the memory hunters by mia tsai
that's always part of the wonder of the museum to key, that the presence of people can change the living quality of the space, as if the museum's personality depends on who is in it at any given time.
if you're expecting a coherent review of the memory hunters by mia tsai, don't. yes, this may be the first official book review I'm posting on my blog, but if you think that'll stop me from being chaotic and unintelligible, well, THINK AGAIN. this chaotic and slightly unintelligible review can only match the energy of the book, which was similarly filled with lots of interesting pieces that didn't quite fit together in the end.
inside the memory hunters, there's sapphic romance (that I only bought into because I was supposed to), yearning (because, annoyingly, everyone's in a relationship with what is obviously the wrong person), mushrooms (to be honest, I was hoping for more), academia, indiana jones vibes (sort of), museum ethics, and betrayal you can see coming from a mile away.
I picked up this book because I was intrigued primarily by the promise of museum ethics (which we'll get to later) but also by the presence of mycology, having taken professor hudler's "magical mushrooms and mischievous molds" class in college – but the mushrooms were really just a means to an end, which was disappointing.
okay maybe I should try to fashion a summary of the book before I go on.
the main character, kiana "key" strade, is a memory hunter – she collects memories from historical sites by dipping tabs into blood chalice mushrooms and dropping them on her tongue, which connects her to a mycelial network of memories that she can "dive into." she brings these memories back to the museum of human memory for archival purposes... but one day, she discovers a curious memory that for some reason everyone keeps trying to convince her means nothing. being privileged & entitled & uniquely connected to ~the ancestors~, she refuses to take no for an answer, which creates a whole new host of problems that embroil herself and her bodyguard/crush, vale, and form the meat of our plot. key (and vale) have to decide if they're going to keep playing along, holding onto the secret and remaining complicit in it, or if they're going to risk everything they have for "the truth."
I think the premise of this book, which questions the ethics of museum acquisitions and the integrity of historic preservation, is super interesting. like, who gets to claim ownership over history? is it the person who "discovered" it and deigned to give it a platform? is it the descendants? who gets access to the past?
is it thievery if the house you are taking from is empty? Is it robbing if the people have abandoned their homes?
there's also maybe a question in here about "truth" and whether exposing it is necessary when the untruth has already created a world and a culture that no one wants to disentangle from..., as well as a thought about institutions (which, in this book, includes both the museum and the temple) and what it takes to overcome them – how the institution (both museum and temple) will always protect itself, and do whatever it takes to win, and whether violence is a necessary tool in its dethroning…
like I said, it's a really intriguing premise. but the problem is that the good stuff doesn't show up until halfway through the book, and the author is juggling so many other plot threads that none of them get developed or resolved in a satisfying kind of way. the worldbuilding is too meager for any of these big reveals to have any sort of contextual significance to the reader. I mean, even after all is said and done, I still feel like I don't know any of the characters in this book, and that the most interesting ones (jing, cal, genevieve, burdock) are those with the least screentime.
the memory hunters is a really compelling thesis that ends on a question mark, when what I want is a conclusion. the book's synopsis leaves the reader wondering whether key & vale are going to "remain complicit or jeopardize it all for truth", and in the end I feel like they haven't exactly remained complicit, and yet the truth hasn't really changed anything either. maybe that's true to life... but what I wanted is to see them either destroy the institution, or cave to it – not to find themselves on the outskirts seeking a middle ground. but I don't know! maybe that's how change really happens!
this book is meant to be the first in a duology so we'll see, if & when that comes out, whether I want to keep reading and whether my lingering questions will be answered. I will say, I think mia tsai is quite daring in the stories she writes – she doesn't really pander to the trends, her books always have a point of view on something, and that alone is refreshing, even if it makes her less popular. I think readers of r. f. kuang's books would enjoy mia tsai. I don't think she's made it to that level of mainstream yet, but I'm convinced there's some kind of venn diagram there.
anyway, so that's the review. first one down! as a parting thought, I will include this blurb from p. h. low, which I feel captures the aspirations of the book nicely: "the memory hunters is at once feral and tender, fierce and full of yearning. it's a piercing examination of the ways museums uphold dominant narratives, of the violence of curation and the preciousness of land and lineage – all shot through with heart-pounding fight scenes and pure, undiluted sapphic angst. absolutely devastating." devastating! well, there you have it.