These Memories Do Not Belong to Us
by Yiming Ma
A haunting and ambitious debut that asks what happens when memories can be inherited, bought, or erased.
ARC Review
Pub Date: August 12, 2025
Publisher: HarperAudio | Mariner Books
Format: Audiobook ARC
This was one of the most impressive audiobooks I’ve listened to this year. The structure is fragmented, shifting through a series of stories that are tied together by a single thread: a son inheriting his mother’s Mindbank, filled with banned memories. Through those memories, he learns who she really was, and the cost of holding on to truths that those in power would rather erase.
The narration is stunning. With multiple narrators, each voice brought new depth to the memories, making the world feel larger and more alive. It felt less like listening to one story and more like being dropped into an audio production where every voice mattered.
The memories themselves are unforgettable. A swimmer with no arms. The drive of the sumo wrestlers pushing their bodies to the limit. The devastation of the chrysanthemum virus. Each short narrative stands on its own, yet together they build a chilling picture of a world where China, renamed Qin, dominates the globe and even your private past can be confiscated.
It’s dystopian, yes, but also deeply human. The book made me think about what it would mean to inherit the lives of others through their memories, and whether knowing more would make us more free or more vulnerable.
Would I recommend it?
Yes. If you like stories that are sprawling and fragmented in the best way, that leave you unsettled and full of questions, this one is worth your time. The audiobook in particular is extraordinary, a rare case where the performance matches the ambition of the story itself.
Thank you to NetGalley, HarperAudio, and Mariner Books for the ARC.
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If You Liked This, You Might Like:
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami - A surreal, fragmented novel where memory slips, reality blurs, and the everyday tilts into something unsettling.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa - A chilling dystopian classic about loss, forgetting, and state power over memory.
Set the Mood for These Memories Do Not Belong to Us
Over-ear headphones — for full immersion in the layered narration
Black tea — something steady and bracing while you listen
A notebook — for mapping out the fragments, because you’ll want to
A dim lamp — the kind of lighting that makes you lean closer
