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    The Weight of Memory
    The Weight of Memory
    The Weight of Memory
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Weight of Memory

    Written by Shawn Smucker

    Narrated by Pete Bradbury

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    When Paul Elias receives a terminal diagnosis, he leaves his physician's office in a fog. Only one thing is clear to him: if he is going to die, he must find someone to watch over his granddaughter, Pearl, who has been in his charge since her drugaddicted father disappeared. Paul decides to take her back to Nysa—both the place where he grew up and the place where he lost his beloved wife under strange circumstances forty years earlier.

    But when he picks up Pearl from school, the little girl already seems to know of his plans, claiming a woman told her.

    In Nysa, Paul reconnects with an old friend but is not prepared for the onslaught of memory. And when Pearl starts vanishing at night and returning with increasingly bizarre tales, Paul begins to question her sanity, his own views on death, and the nature of reality itself.

    In this suspenseful and introspective story from award-winning author Shawn Smucker, the past and the present mingle like opposing breezes, teasing out the truth about life, death, and sacrifice.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 6, 2021
    ISBN9781705029619

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    Reviews for The Weight of Memory

    3.5/5

    27 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I won this book as part of a Library Thing giveaway.I don't usually go for books that are marked religion but I found the premise to be intriguing so I gave it a shot and I am glad I did. There is not really a religious feel to this book but there is definitely a supernatural one.I don't review with spoilers nor will I be giving my version of 'Cliff Notes' I will say that this is a touching story about love and forgiveness. It's about remembering what is important and that we don't know everything that happens in this world.Some of this book is really frustrating while other parts just make you feel downright cheated but overall I enjoyed this book.
    • 2/5
      This one failed to grab me. Light From Distant Stars was incredible. This one not so much. The tense of it constantly threw me off, very hard to get any traction with it. Superb story but it just left me looking in the wrong direction.
    • 2/5
      Plot moved with the weight of unfortunate and inexplicable happenings.While Paul and his Granddaughter loved each other, her disappearances and his reactions made no sense.
    • 3/5
      I really struggled with The Weight of Memory. The premise is certainly one with promise - a dying man returning to his hometown to look for a guardian for his granddaughter. And Smucker had a lot of potential with the more speculative aspects of his story. But I could never get into the characters, and I really didn't understand why he included some scenes that seemed unnecessary and out of context. Plus I hate first-person present tense narration...Obviously some like it, so it works for some folks. Just not for me.
    • 5/5
      After reading and loving Shawn Smucker's previous book, These Nameless Things, I was thrilled when I heard he had released his new book The Weight of Memory. After purchasing a copy, I devoured this book!I enjoyed the way the story seemed to flow so effortlessly and so smoothly. Shawn Smucker did such an excellent job of conveying this story to his readers. It was as if he had painted such a beautiful canvas with his prose and invited us inside. Every word I read left me wanting more.When I read the synopsis of the The Weight of Memory, it definitely had me intrigued. I had to know how Paul's 11 year old granddaughter, Pearl, knew things about Paul's past and where he grew up with even though Paul had never told her. When Paul and Pearl arrived in Nysa, the town where Paul grew up and had left 40 years prior, I had to know why people in the town were acting so strange and what was causing them to act that way. I kept trying to guess as to why, but I was always wrong. There are quite a few plot twists revealed towards the end of the book which I never would have guessed. Loose ends are all tied up excerpt for one which was left undone on purpose. Smucker leaves this up to the reader to decide what happened. Personally, I would have liked to know more, but I can see why the author left it for the reader to decide. One minor thing for me is I would have liked more about the townspeople of Nysa. They were all acting strange, and I would have liked to know more as to why besides just the drownings (not a spoiler). As for pacing, The Weight of Memory did start out a bit slow in the beginning, and I did find my mind wandering, but I persevered, and I was handsomely rewarded with such an enriching story once the pacing picked up.For the most part, every character in The Weight of Memory felt fleshed out and realistic. Paul Elias was such a loveable character, and it was so obvious how much he loved and adored his granddaughter. I could feel his worry come off the pages though about how he needed to find someone to take care of Pearl before his death. It was heartbreaking to know that he was so worried about Pearl and what would happen to her after he was gone. I loved little Pearl, but most of the time, she came across as younger than her 11 years. To me, she acted more like a child of 6 than an older one. However, I did enjoy her character, and I admired how much she loved her "Grampy" and how she would do anything for her. Paul's and Pearl's relationship was very special, and it definitely showed throughout the story. I didn't know what to make of Tom throughout the book. He was always so distant. The author does make it known why though towards the end of the book. Tom did come across as a pretty selfless guy considering how rich he was which was refreshing. (Personally, I would have loved to stay at Tom's gigantic mansion!) As for Mary and Shirley, I enjoyed reading about them both. I would have liked to know more about Mary's home life personally due to one scene in the book. Regardless, Mary seemed like such a sweet girl, and Shirley seemed like she was a lot of fun.Trigger warnings for The Weight of Memory include death, drowning, a few mentions of drugs (Pearl's father was a drug addict), and near death experiences.All in all, The Weight of Memory is a beautifully enthralling story with loveable selfless character and a plot that will keep you engrossed throughout. I would definitely recommend The Weight of Memory by Shawn Smucker to those aged 16+ who love their books to be heartfelt with a lot of emotion.
