all of the lab octopuses won’t have been so lucky. And I begin to list the animals I can think of that live in aquariums: the sea urchins, and rays, and the starfish, and on and on until I make myself stop, and I think instead about what Rachel asked me. I can’t take her with me if I do decide to go. I can’t save her; I can barely save myself.
Set against the backdrop of a global pandemic, asks pertinent questions about freedom and responsibility: examining not only how we treat one another but how we treat the other creatures of the Earth. Weaving together three narrative threads (one in the present day and two from the past), author Claire Fuller maintains tension by dangling mysteries that don’t get untangled until the very end, and I was glued to the page � both wanting those answers and savouring the ride. This is more than a COVID novel � even if many of the situations will feel familiar to the reader � and like all good fiction, it drills down on what it means to be human; what it means to be humane. Spoilerish from here. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
How will they keep us in, I wonder, if we threaten to leave? Will they lock us in, and how ethical would that be? I will have both the vaccine and the virus, and I will stay. I could kid myself that I’m doing it to save the human race, but honestly? I’m doing it for the money.
Neffy is a twenty-seven-year-old marine biologist, and out of a job and deeply in debt, she makes the desperate decision to volunteer for a vaccine trial as the Dropsy virus (much more contagious and lethal than COVID) spreads across the globe. Ten healthy young people have been sequestered in a lab with the understanding that they will be given an otherwise untested-on-humans vaccine followed by the virus itself, and if they survive, they’ll be given a huge (unspecified to the reader) payday. Neffy is made very sick by the injections, and when she comes out of her fever a week later, she discovers that the London outside the lab has not weathered the pandemic well, and as the four other test subjects still locked in with her were never given the vaccine or the virus before the lab staff ran away, they have to wonder if she is the only immune person in the world. And what would that fact mean for them as a group? Or the world?
As they agree to wait out the quarantine period that they had signed on for (maybe there still is someone in charge out there who will come to rescue them), Neffy learns that one of the others has brought the prototype of a device (The Revisitor) that allows a person to become deeply immersed in their own memories. Much of the novel is made up of her trips to the past, and as we witness long scenes from Neffy’s childhood and later family life, we eventually learn the real impulse behind her volunteering for the trial.
In the third narrative strand, Neffy writes a series of letters to “My Dear H� while in quarantine. These tell the story of her career as a marine biologist, and as she describes the lifelong connection she has felt to octopuses, it becomes clear how often she was uncomfortable performing experiments on them or even keeping them (bored and depressed) in captivity. These bits not only point out the irony of her own confinement (and the irony of her having access to a memory machine during a pandemic that erases memory), but will eventually answer the question of where her debt came from.
“But don’t you think we can learn from the past? See things differently, or let it help us decide what we do in the future?�
“Humans are useless at learning from their mistakes. We just have to keep making new plans,� Piper says.
Neffy is a complex character, but the more we learn about her past, the more understandable her behaviour becomes; Fuller’s use of this three strand narrative works really well to maintain interest and organically answer questions the reader has about Neffy from the beginning � character, plot, and format get full marks. Although the debate about freedom and responsibility has been stirred up by the pandemic we all recently went through, I don’t know if The Memory of Animals truly brings anything new to the table. On the other hand, this was a very believable account of one young woman’s journey, well told, and I’m looking forward to reading more reviews from readers who are more familiar with Fuller’s work.
November 19, 2024
What did I just read?
I am not sure what I feel. There is so much to take in that it probably is best if I just begin with the premise and try and sort out my feelings from there.
A group is willing to be human guinea pigs, so to speak when they gather at a London “live-in� clinic for a pharma firm’s vaccine trial as a fictional pandemic set’s in. Neffy is the narrator, and she and her fellow subjects, Rachel, Leon, Piper and Yahiko will be receiving both the virus and the vaccine in their medically isolated bubble. (There were more subjects � but these are the only ones that Neffy initially meets.)
As Neffy is awakening after a few days after receiving the virus, news from the outside world worsens. Inside, “time has folded in on itself.�
In her awakened state she learns that the clinical staff have vanished; media and the internet have failed; the streets around the facility are descending into violence. As hopes of rescue dwindle, Neffy learns that she alone might have had both the infection and the antidote, with the immunity that recovery confers.
What will this mean?
And…Where is everybody else?
And what is this “revisiting� technology that Leon has created and how does it play into the story?
And why does Neffy write to an octopus throughout the story?
Is the author trying to make a point about the use and abuse of scientific innovation? Or the use of laboratory octopuses?
There is definitely a tension felt about what happens/could happen to humanity when there is a lockdown. This tension permeates throughout the book.
The darkness, eeriness, almost dystopian world is thrust upon us as we continue to read. Especially as the group finds their way out of the clinic, and through London.
The ending feels rushed and unexplained and flat. What happened? I am still shaking my head, not fully understanding it. 3.5 stars.
I am not sure what I feel. There is so much to take in that it probably is best if I just begin with the premise and try and sort out my feelings from there.
