Tabula Rasa by Kristen Lippert-Martin
Amazon | Goodreads | TBD
352 pages
Expected publication: September 23rd 2014 by Egmont USA
Source: ARC in exchange for review via Edelweiss; thanks to Egmont USA
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
From Goodreads:
The Bourne Identity meets Divergent in this heart-pounding debut. Sixteen-year-old Sarah has a rare chance at a new life. Or so the doctors tell her. She’s been undergoing a cutting-edge procedure that will render her a tabula rasa—a blank slate. Memory by memory her troubled past is being taken away. But when her final surgery is interrupted and a team of elite soldiers invades the isolated hospital under cover of a massive blizzard, her fresh start could be her end. Navigating familiar halls that have become a dangerous maze with the help of a teen computer hacker who’s trying to bring the hospital down for his own reasons, Sarah starts to piece together who she is and why someone would want her erased. And she won’t be silenced again. A high-stakes thriller featuring a non-stop race for survival and a smart heroine who will risk everything, Tabula Rasa is, in short, unforgettable.
I have procrastinated while trying to write this review for a long time. Not hours, or days, or even weeks. Months. Because we all know this as a basic truth: The hardest books to review are those “I liked it” books. You don’t have a lot of negatives, but you aren’t exactly drowning in positives either.
Actually, during a pretty significant portion of the book, I even really liked it. Sarah wasn’t a character that I felt a particular connection to, but I liked her enough. And really, since she was supposed to be confused and not remember anything, I didn’t really think I would feel terribly connected to her when she wasn’t even connected with herself. I also enjoyed her interaction with Thomas. I found him to be a fun accomplice, and their interaction was cute.
I also enjoyed the aspect of trying to run, hide, and eventually, discover secrets in the midst of this huge blizzard, while being chased by a plethora of bad actors. Sarah starts to get pieces of her memory back bit by bit, but time and the odds are not on their side as they search for both answers and medicine for Sarah. They run into a varied cast of characters, some who were especially enjoyable and some who presented them with even more problems. In short, for most of the book, I was unable to put it down. It was quite the page turner. Even the actual end of the book was fine.
So what’s the problem? The resolution of the plot. It seemed so anticlimactic. There is such a buildup to who Sarah is, why she is in this situation, who is in charge of the memory erasing, and a whole host of other questions throughout the book. When the end nears, the answers are basically just dumped at the reader’s feet. And in truth, the answers were nowhere near as intriguing as the book had led me to believe or hope.
Bottom Line: It was a quick and fun book with some entertaining characters and high stakes, and I am glad I had the chance to read it. I just felt that it would have been much more memorable with a stronger resolution.
I leave you with two questions, one deep and one… not deep at all:
1. Given the option, is there any circumstance for which you’d want your mind erased? My answer is no. It seems like it would defeat the purpose of having human experiences, no? For better or worse, they make us us.
2. What is the longest you’ve ever put off writing a review? I think my answer is pretty easy to figure out 😉
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Seriously, I didn’t like this one at all. I tried, I did. It started off really great and I thought I’d like it and then…nope. Couldn’t connect to her, but like you said, with ones and characters like this, I don’t think you’re supposed to either, and it’s hard to do it that way. But still, with others I’ve gotten a sense of the character, and couldn’t with her. The plot and “twist” were the worst parts for me, I didn’t get it all. I mean, the whole thing was because of Hodges and where was the motive? It was flimsy at least, and she sounded like a twelve year old having a tantrum most of the time. Grrr, I did have high hopes for it, should’ve known really, since I haven’t like an Egmont book for ages. 🙁 Glad you enjoyed it more than me though!
I could see the appeal of having your mind erased, especially when it comes to certain things that have happened in your life, but exactly, it makes you who you are, different from before whatever happened. So yeah, I wouldn’t either.
Uhm, I usually write mine straight after or the next day (I have terrible memory- so easier that way) but I’ve left one around 3 days, and then there was a time where I started one, forget I never finished it, went to schedule the post and realise I only had half a review, which I started like a month ago. :/ I will never do that again, haha.
I really did like a good bit of it. The end was just… ugh. And the more I thought about it, the less appealing it was, but I decided to stick with my original thoughts instead of trying to basically re-read it.
And it’s funny, I am doing a review right now from a book I finished last night. Um, SO much easier! I should do this every time!
I totally understand procrastinating writing a review.Sounds like this book was entertaining at least. I think I’ll add it to my maybe list. It’s too bad that the author didn’t have a cooler ending or know how to write it better though. 1. I would NEVER have any part of my memory erased, because even the terrible things make me who I am. and 2. I’ve put it off for a few weeks, maybe a month. (I’m setting my record right now so it will likely get longer)
It was entertaining, but it could have been SO good. That was the frustrating part! Plus, it is hard to talk about why you didn’t like a book when what you didn’t like is the ending because… I can’t tell you the ending!
I actually have to agree with Kirsty-Marie on this one. I tried so hard to like this one, but I didn’t. Not even the slightest. It did start pretty good, but it just wen’t downhill from there, and I ended up not liking the book. I hate not knowing anything all the time. There were so many questions, and it just frustrated me to no end that we weren’t given almost no informations, and then you find out everything in one chapter.
What I also didn’t like is the romance, or better said insta-romance. They fell in love in just 3 days. I mean what even??
I must admit, I DID like not knowing stuff. That was the fun of it for me. BUT the problem was that I was hoping to find the stuff out in a big way, and be shocked or something. But I just… wasn’t.
I also kind of liked the romance 😉 But I really liked Thomas, so maybe that is why!
Also, if I read this book TODAY, I may have rated it lower, because I have read a lot of good books since then, but I wasn’t re-reading, so I just went with how I felt at the time, it felt more authentic that way. And I did enjoy parts of it quite a bit. Just not how it all came to light/how anticlimactic it was. But I COMPLETELY get where you are coming from. Sadly, I don’t think this is going to be a much loved book.