    • 4/5
      I decided to stay up late last night to finish reading this story. It’s good…not the kind of good I expected, or maybe even looked for, but it has still made me think. But since I can’t decide whether I like the story enough to want a copy on my shelf, or if it’s one that I’d likely shelve and never read again, I thought I’d offer three likes and dislikes about the book.I disliked:1. The “ghost” that appeared throughout the book. It creeped me out several times, and I was VERY thankful to know I was just reading a book, and that this kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life!2. At least half of this book is written in first-person present-tense, which I found really jarring at times. I’m the kind of person who loves to experiment with writing in this style, but finds it difficult to read.3. It was a sad story, and though it had a redemptive ending, the ending almost wasn’t enough to make up for the rest of it (in saying that, I thought the same about the last Smucker book I read—These Nameless Things—and then I ended up changing my mind and loving it when I re-read the ending several months later).But lest you think it’s all bad, here are the things I LOVED about the book!1. The richness of the characters, the way they (and the wording itself) drew me into the story. The story crafting was beautiful. I could study it all day, and that would be one of my main reasons for reading this again.2. The way this book made me think…about regrets (or the things we don’t regret), how good decisions can greatly impact our lives in the future, about secrets and the way they can affect us…I loved that it wasn’t just a story to experience, but one to think about.3. The grandfather/granddaughter relationship in here—it’s not something I’ve seen in many books, but the care he had for her and she for him were beautiful.There are so many things I could say about the book, but I’ll leave it as it is. It was a bittersweet read. One I wasn’t sure, halfway through, if I’d even finish, but one I’m glad I did finish in the end. Would I read it again? Possibly—once I’ve had a good few years to mull over the story.Trigger warning: Drownings and near-drownings are a theme in this book.I was given a review copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it.
    • 5/5
      "We can never trust ourselves, never know our true motives. There is always something deeper at work, something unseen pulling us along to hidden ends. We paddle where we think we want to go, but all along it's the hidden current that takes us."It's another lyrical and beautifully written novel by Shawn Smucker that addresses the everyday battle with grief and regret seeped in the past with its memories and fear of the unknown when facing our mortality in an unusual and memorable writing style. You cannot read this book in a rush, for every word penned is important and builds on each other to create the author's own brand of nostalgic and mysterious poetry, edged with suspense and sprinkled with hope. Truly the plot took me by surprise because I could not predict what will happen next. The first person narrative from Paul is raw and heart-wrenching as he tells the story in present tense like he's speaking to his grand-daughter. The flashbacks, still in Paul's voice, help to build his past in his hometown of Nysa without interrupting his narrative. This book is incredibly thought-provoking and will stay with you long after you've put the book down.I received the book from Revell and was under no obligation to post a positive comment. All opinions are solely my own.
    • 2/5
      The premise intrigued me and the author does a pretty good job of evoking space and location, but there seemed to be virtually no description whatsoever of the characters. We have no idea what Elias looks like, or what any of the characters look like, beyond Mary and Pearl having dark hair and dark eyes. The only character who actually did have a physical description was the "lady with the silver hair." And beyond physical descriptions, the characters themselves aren't really fleshed out. All we know of Mary is that Elias was taken with her and that she turned pale when she got scared. There were hints at a difficult home life, but nothing to show that. Nothing about her personality. In fact, it's all too easy to completely forget she was even there. And who is Shirley, beyond someone with a big smile? This book could've used just a little more time to go back and fully round out the characters. It would've made this less of a sketch of a novel.
    • 3/5
      I'm grateful for receiving an ARC through the Early Reviewers program. However, this type of writing turns out to be not my "cup of tea". A grandfather, Elias, who is the guardian for his young granddaughter, Pearl, has been diagnosed with an inoperable, deadly tumor. Elias lost his wife 40 years ago, and his son, a drug addict, left Pearl with him and took off. Elias decides to take Pearl to his hometown to find a safe place that she can be raised. But his hometown has become a sad, run-down shell of a place with a lot of tragedy. He and Pearl end up staying with an old friend.This is a spiritual /supernatural story about memories and families. Pearl is a very unusual child who 'sees' a silver-haired, mysterious 'woman' who talks to her. Elias is consumed by his memories of his high school friends in their youth and his young wife who was lost in a lake accident. There are a lot of time shifts from past to present in the chapters of this story. But by the end of the book, a number of revelations come to light and all is resolved.