THE MEMORY INDEX

A plague that distorts memory shifts the ways of the world.

It’s 1987, and it’s been almost a decade since Memory Killer swept the globe, fundamentally changing the way society operates due to its ability to leave large swaths of people without access to their own memories. Some, like foster kid Freya Izquierdo, are labeled degenerates due to their need to rely on artificial recall technology to fill in for the missing halves of their memories. Others are luckier, like ever curious Fletcher Cohen, who is a recollector—someone who only accesses artificial recall once a day to function. When Freya is invited to be a guinea pig for a new treatment at Tennessee boarding school Foxtail Academy as an alternative to getting sent to jail for trespassing as she investigated her father’s death, she has no choice but to accept. Freya finds there’s much more than meets the eye at her new school, and she joins forces with newfound friends Fletcher, Chase Hall, and Hoa “Ollie” Trang to unravel a corporate conspiracy unfolding on campus. This central mystery is fun and engaging, evoking the spirit of ’80s action/adventure movies, and the characters are intriguing, their personal development nearly as compelling as the main storyline. Freya is Mexican American, Ollie is Vietnamese American, and Chase and Fletcher read White.

Thrilling worldbuilding plus a creative tangle of mysteries mark this debut.