A group is willing to be human guinea pigs, so to speak when they gather at a London “live-in� clinic for a pharma firm’s vaccine trial as a fictional pandemic set’s in. Neffy is the narrator, and she and her fellow subjects, Rachel, Leon, Piper and Yahiko will be receiving both the virus and the vaccine in their medically isolated bubble. (There were more subjects � but these are the only ones that Neffy initially meets.)
As Neffy is awakening after a few days after receiving the virus, news from the outside world worsens. Inside, “time has folded in on itself.�
In her awakened state she learns that the clinical staff have vanished; media and the internet have failed; the streets around the facility are descending into violence. As hopes of rescue dwindle, Neffy learns that she alone might have had both the infection and the antidote, with the immunity that recovery confers.
What will this mean?
And…Where is everybody else?
And what is this “revisiting� technology that Leon has created and how does it play into the story?
And why does Neffy write to an octopus throughout the story?
Is the author trying to make a point about the use and abuse of scientific innovation? Or the use of laboratory octopuses?
There is definitely a tension felt about what happens/could happen to humanity when there is a lockdown. This tension permeates throughout the book.
The darkness, eeriness, almost dystopian world is thrust upon us as we continue to read. Especially as the group finds their way out of the clinic, and through London.
The ending feels rushed and unexplained and flat. What happened? I am still shaking my head, not fully understanding it. 3.5 stars.
April 10, 2023
*4.5 stars rounded up
The Memory of Animals is set in a dystopian future during a raging pandemic where a mysterious disease called the Dropsy virus is causing horrific side affects, the story is centered around a 27-year-old marine biologist named Neffy. Neffy volunteers for a vaccine trial in London where she and several other volunteers are then isolated from the chaotic world.
Neffy soon befriends another volunteer named Leon who created a technology that allows users to revisit their memories. Neffy revisits her childhood, a recent affair, her research with octopuses, and even the one mistake that destroyed her career. Soon the lines between the past and present begin to obscure and Neffy is left wondering whom she can trust, why she can’t forgive herself, and how she will live if she survives this pandemic.
This is my 3rd read by the author and I'm now convinced that Claire Fuller is a magician with words. She arranges them in ways that flow and pop up beautifully from the pages. With her vivid portrayals, dimensional characters, and themes of humanity, grief, consequences, and mortality, The Memory of Animals not only memorized me from page one but is truly one of the most unforgettable stories that I've read in a while.
I loved so many aspects of this book but in this story, Neffy writes letters to an octopus she fell in love with called H and those were my favorite parts. I also loved how Claire incorporated a mystery in this one as well and how the ending took me by surprise(in the best way possible).
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller will be available on June 6. A massive thanks to Tin House books for the gifted copy!
The Memory of Animals is set in a dystopian future during a raging pandemic where a mysterious disease called the Dropsy virus is causing horrific side affects, the story is centered around a 27-year-old marine biologist named Neffy. Neffy volunteers for a vaccine trial in London where she and several other volunteers are then isolated from the chaotic world.
Neffy soon befriends another volunteer named Leon who created a technology that allows users to revisit their memories. Neffy revisits her childhood, a recent affair, her research with octopuses, and even the one mistake that destroyed her career. Soon the lines between the past and present begin to obscure and Neffy is left wondering whom she can trust, why she can’t forgive herself, and how she will live if she survives this pandemic.
This is my 3rd read by the author and I'm now convinced that Claire Fuller is a magician with words. She arranges them in ways that flow and pop up beautifully from the pages. With her vivid portrayals, dimensional characters, and themes of humanity, grief, consequences, and mortality, The Memory of Animals not only memorized me from page one but is truly one of the most unforgettable stories that I've read in a while.
I loved so many aspects of this book but in this story, Neffy writes letters to an octopus she fell in love with called H and those were my favorite parts. I also loved how Claire incorporated a mystery in this one as well and how the ending took me by surprise(in the best way possible).
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller will be available on June 6. A massive thanks to Tin House books for the gifted copy!
March 27, 2024
A riveting dissection of memory and what makes two living beings feel love and connection. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic catastrophe, The Memory of Animals is a haunting look at the thin line between cruelty and innovation, between reality and fantasy. It asks: what is the weight of your memories, do they define you for better or for worse? What if you could not only revisit moments from your past, but rewrite them? A provocative challenge against the status quo for scientific testing and animal captivity, this genre-bending novel is as haunting as it is beautiful, a devastatingly reflective musing on the small things in life; seeing a majestic animal in the wild, falling in love, doing a routine with a parent, how these moments are easily forgotten, but priceless, especially when they are stolen overnight. A potent and chilling novel rooted in real life concerns and prophecies.
February 11, 2023
The Memory of Animals is clearly a Claire Fuller novel right from the off. It's strange and interesting and dystopian with the accent being on relationships. It is what she does so very well.
Neffy is one of a handful of volunteers to try a vaccine that has been developed in answer to a pandemic that causes forgetfulness in the beings it attacks. However as she enters the hospital to either receive the virus and vaccine or a placebo it seems that the virus has mutated: the forgetfulness is now accompanied by brain swelling, bloating and death. No one knows how virulent it is but as Neffy comes round from being infected she realizes that she and her fellow volunteers are in a very bad predicament.
