Blood Memory Society by D.A. Field

Oh, Blood Memory Society, how did I loathe thee? Let me count the ways…

I chose this book as my next read based solely on the short description, “What if you could inherit your ancestors' memories? What implications would such an inheritance have on society?” and boy, did I spend the next 350+ pages lamenting my life choices.

The book opened simply with, “Death and a dime bag,” and went downhill from there…fast. Reading this book was like eating cauliflower; it was bland, tedious, and made no impression on me. I had gotten three chapters in—during which a mysterious fertility clinic was bombed and over 20 employees at a lab were deathly poisoned…you’d think that would be an exhilarating three chapters—before I even realized that I had no interest in the story at all and jotted down, “dull and unengaging” in my notes.

The story follows “lucky sperm club” member Will, who, at 32, is already an accomplished fertility doctor, West Point graduate, expert deep sea diver, and perfect physical specimen…obviously someone we can all relate to. One year after his parents die in a mysterious plane crash, Will receives a call from his West Point buddy Ross, whom he hasn’t seen in years and hasn’t been in contact with since he was unable to attend Ross’ wedding (but don’t worry, 48 hours later Will sends love and kisses to the wife and kids he didn’t know existed). Ross is working in a secret faction of the government and needs Will’s expertise as a matter of national security.

It turns out that some other “lucky sperm club” members are also members of the Blood Memory Society, which means they have a genetic mutation that has enabled them to access the memories of their ancestors, which can go centuries back (as long as the members keep marrying and breeding within the society, like show dogs). These lucky ducks with Inherited Memory (IM) are behind every critical invention and contribution of the last 200 years, from Einstein and Darwin to Edison and Van Gough, thanks to their ability to access hundreds of years of knowledge by suffering through a vision of bright light and a tiny headache. I’m no historian, but I couldn’t help but feel a resentment on behalf of these real-life geniuses that their accomplishments were diminished to little more than a cheat sheet at life.

The bombings and poisoning at the beginning of the book wiped out the majority of these history-makers and the key to extending the lineage lays in a gene mutation that makes it very difficult for women with IM to carry a child to term—that’s what Super Will comes in. His research has been centered on that very gene, and thus, a plot is created. From there we follow Will to a secret base where the one scientific-minded woman with IM is so he can examine her and try and solve the gene issue. While the majority of people with IM are described as creepy, pale, and twitchy, Will’s love interest—er patient, Victoria, is a perfect 10. We have her good looks to thank for this modern-day assertion from Will:

The only abnormal thing about her was that she was too beautiful to be so brilliant.

Few books can get away without a love story plot of some kind, so this one didn’t shock me. But it would have had such a greater impact if she was just as “abnormal” looking as the rest of the society and this Adonis God fell for her anyway. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Victoria’s parents were both murdered on a cruise ship by the same assassins who killed the other IM members, but that’s mentioned awkwardly as she and Will instantly become flirtatious…in spite of the fact that the fate of the world may be hanging in the balance. It doesn’t take long for this professional doctor and military man to put one of the most valuable women on the planet in danger so he can show her the coral reef at night and put the moves on her. Of course his impetuousness is what saves her from being assassinated when the secret facility is attacked, but a lack of consequences seems to be par for the course in this book. Will and Victoria then make a blockbuster escape and retreat to a hiding place, where they can investigate the attack (sleep together and go to the beach) and where he can keep her safe (leave her alone after one day so he can go investigate a family “mystery” that was so heavily foreshadowed I thought it was a trick).

This is where I’ll leave the remainder of the plot to the author and share the Good and the Bad of Blood Memory Society.

The Good:

-The pace. 
While I mentioned I wasn’t captivated by the story by chapter three, it certainly doesn’t waste time getting started and it maintains a pretty consistent pace throughout.

-The concept. 
When I selected this book I thought anyone could choose to access their ancestors’ memories and be forced to live with the ramifications either way, so I was a bit disappointed that it is reserved for such a finite portion of the population. That being said, the idea behind it was actually pretty thought-provoking, albeit poorly developed.

-Ease of reading. 
For almost 400 pages, this book was a very quick read.

The Bad:

-The characters. 
I genuinely didn’t care about a single character besides Tiny, and even he was just slightly endearing. Will’s character was all over the place; his eyes welled up, voice cracked and he cried at the mention of anyone whose existence he was vaguely aware of getting hurt (sounds harsh, but our hero is a drama queen. “No…no…no!” he muffled his voice with his hands, pain in his face…he punched the sandy ground with his fist.”), he’s supposed to be a professional, but immediately hits on his patient (who’s “mourning” the death of her parents), he promises not to tell anyone this national secret…and immediately tells his childhood buddy…the list goes on. Victoria was reduced to her sexuality and never given time to develop, and Ross was just a cookie-cutter government employee from 1952.

