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The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

by Kim Edwards
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (35):
  • First Published:
  • Jun 1, 2005, 416 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2006, 432 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 5 of 5
There are currently 36 reader reviews for The Memory Keeper's Daughter
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Les

saccharin laden
Edwards was clearly a high distinction creative writing student who was noted for her ability to use adjectives – not her ability to tell a story. “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” is an exercise in the unbearable overuse of saccharin laden reflections and descriptions. Instead of getting on with the story Edwards creates a world that is largely “soft” and contains events that regularly occurred when the bees buzzed in the sycamores. Give me a break! If ever a novel needed a good editor this is it.
Laura

the bottom three
The premise of this book was intriguing; the execution was dreadful. The best part of this book was the appropriate picture on the cover. The sentence structure is atrocious. It isn't just confusing; it is crazy. At first I overlooked the inconsistencies in the plot but by page 65, I just gave up trying to follow who was where when because that would change in the next paragraph or the next page.

An example: On their first anniversary, Paul is at his aunt's house to spend the night but later that same evening, David and Norah go upstairs and look at him sleeping in his crib. Another example is Paul's run from home: she says he ran 10 blocks and then when he is at the police station, she says he stole the car 3 blocks from home. Did he turn around? The entire book is like this.

What orchestra has a guitar as one of the instruments? None that I have ever seen. Why didn't he play a violin or some other appropriate orchestral instrument?

Her overuse and misuse of colons is incredible. Most of those could be eliminated by better sentence structure. I could not believe I read "sight" when Caroline visited the accident "site."

I have read hundreds of novels. This one is one of the three worst ones I ever read.
Peggy D

Emotionless
The book should have been powerful! A great story, but the characters were emotionless. I gave it a B-. The correct spelling of the disease, the highlight of the book, is Down Syndrome, not Down's Syndrome. A hearty disappointment.
Paige

Hmm
I'm fourteen years old, and yet I still enjoyed this book every much. Now I'm not a big fan of books but to see the children growing up, and everything that happened in life, was truly memorizing. I'm looking forward to read some more of her books.

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