Review: The Memory of Animals

4/5 stars

The Memory of Animals, by Claire Fuller (2023)

I'm always surprised when a post-apocalyptic novel surprises me. There are so many ways to do and say and show the same things that others have already done and said and shown. The Memory of Animals doesn't escape all of this sort of repetition, but it is a unique take on the story.

The main character is Neffy (Nefeli), a former marine biologist specializing in octopuses, who was let go and is now disgraced and strapped for cash. She enrolls in a drug trial for a COVID-esque pandemic that has swept the globe. The virus, known colloquially as "dropsy," is bad, but not catastrophic. But just as Neffy is entering into isolation for the trial, there are rumors of a mutation causing memory loss, sensory damage causing hallucinations, and inevitable death. There's still hope that a vaccine could quell the surge.

Neffy, alone in her room, is given the virus, and becomes violently ill for many days. She remembers only fragments from the time she is sick - yelling in the hallways, the nurse saying that "unforeseen circumstances" mean she (the nurse) has to leave. When finally Neffy wakes, it is to find that all of the staff have left the unit, leaving only herself and four other volunteers (those who agreed to the trial) - Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper. The outside world is completely decimated, and they suspect they may be the only ones left alive. On top of that, of the five people left in the medical unit, only Neffy was given the vaccine and survived, meaning she alone is, potentially, now immune.

Interspersed in the narrative are chapters that take us back to before the pandemic - Neffy's parents and boyfriend, and her beloved job with octopuses. But how we go back in time is the interesting part - because Leon has a nifty new piece of technology that he helped develop, which never made it onto the market. Called a "revisitor," it allows the user to step into the past like it's virtual reality, and Neffy begins spending more and more time in her memories, avoiding not only the horrors of their new reality, but the petty squabbles and the secret-keeping of her fellow "inmates."

What I really liked about this novel is the relationships between the characters, and how each of their survival instincts can clash with the others'. It's a story not just about what it truly means to be human, but what it means to be humane. What do we owe one another? How do we treat each other when all the chips are down? What freedoms and what responsibilities are intrinsic to the human condition?

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UP NEXT: The Everlasting, by Alix Harrow