The story follows their fight to continue, make decisions as to how to survive and Neffy is given the opportunity to revisit her past.
As always with Claire Fuller's work she concentrates on human behaviour during a crisis. She seems to do this without making anyone seem inhuman or even superhuman. Everyone in the book is given choices to make about their health and their relationships.
It's certainly a new twist on a pandemic novel and the book despite the circumstances, doesn't dwell on that aspect.
Her writing is, as ever, exquisitely crafted. The story is unnerving but never over the top scary. Neffy is a fascinating character with more than her fair share of the milk of human kindness. Would that we were all that nice in a crisis.
Highly recommended to fans of Ms Fuller's work or lovers of dystopian novels or those who just enjoy a well considered, beautifully written novel.
Neffy is one of a handful of volunteers to try a vaccine that has been developed in answer to a pandemic that causes forgetfulness in the beings it attacks. However as she enters the hospital to either receive the virus and vaccine or a placebo it seems that the virus has mutated: the forgetfulness is now accompanied by brain swelling, bloating and death. No one knows how virulent it is but as Neffy comes round from being infected she realizes that she and her fellow volunteers are in a very bad predicament.
The story follows their fight to continue, make decisions as to how to survive and Neffy is given the opportunity to revisit her past.
As always with Claire Fuller's work she concentrates on human behaviour during a crisis. She seems to do this without making anyone seem inhuman or even superhuman. Everyone in the book is given choices to make about their health and their relationships.
It's certainly a new twist on a pandemic novel and the book despite the circumstances, doesn't dwell on that aspect.
Her writing is, as ever, exquisitely crafted. The story is unnerving but never over the top scary. Neffy is a fascinating character with more than her fair share of the milk of human kindness. Would that we were all that nice in a crisis.
Highly recommended to fans of Ms Fuller's work or lovers of dystopian novels or those who just enjoy a well considered, beautifully written novel.
October 29, 2023
"Does freedom win over containment, even with all its risks, including death?"
June 26, 2023
3.5, rounded up.
This is my first Fuller, although IIRC, I tried to read when it first arrived, and gave up after a few pages as it wasn't grabbing me. This had an almost immediate grabber of a beginning, and despite some longueurs here and there, kept my attention and interest - probably the most interesting book to come out of the pandemic that I've read so far. Her prose is competent but rarely stirring, but the story itself was what kept me going - as others have mentioned, somewhat reminiscent of .
Such plot is divided into three main areas: the primary one concerns the five survivors of a clinical trial for a new vaccine against a devastating global pandemic that has decimated most of humanity. Holed up inside the base clinic, our narrator, Neffy, tries to work out how to survive in a world that has changed irrevocably virtually overnight. The second strand concerns a device that facilitates a procedure called Revisiting - basically a device that lets one go and live briefly in one's memory; Neffy uses it to escape the horrors of present day - and the author as a clever means of providing her backstory. The third section are letters that Neffy has written about her experiences as an aquarist, to someone that remains a mystery till late in the book (no spoilers!).
Throughout much of the book, I was involved and carefully piecing together the clues, but the final - supposedly devastating - revelation, I thought didn't really make much of an impact - and the final ten pages both wrapped up the story too neatly and too quickly. That said, I enjoyed it enough to think about giving her back catalogue another look.
This is my first Fuller, although IIRC, I tried to read when it first arrived, and gave up after a few pages as it wasn't grabbing me. This had an almost immediate grabber of a beginning, and despite some longueurs here and there, kept my attention and interest - probably the most interesting book to come out of the pandemic that I've read so far. Her prose is competent but rarely stirring, but the story itself was what kept me going - as others have mentioned, somewhat reminiscent of .
Such plot is divided into three main areas: the primary one concerns the five survivors of a clinical trial for a new vaccine against a devastating global pandemic that has decimated most of humanity. Holed up inside the base clinic, our narrator, Neffy, tries to work out how to survive in a world that has changed irrevocably virtually overnight. The second strand concerns a device that facilitates a procedure called Revisiting - basically a device that lets one go and live briefly in one's memory; Neffy uses it to escape the horrors of present day - and the author as a clever means of providing her backstory. The third section are letters that Neffy has written about her experiences as an aquarist, to someone that remains a mystery till late in the book (no spoilers!).
Throughout much of the book, I was involved and carefully piecing together the clues, but the final - supposedly devastating - revelation, I thought didn't really make much of an impact - and the final ten pages both wrapped up the story too neatly and too quickly. That said, I enjoyed it enough to think about giving her back catalogue another look.
February 9, 2024
An unusual story of a young woman, Neffy, a marine biologist who volunteers for a vaccine trial, and is then isolated with a few others while a pandemic rages outside. This wasn't quite what I was expecting and suspension of disbelief is required, however I did enjoy it. The visits to Neffy's past were interesting, and I loved all I learned about the life of the octopus, Claire Fuller always surprises me, 3.5 stars rounded up.
