Book Review Wednesday: The Memo by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling

Sometimes I read a book summary that knocks my socks off so much that I'm utterly speechless. It's so unique, so unheard of and so strange that it immediately gets added to my TBR. It's not a bad thing, when I come across a book that throws me for a loop, it's definitely a good thing because I love reading something that is unique.

That's exactly what happened when I read the summary for The Memo by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling. I was browsing NetGalley when the cover caught my eye; then once I read the summary, I was sold. I was over the moon when I got approved for the ARC and once I read the story, I was even more grateful.

The Memo is a book that makes you think, it makes you consider your life's purpose, journey and what fate means. It was incredibly interesting, captivating and aside from making me question everything in life, it was a really fun story that kept you on your toes until the last moment. 

Publisher's Summary

Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s—and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices?

Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn’t the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did?

As it turns out, she didn’t!

When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number.

“Jenny Green: please collect your memo.”

Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success.

The first time around, Jenny didn’t receive hers. Now, she’s being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price?

My Thoughts

Imagine if you received a text message every time you were going to make a big choice? A text that would tell you to make the right move to give you everything you ever wanted? Would you take that chance? Would you want to have the ideal life if it meant never having free will?

That's exactly what The Memo deals with and it's fascinating...and my answer changed every single chapter. 

Jenny Green never got her Memo, but her friends did and now she's paying the price. Her best friends are living life to the fullest with fame and money, while Jenny is in a dead end job, with a horrible boyfriend and no confidence in herself. When she does get the chance for a do over and gets to change everything bad in her life, is it everything she hoped for?

It sure seems like it! We see the journey Jenny takes through her do overs and life looks good. She is achieving the success she wants but then, the Memos take a turn and everything is not as it seemed. Jenny gets ahead of herself, her free will is fighting for it's life to do what she knows is right versus what she's being told.

Jenny has to make a decision -- does she want her dreams to come true or does she want the people in her life to stick around? It becomes very obvious that she cannot have both and you are truly on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens. 

I was definitely annoyed throughout the book because I so desperately wanted Jenny to just accept the Memos -- she had everything she had ever wanted but the closer she got to finishing her do overs, it was clear that it wasn't what she expected and I sympathized with her struggle.

I didn't particularly love Jenny, nor did I like any of the characters in the book, but I think unlikable characters make the world go round so I'm fine with it.

The Memo wasn't necessarily an easy read, it made you think and consider what you would do in Jenny's situation and there was weirdly some sci-fi stuff included which made the Memo possible, that was hard to grasp. That being said, I still loved the book because I'd never read anything like it before. It was rom-com, literary fiction and sci-fi wrapped into one neat little package which was delightful from beginning to end.

xoxo
B