"The Memory of Animals" Review: Another Pandemic Novel?
Claire Fuller's latest novel, The Memory of Animals, explores the story of Neffy, a marine biologist who enlists in a paid trial of a vaccine against a deadly pandemic. The vaccine appears to work, but when Neffy pulls through, she finds herself in a world where the pandemic has taken over, and she is one of the few with potential immunity. The novel explores the choices we make to survive and the isolation that comes with it. While the book has promising themes and motifs, it struggles with forward momentum and relies on gimmicky devices to reveal the mess Neffy has made of her young life.