Unmemory by Kristi DeMeester

A Flash Review by Emily Reed

“…the memory of a film was the closest to a haunting we would encounter in our lives.”

Unmemory was the third book I’ve read this year by Kristi DeMeester, and she is the greatest. She writes such gorgeous and unsettling scenes, and Unmemory did not disappoint. I think this was my first time reading a chapbook, and I enjoyed the experience.

I love that the book was illustrated. This made it even more fun, and Yves Tourigny is very talented. And the cover of is absolutely gorgeous, too. It would be great to see more collaborations between Kristi and Yves in the future.

I was going to get this book no matter what, but I was thrilled when I found out that it was about a video and possible haunting. This setup always creeps me out, and Kristi did it so well. The suspense built nicely, and things got spooky. I really wish that this could have been longer because there were so many cool pieces to the story, but it still worked as a full tale in the chapbook format. I actually already want to reread it to enjoy it with the illustrations again. Authors, please write more stories with haunting videos and photos; I love them!

I unfortunately felt that the wrap-up was anti-climactic after such an excellent build-up. I felt like I was missing something, so I flipped back a bit. It’s just vague. Sometimes I don’t mind this, but I was at least hoping for something spooky to happen, even if everything wasn’t explained. I know this is just personal preference, but I felt dissatisfied. I had loved everything up until then, though, so I only had these feelings about a small portion of the book.

Overall, I did really enjoy reading Unmemory, and I adore Kristi’s writing. She’s an auto-buy author for me, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. I love Christmas-related horror, and it would be fun to see more!

PURCHASE UNMEMORY BY KRISTI DEMEESTER