July 5, 2023
Time travel but not in the usual sense. A story about a pandemic, a very deadly one, where one of the symptoms is a loss of memory.
What do we forget and what do we remember and why? There is a new type of procedure called revisiting where it is possible to go back and re-visit a memory. Not always the memory you want but a memory that turns up randomly. Almost like a dream, you watch yourself in the memory, see who you were, the people in the memory but from the vantage of the present.
The re-visits gave background glimpses of Neffy--the main character in the story. She is now in a locked ward, a volunteer for a vaccine trial for this new deadly virus. I did appreciate this part of the story and I always love Fuller's writing but I found this a quite confusing over all. For much of the first half of the book I could not quite connect to the story or the characters and especially the writing to the octopus. It took me a long time to get into and it was slow going. Wanted to love it more than I did.
P.S. The audio is only available on Audible exclusive so I read the print. I refuse to buy Audible only recordings.
What do we forget and what do we remember and why? There is a new type of procedure called revisiting where it is possible to go back and re-visit a memory. Not always the memory you want but a memory that turns up randomly. Almost like a dream, you watch yourself in the memory, see who you were, the people in the memory but from the vantage of the present.
The re-visits gave background glimpses of Neffy--the main character in the story. She is now in a locked ward, a volunteer for a vaccine trial for this new deadly virus. I did appreciate this part of the story and I always love Fuller's writing but I found this a quite confusing over all. For much of the first half of the book I could not quite connect to the story or the characters and especially the writing to the octopus. It took me a long time to get into and it was slow going. Wanted to love it more than I did.
P.S. The audio is only available on Audible exclusive so I read the print. I refuse to buy Audible only recordings.
July 30, 2023
94th book of 2023.
3.5. I don’t want to use the word ‘traumatising�, but there is one particular memory from my boyhood that occasionally returns to me, one that upset me. It’s hard to say how old I was, perhaps about twelve. I was sitting on a beach in Menorca with my dad. My mum and brother were maybe there too, though I don’t exactly recall them in the memory. In the sea, not far from us, in the shallow, a man emerged with an octopus. He gathered its tentacles, like tying someone’s hair into a ponytail, and held it like a flail. Once secured in his grip nicely, he began to beat it against a large rock beside him. The noise, a loud slapping sound, travelled across the water, the small stretch of wet sand, and into my twelve year old bones. I gripped my father with horror and asked him what he was doing. The man was killing it, probably for dinner, my dad replied. As the beating progressed (with no visible sign of resistance from the octopus � perhaps it was already dead), I became more disturbed and hysterical. I repeatedly asked my dad if he could tell the man to stop. Soon enough I was near tears, begging my dad to intervene. It must have been difficult for him, I now realise, to ignore my pleas and attempt to explain that this was just the man’s dinner, perhaps his way of making a living. Once the man was satisfied with his beating, he began wading to the shore. I can still feel the hatred I felt for him. A group of boys, locals, gathered around him, and I watched them take turns lifting the limp tentacles, prodding the body, laughing.
In Fuller’s ‘The Memory of Animals�, the narrator, Neffy, frequently writes to ‘H�. An octopus. She is Greek, and worked with octopuses before a virus ravaged the planet. ‘Dropsy�, as it was named, causes memory loss, bloating body parts and eventual death. Neffy signs up as a volunteer in a program to be given the virus to then receive and test the subsequent virus. She falls fairly ill with it and slowly recovers. When she wakes, she realises most people are dead. The doctors and nurses long fled. Only her and a few other volunteers remain in the facility, locked in from the outside world, where virus-infected people wander about with bloated faces and limbs, like zombies, not remembering who they are or what they’re doing.
I went in sceptical. I’ve read a few awful post-COVID/lockdown books already (Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, Pollard’s Delphi). And I was originally unsure about Fuller’s approach, but I found myself drawn in. There is a machine that allows you to return to your past and re-witness it. Neffy continues writing to ‘H�. Eventually, more about what has happened drips into the narrative as Neffy discovers more. The rising climax of the novel was tense and, despite my earlier reservations, had me reading with mounting anxiety. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who found our COVID years particularly challenging, or the lockdowns. For those lucky enough to spend them in quiet isolation, this is a thoughtful and mostly gripping riff off of something we once lived through.
3.5. I don’t want to use the word ‘traumatising�, but there is one particular memory from my boyhood that occasionally returns to me, one that upset me. It’s hard to say how old I was, perhaps about twelve. I was sitting on a beach in Menorca with my dad. My mum and brother were maybe there too, though I don’t exactly recall them in the memory. In the sea, not far from us, in the shallow, a man emerged with an octopus. He gathered its tentacles, like tying someone’s hair into a ponytail, and held it like a flail. Once secured in his grip nicely, he began to beat it against a large rock beside him. The noise, a loud slapping sound, travelled across the water, the small stretch of wet sand, and into my twelve year old bones. I gripped my father with horror and asked him what he was doing. The man was killing it, probably for dinner, my dad replied. As the beating progressed (with no visible sign of resistance from the octopus � perhaps it was already dead), I became more disturbed and hysterical. I repeatedly asked my dad if he could tell the man to stop. Soon enough I was near tears, begging my dad to intervene. It must have been difficult for him, I now realise, to ignore my pleas and attempt to explain that this was just the man’s dinner, perhaps his way of making a living. Once the man was satisfied with his beating, he began wading to the shore. I can still feel the hatred I felt for him. A group of boys, locals, gathered around him, and I watched them take turns lifting the limp tentacles, prodding the body, laughing.
