My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

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My 2024 ARCs got off to an incredible start thanks to Jacqueline Roy! I hope more people pick this up because it’s just a beautiful piece of fiction. I had been wanting to read The Fat Lady Sings when Penguin reissued it in 2021, so when I spotted Roy’s name pop up on Netgalley and saw conjoined twins, Windrush generation, dementia, I hit request and readied myself for heartbreak.

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I’ve read a couple of books that tackle dementia and they’ve all been wonderfully done, in my opinion. In Memory of Us is no different. Roy uses a dual timeline and dual POVs to fantastic effect, both to flesh out the twins’ stories and to highlight Selina’s battle with the disease that’s slowly stripping away her memory. Her deteriorating mental state is heartbreaking to witness.

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The other most compelling part of the book for me was (obviously) Zora’s journey to discovering her sexuality, while growing up in the 60s amidst hatred fuelled by Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech. The queer aspect of this story took me by surprise but was a welcome addition.

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Roy fleshes out the twins’ relationship to each other and the other characters in the book with deft ease. I never once felt my attention slipping, I felt moved but not emotionally manipulated, I raged along with the twins.

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A must read for anyone interested in stories focusing on memory, Windrush and complex family relationships!