by Claire Fuller
Claire Fuller’s writing style made me love Unsettled Ground and now that I’ve read another novel of hers, The Memory of Animals, she has absolutely become one of my favourite writers. The Memory of Animals is a “Pandemic” dystopian story. A new virus has arrived and Netty, our main character, volunteers to be a test subject for a new vaccine. Netty brings with her all sorts of baggage: unresolved family issues, she’s had to take a forced hiatus from her career as a marine biologist because she “liberated” a captive octopus with whom she has an oddly close relationship, and she’s not sure how she feels about her current boyfriend.
While in a state of delirium (having been both infected with the virus and injected with a test vaccine) the world literally goes to hell in a handcart. New variants evolve causing mass death of the citizens and crime runs supreme. In the meantime, a select few individuals, all volunteer test subjects, have been abandoned but safely secluded in a medical facility while the world collapses around them. Along with Neffy are Rachel, Yahiko, Leon and Piper. This crew needs to work together, first of all, to survive in a world that is vastly different from the one they had known before, which isn’t easy for the obvious reasons, but also because they each possess secrets that could disrupt their fragile little community.
To make matters even more complicated, they possess an object, an object called a “Revisiter” that when used, can immerse an individual so vividly in past memories they feel as if they are there.
I loved Neffy’s character arc. She starts off as an insecure young woman who, at the beginning of the novel, seems to only volunteer as a test subject in an attempt to escape her reality rather than for selflessly participating in an attempt to find a cure. Her obsession with the Revisitor with an attempt to again avoid her reality also supports this need of her’s to escape when life gets difficult. As we progress through the action, Neffy becomes a strong, selfless, rather heroic character, who faces her reality straight on and begins to make decisions and take control in order to not only survive but to also make a little world that is worthy of living in.
So far Fuller is two for two when it comes to my appreciation for her writing. I will be looking to add more titles of hers to my TBR list in the future.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tin House for the Advanced Copy
Ink And Spine 