In Fuller’s ‘The Memory of Animals�, the narrator, Neffy, frequently writes to ‘H�. An octopus. She is Greek, and worked with octopuses before a virus ravaged the planet. ‘Dropsy�, as it was named, causes memory loss, bloating body parts and eventual death. Neffy signs up as a volunteer in a program to be given the virus to then receive and test the subsequent virus. She falls fairly ill with it and slowly recovers. When she wakes, she realises most people are dead. The doctors and nurses long fled. Only her and a few other volunteers remain in the facility, locked in from the outside world, where virus-infected people wander about with bloated faces and limbs, like zombies, not remembering who they are or what they’re doing.
I went in sceptical. I’ve read a few awful post-COVID/lockdown books already (Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, Pollard’s Delphi). And I was originally unsure about Fuller’s approach, but I found myself drawn in. There is a machine that allows you to return to your past and re-witness it. Neffy continues writing to ‘H�. Eventually, more about what has happened drips into the narrative as Neffy discovers more. The rising climax of the novel was tense and, despite my earlier reservations, had me reading with mounting anxiety. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who found our COVID years particularly challenging, or the lockdowns. For those lucky enough to spend them in quiet isolation, this is a thoughtful and mostly gripping riff off of something we once lived through.
December 25, 2023
This book had such an interesting premise and vibe but I found so many things about is super frustrating. This is a pandemic novel about a woman who gets trapped in a vaccine testing facility with four other people and they have to find a way to survive. I really didn’t like that this bordered so slightly on sci-fi but none of these elements were explained or even fit into the story properly. The main character is able to travel back to the past via some sort of device one of the men in the facility has but I don’t see how he managed to bring this device in when no one was allowed to bring in alcohol/medication/food etc and they were searched upon arrival. Also just felt like there was no thematic point to this part of the plot as it just revealed parts of the narrators past that had absolutely no affect on the present whatsoever. These bits could have been entirely cut and we would have still understood the rest of the story, and it also could have been achieved through normal flashback scenes/there was no need for the weird sci-fi contraption that made no sense.
There were some parts about the main character falling in love with an octopus which just seemed completely random and also added nothing to the main story. Plus her falling in love with her step-brother which was just so unnecessary like if you’re going to have incest in a book at least go all in lol. The characters I didn’t like at all and found them very underdeveloped and the writing was very amateurish a points.
Parts I did like was the premise and the virus which was quite freaky and unexplained which worked for this book. But the rest of it was super messy and just seemed thrown together without any thought as to thematic coherence or movement. Don’t know if I will be reading more from this author from this one but it was very readable and entertaining, just expected something a little better and more intelligently crafted than what I got.
There were some parts about the main character falling in love with an octopus which just seemed completely random and also added nothing to the main story. Plus her falling in love with her step-brother which was just so unnecessary like if you’re going to have incest in a book at least go all in lol. The characters I didn’t like at all and found them very underdeveloped and the writing was very amateurish a points.
Parts I did like was the premise and the virus which was quite freaky and unexplained which worked for this book. But the rest of it was super messy and just seemed thrown together without any thought as to thematic coherence or movement. Don’t know if I will be reading more from this author from this one but it was very readable and entertaining, just expected something a little better and more intelligently crafted than what I got.
November 13, 2022
It’s a rare talent when an author spins a page-turning, topical, edge-of-your-seat story that also delivers a message of such depth and importance it resonates with the reader on an emotional level, and leaves them thinking about it for a long time afterwards. Claire Fuller’s latest novel does just this.
It’s ostensibly about a young woman, Neffy, who Volunteers in a controlled vaccine trial days before a global pandemic changes the world and her life forever. But this brilliant novel is about so much more. It makes the reader question such things as the hidden connections that bind humanity, the enduring power of love, and what the animal kingdom can teach us if we could only open our hearts. I also learned a surprising amount about octopuses (octopi?) and although I have never eaten one (to my knowledge) I definitely never will now.
A stunning novel!
It’s ostensibly about a young woman, Neffy, who Volunteers in a controlled vaccine trial days before a global pandemic changes the world and her life forever. But this brilliant novel is about so much more. It makes the reader question such things as the hidden connections that bind humanity, the enduring power of love, and what the animal kingdom can teach us if we could only open our hearts. I also learned a surprising amount about octopuses (octopi?) and although I have never eaten one (to my knowledge) I definitely never will now.
A stunning novel!
August 28, 2023
An interesting ending to a strange and super hard to recommend book. At times it reminded me of Severance, but also way more speculative? Also what is it with all these books about octopi?
