My rating: (3.5) ⭐⭐⭐.⭐
Beware: this review may contain spoilers!
Hi everyone! It’s Ilenia, back with a review for *Remember My Name* by Sam Blake.
This was quite a good thriller, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the characters, and some tech aspects of it.
So, *Remember my name* is the story of how Cressida Howard discovers her husband is cheating on her. She hires Brioni O’Brien, a computer scientist, to gather the evidence she needs for a divorce.
However, Brioni discovers something deeper and darker about Cressida’s husband, Laurence, which will lead to harm and danger for the women in Laurence’s life.
When I read the synopsis of this book, I was intrigued by the mystery, and by Brioni, a female computer scientist, since I am studying to go into the computer science field as well.
Overall, the story was quite interesting and kept me quite gripped, because I wanted to know what Laurence had gotten himself into. I absolutely loved the female characters in this book, as they are all these strong and vulnerable humans, who definitely dominate this novel. And damn, I love Nina: she is such a bad ass and she is my inspiration. G*atekeep, gaslight, girlboss* precisely describes her, and her involvement in the story is much more than the husband’s mistress, trust me. The ending was very much surprising and unexpected and loved it so, so much
The novel is well connected, and everything ties in pretty nicely, and I genuinely have no comments about the plot per se. Maybe I would have liked more details about Emily-Jane and what she did to help her dad ( I don’t want to spoil too much.)
I do have some comments about some of the characters and how they are written... For example, Emily-Jane is a heavily stereotypical British teenager: the only thing that would have made her a complete and utter stereotype would have been heavy orange/brown foundation, gelled hair and loud chewing, while pronouncing love “Lav”. Emily-Jane would be a female character you would find in a cliché American TV show, like Euphoria or Riverdale. Nonetheless, her character arc was quite good and her story ties in nicely with the overall plot.
Another thing that made me cringe heavily was the times the author referenced to Brioni as a “typical Scorpio”. It’s cool the author included some Zodiac signs and I don’t really mind, but it made it seem like being a Scorpio was Brioni’s personality. Zodiac signs are accurate to a certain degree, but they are not a personality trait.
Finally, one last thing that I did not like was how some parts of hacking were represented in the book. I am not expert on the matter, as I am still a student, but there are some fundamentals they teach you from the beginning, particularly regarding legislations. In the UK (and I assume in the rest of Europe and the world), there are legislations that regulate digital crimes, and Brioni committed several of those in barely the first 100 pages of the book. Hacking into a person’s device without authorisation, then monitor them through their webcam and microphone, plus looking at their personal information, is very much illegal and could result in a prison sentence. I understand that it was necessary for the plot, but Brioni is described as a penetration tester, a hacker that is paid and legally allowed to break into a system to find any problems. It baffled me that a professional would forget the main pillars of their job while doing a favour for a friend.
Regardless, the book overall was quite good, the plot was interesting and the story was quite fast paced. The attempted murders were quite genially planned and researched, with a surprising and satisfactory ending. If you are looking for a quick thriller with great female characters, *Remember my Name* is definitely for you.
Let me know what you think of this book when you read it.
Allons-y,
Ilenia
Beware: this review may contain spoilers!
Hi everyone! It’s Ilenia, back with a review for *Remember My Name* by Sam Blake.
This was quite a good thriller, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the characters, and some tech aspects of it.
So, *Remember my name* is the story of how Cressida Howard discovers her husband is cheating on her. She hires Brioni O’Brien, a computer scientist, to gather the evidence she needs for a divorce.
However, Brioni discovers something deeper and darker about Cressida’s husband, Laurence, which will lead to harm and danger for the women in Laurence’s life.
When I read the synopsis of this book, I was intrigued by the mystery, and by Brioni, a female computer scientist, since I am studying to go into the computer science field as well.
Overall, the story was quite interesting and kept me quite gripped, because I wanted to know what Laurence had gotten himself into. I absolutely loved the female characters in this book, as they are all these strong and vulnerable humans, who definitely dominate this novel. And damn, I love Nina: she is such a bad ass and she is my inspiration. G*atekeep, gaslight, girlboss* precisely describes her, and her involvement in the story is much more than the husband’s mistress, trust me. The ending was very much surprising and unexpected and loved it so, so much
The novel is well connected, and everything ties in pretty nicely, and I genuinely have no comments about the plot per se. Maybe I would have liked more details about Emily-Jane and what she did to help her dad ( I don’t want to spoil too much.)
I do have some comments about some of the characters and how they are written... For example, Emily-Jane is a heavily stereotypical British teenager: the only thing that would have made her a complete and utter stereotype would have been heavy orange/brown foundation, gelled hair and loud chewing, while pronouncing love “Lav”. Emily-Jane would be a female character you would find in a cliché American TV show, like Euphoria or Riverdale. Nonetheless, her character arc was quite good and her story ties in nicely with the overall plot.
Another thing that made me cringe heavily was the times the author referenced to Brioni as a “typical Scorpio”. It’s cool the author included some Zodiac signs and I don’t really mind, but it made it seem like being a Scorpio was Brioni’s personality. Zodiac signs are accurate to a certain degree, but they are not a personality trait.
Finally, one last thing that I did not like was how some parts of hacking were represented in the book. I am not expert on the matter, as I am still a student, but there are some fundamentals they teach you from the beginning, particularly regarding legislations. In the UK (and I assume in the rest of Europe and the world), there are legislations that regulate digital crimes, and Brioni committed several of those in barely the first 100 pages of the book. Hacking into a person’s device without authorisation, then monitor them through their webcam and microphone, plus looking at their personal information, is very much illegal and could result in a prison sentence. I understand that it was necessary for the plot, but Brioni is described as a penetration tester, a hacker that is paid and legally allowed to break into a system to find any problems. It baffled me that a professional would forget the main pillars of their job while doing a favour for a friend.
Regardless, the book overall was quite good, the plot was interesting and the story was quite fast paced. The attempted murders were quite genially planned and researched, with a surprising and satisfactory ending. If you are looking for a quick thriller with great female characters, *Remember my Name* is definitely for you.
Let me know what you think of this book when you read it.
Allons-y,
Ilenia