The memory index
(Book - Regular Print)

Includes discussion questions.

"In a gripping and stunning coming-of-age novel, Julian R. Vaca reimagines a 1987 world where memories are as valuable as gold. In a reimagined 1987, mankind's ability to remember has deteriorated. To fight memory loss, men and women rely on artificial recall by storing memories on tapes and playing them back. Society's elite, dubbed recollectors, are able to retain "three-quarter memories" on their own-and they make the rules. Seventeen-year-old orphan Freya Latimore doesn't have time for rules. School and responsibilities take a backseat in her life as she tirelessly works to assemble the gear she needs to become a documentary filmmaker. It's a dying profession in Freya's world, but it could enable her to uncover the truth about her father's mysterious death. Fernando Ortiz couldn't care less about his trust fund or his posh, cushiony life. He just wants to get through his senior year of high school so he can leave home, ride his motorcycle up the Pacific Coast Highway, and "find himself." But his father-a career politician-carries dark secrets that may prove impossible to outrun. Freya and Fernando's lives are both upended when the founder of Memory Frontier, a billion-dollar corporation, announces the forthcoming release of groundbreaking medical technology that will forever change artificial recall. Five hundred randomly selected students will be sent to a prestigious boarding school, where they will trial the new medical technology in pursuit of a "better tomorrow." But when students disappear in the night under the watch of the school's ruthless, militaristic dean, Freya and Fernando begin to question everything-including all they've come to believe about memory loss." --,Provided by publisher.