May 4, 2023
Sadly, this novel didn't work for me.
Claire Fuller is a great writer but The Memory of Animals, her fifth novel, felt to me like two different books mashed into one: on the one hand, a dystopian, pandemic, survivalist thriller about a group of young people on a vaccine trial, and a second book about a marine biologist obsessed with octopuses and her late father.
The two strands didn't gel together well, neither fitting neatly in with the other and the literary device used to merge the two stories, namely the Revisitor (a futuristic piece of technology designed to help the user revisit old memories) was rather clunky and awkwardly executed. The epistolary sections (letters addressed by Neffy to H, an octopus) were factual and interesting but a square peg in a round hole, in terms of their fit within the wider novel.
The first and final sections of the book were easily the most gripping - there's a 28 Days Later vibe to the last section in particular. The pacing in the middle section was incredibly slow, with a lot of time devoted to characters who I felt were ultimately not all that well realised (Leon, Yamiko, Rachel, Piper were all a little bland and interchangeable). The urgency of the final section redeemed the novel somewhat as does the lovely writing but I can't say that this is a book I'd readily recommend regrettably. 2.5/5 stars
*Many thanks to the author, the publisher @vikingbooks @penguinukbooks for the arc via @netgalley. The Memory of Animals was published on 20 April 2023. As always, this is an honest review.*
Claire Fuller is a great writer but The Memory of Animals, her fifth novel, felt to me like two different books mashed into one: on the one hand, a dystopian, pandemic, survivalist thriller about a group of young people on a vaccine trial, and a second book about a marine biologist obsessed with octopuses and her late father.
The two strands didn't gel together well, neither fitting neatly in with the other and the literary device used to merge the two stories, namely the Revisitor (a futuristic piece of technology designed to help the user revisit old memories) was rather clunky and awkwardly executed. The epistolary sections (letters addressed by Neffy to H, an octopus) were factual and interesting but a square peg in a round hole, in terms of their fit within the wider novel.
The first and final sections of the book were easily the most gripping - there's a 28 Days Later vibe to the last section in particular. The pacing in the middle section was incredibly slow, with a lot of time devoted to characters who I felt were ultimately not all that well realised (Leon, Yamiko, Rachel, Piper were all a little bland and interchangeable). The urgency of the final section redeemed the novel somewhat as does the lovely writing but I can't say that this is a book I'd readily recommend regrettably. 2.5/5 stars
*Many thanks to the author, the publisher @vikingbooks @penguinukbooks for the arc via @netgalley. The Memory of Animals was published on 20 April 2023. As always, this is an honest review.*
December 31, 2023
Okay I keep thinking about this book�. Love it
July 24, 2023
I am not a huge fan of books that touch on the Covid pandemic, so I was pretty hesitant to read The Memory of Animals. Thankfully, TMOA did a pandemic twist where it wasn't Covid-y which was nice in a very weird way. I was able to distance myself from this kind of pandemic where it wasn't triggering or brought up yucky feelings from our own experiences from the last few years.
TMOA was a character study kind of book of humans during a crisis! These 5 volunteers are left over after the pandemic takes over and everyone from the hospital has left. One of the volunteers, and our leading lady, Neffy is the only one from the group that had the vaccine and survived. It was such a wild ride because one of the characters, Leon, has a memory tool device that let's people "revisit" memories from their past and it feels very real life. He tried it on everyone else but it didn't work until he tried it on Neffy. There are past and present moments from what's happening in the hospital with the volunteers and Neffy's memories from this "device thing."
The memory device was an oddly placed piece of the story. I think the story would have been stronger for me if we just had reflections and memories from Neffy as she was going through this hard experience rather than this "memory device."
It was a fascinating read! Might be a good one to chat with a book club about if they can handle a pandemic storyline. While there wasn't anything in there that made me uncomfortable, there were difficult moments for sure because of how grave and almost dystopian/post apocalyptic it felt.
TMOA was a character study kind of book of humans during a crisis! These 5 volunteers are left over after the pandemic takes over and everyone from the hospital has left. One of the volunteers, and our leading lady, Neffy is the only one from the group that had the vaccine and survived. It was such a wild ride because one of the characters, Leon, has a memory tool device that let's people "revisit" memories from their past and it feels very real life. He tried it on everyone else but it didn't work until he tried it on Neffy. There are past and present moments from what's happening in the hospital with the volunteers and Neffy's memories from this "device thing."
The memory device was an oddly placed piece of the story. I think the story would have been stronger for me if we just had reflections and memories from Neffy as she was going through this hard experience rather than this "memory device."
It was a fascinating read! Might be a good one to chat with a book club about if they can handle a pandemic storyline. While there wasn't anything in there that made me uncomfortable, there were difficult moments for sure because of how grave and almost dystopian/post apocalyptic it felt.