-The suspension of disbelief. 
I already mentioned that Will’s horribly selfish and immature plan to sneak one of the most important women in the world out of a secure bunker so he could snorkel with her was redeemed when she was saved from being murdered in said bunker, but Tiny had to be the biggest plot convenience I’ve seen in a while. Good thing he has a best friend who runs a whole island (including the marina they sneak into and out of), owns a secluded, gorgeous cottage, has a private security team, knows a pilot who will fly a stranger with a gun like it’s no big deal, has $10,000 in cash laying around to give his friend, and has a fake passport made in a matter of hours! But Field manages to lay off the unbelievable long enough to have Tiny give Will shoes that are too big with a hole in them and old camo pants. Because who would believe he could afford $30 at Target?

-The editing. 
The book had some truly distracting editing issues, from duplicate sentences and poor sentence structure, to missing or misused punctuation and flagrant word repetition. It got so bad that I actually counted how many times the word “seawall” was used at one point (17 times in three pages, if you’re wondering).

-The patronizing exposition. 
I may not be Walter White, but I am capable of following basic science plots. Field must not have been too confident of his audience though, because every scientific scrap is broken down until a 3rd grader could understand it, in a way that was completely unnatural and made Will look like an idiot. These concepts are fairly easy to grasp using context clues and common sense, but instead we get treated to dialogue like, “Plan B? What’s that? Isn’t Plan B an abortion pill?” from one of the brightest reproductive doctors in the country. This is also painfully present when Will is trying to solve the mystery of his family lineage like it’s a Rubik’s Cube, when in actuality it’s tic-tac-toe.

-Actually…just the dialogue as a whole.
 Just remember that everyone involved is 32+ years old and holds, at the minimum, a bachelor’s degree and a well-respected job…and that this was written in 2017.

“You still got it, dog.” Said by Ross when Will hits on a waitress.

“’Imagine the biggest nerd in high school and then multiply it by 10.’ Will belly-laughed so hard that a bit of French bread flew from his mouth.” Ross explaining what people with IM are like.

“Have you ever heard of the Salem witch hunts?” A real inquiry by Ross when he’s explaining why they keep IM a secret.

“I think I’m falling for you, Doctor.” Said by Victoria while they canoodled in the ocean two days after they met, the day after an entire facility was massacred.

“As he got closer, his suspicion was confirmed as the suitcase was covered in Pittsburgh Steelers stickers and decals. Obviously a man’s suitcase.” Will trying to steal a suitcase for clothes. This line was so antiquated and sexist that I assumed he would find women’s clothes inside and realize his folly. Nope.

“She wore…gym shorts that seemed two sizes too small, revealing the outline of her green panties.” Will sexualizing Victoria while she’s hiding from assassins.

“A sultry voice drew his gaze.” A description of Victoria yelling during a very stressful moment.

Basically any dialogue with Tiny. Apparently the only way Field knew how to differentiate a Bahamian from everyone else is to simply change “the,” “that,” and “this” to “da,” “dat,” and “dis.”

-The family “mystery”.

As soon as Will’s great-grandmother’s diary was introduced and his family history was mentioned, I knew he had the gene. Dialogue like, “It’s like we skipped a generation or something,” made it plainly obvious, it was just a matter of time until this brilliant doctor (who is currently immersed in the intricacies of IM, including the knowledge of how you see a bright light and get a headache right before you get one) figured it out. Yet when Will begins to receive memories, he writes them off as déjà vu. I let that slide, but when he found himself speaking to a woman named Belle (who was mentioned in the diary), sees both he and she are dressed in a long-gone fashion, and she addresses him as ‘Julian’ (his grandfather’s name…who he knows ran off with a girl named Belle) and he still doesn’t put two and two together? Well that’s just beyond insulting to both the reader and this fictitious character. Also enjoyed the fact that the IM gene was last active only two generations before him, yet the government that has been engaged in this secret society for centuries and has a record of every person with IM didn’t already know this. *facepalm*

-Deus ex machina. 

The happy ending they slapped on this book was dripping with sap and wrapped in a baby blanket. I knew early on it was being set up for a sequel, but the author still didn’t take any risks by putting his characters in precarious situations. Everything was neatly wrapped up by the end of the episode in time to do the dishes and put the kids to bed.

TL;DR:
If you’re looking to kill three hours at the airport…take a nap. Or better yet, pick up a copy of The Bourne Identity. It may have more than a few decades on this book, but it does government intrigue mixed with appropriate romance right. I just hope I don’t have the Blood Memory gene, my descendants shouldn’t have to experience this book, too. 

I received an ARC eBook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.