April 20, 2023
Read this in one sitting as I just couldn't put it down! I have been a fan of Fuller's writing for many years and this latest offering The Memory of Animals is just as much of a treat. This is my favourite type of dystopian fiction where the bleak, dark ravaged world is blended with an exploration of the beauty of what it means to be human. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion in this novel about animal rights, freedom of choice about how we live and die, and confinement both of people and animals and how similar the two situations are despite the way we tend to believe they're somehow different. The writing is vivid and moving, and the compelling plot keeps you engaged from start to finish. The kind of book that will stay with me for a long time after finishing it.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.
September 4, 2023
Neffy is a young woman trying to cope with the recent death of her father and also the loss of her career at an aquarium due to her actions, which has left her seriously in debt. So, when the opportunity comes to earn a substantial sum of money by volunteering to participate in a vaccine trial, she leaps at the chance to do so, despite opposition from her family. She arrives at the private facility in London just as a new and deadlier strain of the virus is reaching pandemic levels - and soon the streets of London go quiet outside the facility where she is undertaking the trial. Having recovered from the virus she has been injected with, Neffy and four other surviving volunteers - Piper, Rachel, Leon and Yahiko - try to cope with their isolation, wondering whether they will be 'rescued' at the end of the trial....
This is yet another excellent book from this author - very different from earlier ones of hers that I have read, but with the same attention to characterisation with which I have become familiar. It is an interesting concept that, rather than Neffy having 'flashbacks' to events from her past, she actually ends up 'reliving' certain events through the use of an innovative machine that has been invented by Leon known as The Revisitor - which enables users to enter a trance-like state and return to happy events from their past. Quite a good, even though not totally conclusive, ending but which was right in the context of the book. Also learned a great deal about the octopus, which was Nelly's 'specialism'! - 8.5/10.
This is yet another excellent book from this author - very different from earlier ones of hers that I have read, but with the same attention to characterisation with which I have become familiar. It is an interesting concept that, rather than Neffy having 'flashbacks' to events from her past, she actually ends up 'reliving' certain events through the use of an innovative machine that has been invented by Leon known as The Revisitor - which enables users to enter a trance-like state and return to happy events from their past. Quite a good, even though not totally conclusive, ending but which was right in the context of the book. Also learned a great deal about the octopus, which was Nelly's 'specialism'! - 8.5/10.
January 7, 2023
I was excited to receive an advance copy of Claire Fullers new novel, which is due out in April. Fuller won the Costa Novel award in 2021 for her previous novel 𝘜𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, a book I loved so my expectations were high. �
�
This book sits firmly in the genre of dystopian pandemic fiction. Set in London, Neffy is part of a small group of volunteers taking part in a clinical vaccine trial. A fatal variant of a virus is spreading rapidly. Neffy is injected with the virus and is the only participant to have immunity. Meanwhile the hospital and city have been abandoned as the pandemic kills thousands. One of the other patients has a prototype of a memory machine which allows the user to “revisit� memories from their past. Neffy regularly revisits her earlier life where the reader learns more about her life and family. The book is also interspersed with letters from Neffy (who is an aquarist) to an octopus. Yes, stay with me!�
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This book just didn’t work for me. There were far too many strands which did not coalesce and the structure of the book suffered as a result. I found the octopus letters gimmicky and baffling. Why? The whole balance of the book was just “off�. The middle sections were pedestrian and lacked the suspense and tension you would expect from a dystopian book. I struggled to decipher the message of the book, amongst all that was going on. What can animals teach us? Analysing the dark side of humanity à la 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴? The power of memory? �
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This book has been well received so far and I’m certainly an outlier with my review, so please read it and make up your own mind. While I did learn a lot about the lifecycle of the octopus, I just did not like this book enough. �
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Many thanks to @netgalley and @vikingbooksuk for this advance copy. �
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This book sits firmly in the genre of dystopian pandemic fiction. Set in London, Neffy is part of a small group of volunteers taking part in a clinical vaccine trial. A fatal variant of a virus is spreading rapidly. Neffy is injected with the virus and is the only participant to have immunity. Meanwhile the hospital and city have been abandoned as the pandemic kills thousands. One of the other patients has a prototype of a memory machine which allows the user to “revisit� memories from their past. Neffy regularly revisits her earlier life where the reader learns more about her life and family. The book is also interspersed with letters from Neffy (who is an aquarist) to an octopus. Yes, stay with me!�
�
This book just didn’t work for me. There were far too many strands which did not coalesce and the structure of the book suffered as a result. I found the octopus letters gimmicky and baffling. Why? The whole balance of the book was just “off�. The middle sections were pedestrian and lacked the suspense and tension you would expect from a dystopian book. I struggled to decipher the message of the book, amongst all that was going on. What can animals teach us? Analysing the dark side of humanity à la 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴? The power of memory? �
�
This book has been well received so far and I’m certainly an outlier with my review, so please read it and make up your own mind. While I did learn a lot about the lifecycle of the octopus, I just did not like this book enough. �
�
Many thanks to @netgalley and @vikingbooksuk for this advance copy. �
�
June 3, 2023
With five absorbing novels published in eight years, Fuller has rapidly become one of the essential voices in contemporary literary fiction. This begins in a familiar mid-pandemic landscape but takes on additional facets as the protagonist relives episodes from her past and ponders the compassion owed to animals and humanity. Neffy has nothing to lose when she enrols in a controversial vaccine trial in London. The novel is presented as her journal, with chapters labelled Day Zero, Day One, and so on. The bulk of it takes place in the two weeks she spends on a locked unit with four fellow test subjects: Leon, Piper, Rachel, and Yahiko. In the meantime, Leon has introduced her to an experimental technology he was working on before the trial: the Revisitor allows one to reinhabit a memory.
The characterisation of the four other cast members is somewhat thin. The elements feel randomly assembled, but together they do make up the psychological background to Neffy’s decision making. The world-building and tech are unlikely to stand up to science fiction fans� scrutiny, but it has just the right dose of the speculative for literary fiction readers. It also happens to fit into a recent vogue for octopus novels. Whatever she may write about next, Claire Fuller is here to stay.
See my full review at .
The characterisation of the four other cast members is somewhat thin. The elements feel randomly assembled, but together they do make up the psychological background to Neffy’s decision making. The world-building and tech are unlikely to stand up to science fiction fans� scrutiny, but it has just the right dose of the speculative for literary fiction readers. It also happens to fit into a recent vogue for octopus novels. Whatever she may write about next, Claire Fuller is here to stay.
See my full review at .
March 3, 2024
Interesting plot based upon a pandemic similar to the covid19 outbreak where volunteers are tested for vaccine trials. Enjoyed some of the novel
December 22, 2022
Having finished this book I have left it a few days, hoping that my views would settle and crystallise. I am still slightly baffled - the plotline is serviceable; pandemic, vaccine trial, mystery over what is happening in the ward. Then there is the 'Revisiting', a sort of time travel, which as the patients are all cooped up watching the end of the world through their windows, one can forgive a few wandering minds to happier times. Then it gets really weird - letters to an octopus. It wasn't clear if these were letters that had been written before the pandemic, or whilst Neffy is in the ward, or why - did the octopus ever write back?!
Maybe the book is just too clever for me, maybe I am over pandemic literature, maybe I am sceptical about octopus penpals - I did finish it but am left with a sense of hmmm.
Maybe the book is just too clever for me, maybe I am over pandemic literature, maybe I am sceptical about octopus penpals - I did finish it but am left with a sense of hmmm.
May 14, 2023
I really ‘liked� this dystopian novel, which I read rather quickly and obsessively. To me it was more than just another book about a pandemic. It was all about friendship, family, love, freedom, rights, choice, memories, life, and sadly also death. The ending disappointed me a bit though.
Thank you Fig Tree and Netgalley UK for the ARC.
Thank you Fig Tree and Netgalley UK for the ARC.
April 25, 2025
Following the world of lockdowns and the Covid pandemic and the success of Unsettled Ground ,Claire Fuller returns with a new novel that takes a look at a world where a pandemic has cast a much darker shadow across the planet. Neffy, a marine biologist, signs up to be part of a vaccine trial for the � Dropsy virus� only to awaken from an adverse reaction to find a new world where she and four other people in the trial are alone in a world where food and communication is diminishing and millions have died.
The four hold a secret but Neffy cannot determine what it is. Is it safer inside or outside the clinical trial building? Whilst within the clinic, Neffy takes up the opportunity to use a device that enables her to regress and explore previous events in her life and it is through this we learn of past events ; visiting Greece where her father lives , the distant relationship with her mother and subsequent relationship with her step brother .It is the letters to H and the exploration of her work exploring the world of the Octopus and the captivity of these creatures that is the most fascinating juxtaposing the limited freedom of the five vaccine trial volunteers and the human entrapment and study of the cephalopods.v
This is an intriguing novel and as much as it feels bleak in relation to recent events ( it may prove too heavy at this point in time to many readers) there is no denying Claire Fuller’s exploration of the human condition when pushed to the limit and for survival . It is the character of Neffy that is the book’s strength ; her compassion and vulnerability is beautifully described but ultimately her strength to survive and her love for the octopus is what brings the heart to this dystopian novel
Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy
The four hold a secret but Neffy cannot determine what it is. Is it safer inside or outside the clinical trial building? Whilst within the clinic, Neffy takes up the opportunity to use a device that enables her to regress and explore previous events in her life and it is through this we learn of past events ; visiting Greece where her father lives , the distant relationship with her mother and subsequent relationship with her step brother .It is the letters to H and the exploration of her work exploring the world of the Octopus and the captivity of these creatures that is the most fascinating juxtaposing the limited freedom of the five vaccine trial volunteers and the human entrapment and study of the cephalopods.v
This is an intriguing novel and as much as it feels bleak in relation to recent events ( it may prove too heavy at this point in time to many readers) there is no denying Claire Fuller’s exploration of the human condition when pushed to the limit and for survival . It is the character of Neffy that is the book’s strength ; her compassion and vulnerability is beautifully described but ultimately her strength to survive and her love for the octopus is what brings the heart to this dystopian novel
Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy
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